Chris Willman-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken,” a docuseries focusing on bonds the singer forms with incarcerated women over addiction issues that have affected their lives, will hit Paramount+ later this year, the network announced Thursday. The two-part series will follow Etheridge as she writes a new song inspired by her communication with five women locked up at a prison in her Kansas hometown, the Topeka Correctional Facility.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Mitski is such a cerebral record-maker that I didn’t expect to be coming away from her 2024 shows making proclamations that I might have just seen the best-choreographed tour of the year. But it’s true: Her run of three shows at L.A.’s Shine Auditorium was the kind of unexpected, advanced study in movement that couldn’t possibly be guessed just from listening to her records — the latest and best of which was last year’s pretty heady “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We.” Just to be clear, invoking choreography here doesn’t mean Mitski brought along a herd of backup hoofers, which would be unbecoming for an erstwhile indie-rocker, if de rigueur for the pop stars she may also be reasonably rated against now.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Not very many years come along where we’d be talking about a presumptive winner for the album of the year Grammy 10 months before the award is given out. Neither do times come along very often where we would necessarily be considering someone a likely shoo-in for a major award when that person has famously been nominated for it four times and lost every time.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Anyone who was hoping to pay to hear the “Vultures” album played back in an arena in the near future may be out of luck. The next round of “listening sessions” with Kanye West, aka Ye, and Ty Dolla Sign for the album project has been called off, as the arenas that were scheduled to host the next round of large-scale playbacks in April announced over the weekend that the dates were canceled or otherwise quietly pulled the plug.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Co-headlining tours are a dime a dozen (give or take hundreds of dollars in tacked-on fees). But actual collaboration on the road is another thing, with most bands too protective of their brands to hand over very much of their nightly set times to truly share someone else’s vision.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Oliver Anthony, the Appalachian singer who had the biggest out-of-nowhere viral hit in years in 2023, announced Friday that he will be issuing his debut album, “Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind,” on Easter Sunday. The collection was produced by the biggest name in the production of roots-oriented music, Dave Cobb, famous for his work with Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell as well as film projects such as “Elvis” and “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.” Notably, the album does not include the polarizing anthem that put Anthony on the map, “Rich Men North of Richmond.” But it includes many of the other songs that the singer has put out since then, newly re-recorded in the studio with Cobb.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic What does “going country” mean to Beyoncé — musically speaking? That’s a mystery that really had to wait until this week to be solved. We’d already picked up a good idea of what country means to her culturally, in her few public statements in advance of “Act II: Cowboy Carter,” amplified in the one trillion thinkpieces published during the last two months, many of which really did help spur a vital conversation about Black exclusion and reclamation in one of America’s most important indigenous artforms.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Most of the really essential rituals of American life — religious observances; Halloween and New Year’s Eve; opening day in baseball — are cyclical, endlessly repeatable experiences, independent from individuals or cults of personality. But to that list, a lot of us would add the ritual, stretching past 50 years now, of Bruce Springsteen in concert. And as the world found out last year, that guy can take a sick day.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Sierra Ferrell is bringing some goddess energy to the cover of her excellent new album, “Trail of Flowers,” and that fits. Just two albums into her career, Ferrell is already on the fast track to queenliness, if not godhood, among roots enthusiasts. In a world where a neo-bluegrass guy like Billy Strings can suddenly become a star among the kids, Ferrell may be the closest thing we have to that among female stars.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Despite a photographer’s complaint to police that Taylor Swift‘s father attacked him during a paparazzi encounter last month, no charges will be filed in the incident, Australian police confirmed Tuesday. The statement from police, reported by RTE, said that officers “conducted an investigation following a report of an assault” but that, as a result of it being looked into, “no further police action” will be taken.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Trisha Yearwood will be the inaugural recipient of CMT’s June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award, as well as performing a new song, on the “CMT Music Awards” telecast, airing live April 7 on CBS. The singer will get the honor for her philanthropic work, which extends across many charities but most visibly includes two decades of involvement with Habitat for Humanity, which she’s long supported alongside husband Garth Brooks.