MUSIC NEWS: THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017
KANE BROWN - RENT STRUGGLES
Kane Brown will tell his story about his family struggling to make rent to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Brown will speak September 12th at a congressional briefing on the rental-housing crisis on behalf of the advocacy group Make Room.
Brown says as a kid, he and his mother lived in a car because they couldn't afford rent.
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MICHAEL FRANTI - PEACEFUL PROTEST
Michael Franti is urging those who will join him at a protest this weekend to think peace, no matter how agitated the situation might get. Franti and Spearhead will play Saturday in San Francisco at a counter-protest to a nearby gathering of white nationalists on that same day. Franti says on Facebook people might be ``personally angry and want to punch a Nazi,'' but they should not get sucked into violence that will focus the attention away from the message of equality.
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LOCKN' FESTIVAL - CHARLOTTESVILLE
Bob Weir says, ``The times really demand that we embrace each other.'' Weir will be one of the performers at the LOCKN' Festival in Arrington, Virginia, this weekend, the first big event in the Charlottesville area since the racially charged rally that left one dead on August 12th. Weir says he believes the people who attend the festival are ``all of one solid opinion in regard to what happened.'' He expects the obvious way that the artists will address the issue is through song selection. The festival also will feature Phil Lesh, John Fogerty, The Avett Brothers, The Revivalists and Brandi Carlile.
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DEMI LOVATO - MAYWEATHER-McGREGOR - FIGHT
Demi Lovato will sing the national anthem before the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight this weekend. It airs on Showtime pay-per-view on Saturday.
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PRINCE - FILM - ``SIGN O' THE TIMES''
Showtime is hoping people who missed the Prince film ``Sign O' The Times'' will give it another go. The 1987 movie was supposed to promote sales of his double album of the same name, but it bombed. It was never released on D-V-D. Showtime will begin airing it on September 16th.
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TAYLOR SWIFT - NEW ALBUM
Taylor Swift is making sure you know her latest album, ``Reputation,'' is her work. The cover shows a photo of her with newspaper articles superimposed, and every word and headline is ``Taylor Swift.'' ``Reputation'' will come out November 10th. A new single will be out tonight.
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CARLY RAE JEPSEN - FILM
Carly Rae Jepsen figured she'd be hanging out with her co-stars in the new animated film ``Leap!'' She didn't realize that voice actors often never even meet each other. Jepsen says she thought they'd all be in the same room and joking around, but it doesn't work that way. Jepsen's part was recorded during a break from her tour in Montreal. She was one of the last people in the film to lay down the voice track. The film is about a poor girl who steals the identity of another girl so she can enroll in the Opera Ballet School in Paris. Jepsen plays a ballet teacher named Odette. ``Leap!'' opens tomorrow.
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LORETTA LYNN'S DAUGHTER - HEALTH UPDATE
Loretta Lynn's daughter says for those who remember her mother as a strong woman, she's still a strong woman.
Patsy Lynn Russell took her mother's place during the opening of an exhibit on Lynn at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville on Tuesday. Lynn had a stroke in May. Russell says her mother lent her wedding rings to Russell so that a part of her would be there.
Russell says Lynn told her to say, ``I love them and I will be back to see everybody.'' The Lynn exhibit runs through next August.
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BEYONCE - JAY Z - NEW HOME
If you cringe every time you pay your mortgage, at least you don't have the monthly payments that Beyonce and Jay Z have on their new house in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times estimates they're paying more than 252 thousand dollars a month. Beyonce and Jay Z bought a house there for 88 million dollars, with a 52.8 million dollar mortgage. For that kind of money, they get a two-acre property, 30 thousand square feet of living space over six structures, four outdoor pools, a full-sized basketball court and a spa. It's the sixth-largest sale of a single family home in the Los Angeles area ever. It's also a flip.
Developer Dean McKillen bought it four years ago for 15 million dollars and finished improvements this year.
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BRUNO MARS - NAMESAKE
Former pro wrestling champ Bruno Sammartino jokingly gave Bruno Mars a picture of himself in his prime to show he was muscular, not chunky. Mars met Sammartino for the first time during a tour stop in Pittsburgh. Mars, whose real name is Peter Gene Hernandez, says he was nicknamed Bruno by his dad, who thought he was a chunky baby and reminded him of his favorite wrestler, Sammartino. Sammartino also gave Mars a replica of his championship belt from the World-Wide Wrestling Foundation. Sammartino, who is now 81, says he didn't know much about Mars but he found him ``the most humble, nicest guy.'' By the way, Mars has said he chose the name Mars to add pizazz and because girls thought he was out of this world.
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``SESAME STREET'' - PARODIES
The song ``Despacito'' has made its way to ``Sesame Street,'' only instead of being a song about seduction, it's about rubber duckies. ``Sesame Street'' has released a parody featuring Ernie and Rosita performing ``El Patito,'' literally, ``duckling.'' Ernie sings about the rubber ducky being his friend while Bert says, ``Oh no, not THIS song again!''
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ROD STEWART - MTV VMAS
Sunday's M-T-V Video Music Awards will feature performances by Kendrick Lamar, Fifth Harmony, Katy Perry and Rod Stewart. Rod Stewart? He will team up with D-N-C-E for a new version of his hit, ``Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?'' They will release a version of it tomorrow. The V-M-As will be live from Los Angeles, but Stewart will perform remotely from Las Vegas.
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(The Associated Press)