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Does “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” count as a genre unto itself, given how many plotlines in the last half-century have relied on the suitor-out-of-water supper guest as a linchpin? That trope seemed to have reached its furthest, most subversive extreme with “Get Out,” but there are still writers who are drawn to the trope of the unwelcome boyfriend without actually extending that nervous suppertime trope into, like, horror. In the play “One of the Good Ones,” which is having its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse, playwright Gloria Calderón Kellett (who co-created Netflix’s “One Day at a Time” reboot) treats the basic structure of the 1967 Hepburn-Tracy-Poitier film as if it’s still as sturdy as ever.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There was a lot of intramural celebrity love to go around — both the self-consciously smarmy kind and the real, earnest thing — as Josh Homme produced an all-star benefit concert for his Sweet Stuff Foundation Wednesday at the Belasco in Los Angeles, with a cast of musical and comedic guests ranging from St. Vincent and Beck to Bill Burr and Sarah Silverman.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Erv Woolsey, the manager who discovered George Strait and took him to the heights of country superstardom, died Wednesday at age 80. He died in Clearwater, Florida while under doctors’ care following complications from surgery, a representative said. One of the most famous managerial names in Nashville, Woolsey was also known for his role in the careers of Lee Ann Womack, Dierks Bentley, Ronnie Milsap and Clay Walker.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Olivia Rodrigo fans who wanted to own all of her “Guts” bonus tracks until now had to develop an expensive Discogs habit, since copies of the very limited vinyl editions that included them have commanded collectors’ prices, and the songs were not put up for streaming. But those extra tracks will finally be made available in a more widespread way with this Friday’s release of “Guts (Spilled),” a deluxe edition that puts the four previously vinyl-only tracks up for digital consumption — while throwing in a fifth, brand-new bonus track to boot.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Jimmie Allen is no longer the subject of a sexual assault lawsuit that was filed by one of his former managers last June, as the Jane Doe in question has now dropped the country singer from the suit as part of a settlement. In a statement issued to Variety and other media, the woman’s attorneys at FeganScott confirmed that they have filed paperwork asking the U.S.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Angela McCluskey, the Scottish-born, L.A.-based frontwoman for the popular ’90s band the Wild Colonials, died Thursday at age 64. The singer died after being in a coma following emergency surgery for an arterial tear. The death was announced in a post on McCluskey’s Instagram account Thursday night.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Grammy-winning “Golden Hour” was Kacey Musgraves’ honeymoon album, flush with love and promise in 2018. Its more dramatic followup, 2021’s “Star-Crossed,” turned out to be her divorce album, for most intents and purposes.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift fans who’ve been hankering to finally see her filmed performance of “Cardigan” won’t have to wait until her “Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)” supercut premieres on Disney+ Friday evening. A portion of “Cardigan” is being made available as an exclusive clip on Apple’s App Store. The “Cardigan” clip was given a late-night release on the Apple platform Wednesday morning at 3:01 a.m.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Black Keys named one of their most popular albums “Brothers,” which seems on the face of it to be a positive statement of purpose and, obviously, fraternalism between the rock duo’s two members, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. But the question remains: what kind of brothers? Like, Oasis’ battling Gallaghers, or some gentler brand of bros? It’s a question fans will think about after seeing “This Is a Film About the Black Keys,” an engaging music documentary that trains a spotlight on some lesser-known, historical tensions between the two as well as what binds them.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Changes in latitudes will bring the spirit of the Florida keys to the Hollywood Bowl next month, as the late Jimmy Buffett will get an all-star salute from a lineup of musical heavyweights that includes Paul McCartney, the Eagles, Brandi Carlile, Eric Church, Jon Bon Jovi and Kenny Chesney. The one-night-only concert, dubbed “Keep The Party Going: A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett,” will take place at the Bowl in one month, on April 11. Other stars on board for the memorial bash include Sheryl Crow, Jackson Browne, Zac Browne, Jackson Browne and Pitbull.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Nearly two months later, Elle King is finally speaking out about the storm she kicked up with her “hammered” tribute to Dolly Parton on the Grand Ole Opry Jan. 19… and it’s not the apology tour some celebs would have embarked upon in the face of a similar controversy. “Oh no was my human showing,” King posted on her Instagram account Sunday morning.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Neither Annie Lennox nor Wendy and Lisa have been prolific record-makers in recent years. But that could change, since the three women have been writing together, as revealed by the latter duo during a personal appearance this weekend. In a keynote Q&A held at USC Friday night as part of the 2024 Pop Conference, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman were asked what they are working on now.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Steve Lawrence, a king among easy-listening crooners who rocketed to fame in the ’50s and ’60s as half of the duo Steve and Eydie, died Thursday at age 88. Lawrence died at home in Los Angeles, and the cause of death was complications from Alzheimer’s disease, according to a spokesperson for the family, Susan DuBow. Lawrence’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis had finally put an end to his touring career in 2019, after a run in the public eye that spanned six and a half decades.