Chris Willman-Senior Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Bruce Springsteen has canceled all the remaining dates on his touring calendar for the month of September, with a statement on his social media saying he is suffering from peptic ulcer disease and has been advised by doctors to take the rest of the month off for treatment. “Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have postponed all performances currently scheduled for September 2023, beginning with tomorrow’s show scheduled for the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, NY,” the statement said. “Mr.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Following the auction in 2022 of a new version of “Blowin’ in the Wind” that sold to a bidder for $1.8 million, three more re-recordings Bob Dylan has made of his classic songs with producer T Bone Burnett are also now being put up for sale via Christie’s: “A Simple Twist of Fate,” “Masters of War” and “Gotta Serve Somebody.” But this time, the purchase of the unique discs containing the songs will happen via a private sale, rather than a public auction. As with “Blowin’ in the Wind,” the three songs being offered to prospective buyers of means as one-of-a-kind Iconic discs come from a recording session Dylan did in 2021 with Burnett.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Jimmy Buffett had long planned to be a surprise guest at the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend. “He was going to be part of (the festival), as of two weeks ago,” said the esteemed novelist Tom McGuane, Buffett’s friend of 50 years and brother-in-law for nearly that long.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Be kind, because everyone you meet is fighting a great battle” — that popular maxim (or some variation thereof) is often brought up in the context of remembering to have some sympathy for jerks. But it could also be applied to people whose lives seem too charmed to be true.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Did the Algonquin round table somehow spiritually relocate itself in the early 1970s to Key West, Florida? The idea that the small, remote island city was a hotbed for one of the last great counterculture arts scenes — particularly for prose writers, but also with some music mixed in — is the focus of a new short film about the Key West scene of 50 years ago, “All That Is Sacred.” The 34-minute movie, which stars the famous novelist Tom McGuane and writer-musician Jimmy Buffett, has its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend. Variety has an exclusive premiere for a trailer for the film, which does not yet have distribution; check it out below.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Anyone who couldn’t procure tickets for Taylor Swift’s record-breaking stadium tour in the U.S. may be about to have their wounded feelings assuaged, a little — and everyone who did can get primed for some instant nostalgia. A filmed rendering, “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour,” will hit movie theaters nationwide this fall, with opening day set for Friday the (of course) 13th of October.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Zach Bryan has a fair amount of Bruce Springsteen in him. But not just a single Bruce. When the newly minted superstar headlined L.A.’s Crypto.com Arena last week (in a single sold-out gig at a venue he probably could have filled several times over), it felt like he is veering toward having his own “Born in the USA” moment, reviving that familiar mixture of populism and substance and making a new generation of fans scramble to get a scarce ticket.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Having just wrapped up a short tour of U.S. arenas, Zach Bryan has plans to go much bigger in 2024, both in tour length and, in several cases, venue size.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Substitute “ears” for “eyes,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” still applies for much of the world when it comes to the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It’s a dozen major hits from the ‘60s and ‘70s that remain foremost in the thoughts of pop fans, but the catalog of group and solo material goes much deeper than almost anyone who’s not a truly seasoned Valli fanatic would guess.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The classic Harold Lloyd comedy “Safety Last” is turning 100 years old this year. But with its heavy dollops of action and a superstar’s real-life derring-do, it doesn’t seem a day over 10, even if it does date back to the silent era. The film screens this Sunday as the climax of the Academy Museum’s “Silent Sundays” series, with a live score from a 24-piece orchestra helping heighten the suspense in the ultimate fear-of-heights movie.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Even though he is through with mathematical album titles, Ed Sheeran is still practicing the art of addition. The suddenly prolific recording artist will soon be adding to his catalog the second new album he’s released in 2023… the second in six months, in fact. Sheeran announced Thursday that “Autumn Variations,” a collection he’s been teasing on social media, will be out Sept.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Loretta Lynn estate has a new manager — Sandbox Succession, a division of Sandbox Entertainment, the Jason Owen-led Nashville company that oversees the careers of such living stars as Kacey Musgraves, Dan + Shay and Kelsea Ballerini. “Loretta Lynn is the original queen of country music, and it is a true privilege that her family has entrusted Sandbox Succession to preserve her precious legacy,” Owen, Sandbox Entertainment’s CEO, said in a statement.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Given that Taylor Swift is the most popular pop star on the planet — or maybe because of that — there’s been a surprising paucity of covers of her hundreds of tunes by other name-brand artists over the years. Making a dent in that dearth, now, is Soccer Mommy, who has just released her version of a deep cut that is a fan favorite among hardcore Swifties, “I’m Only Me When I’m With You.” “I really wanted to cover this song because it’s one of my favorites from Taylor’s first album,” Soccer Mommy — aka Sophie Allison — said in releasing the tune.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If you look at Billboard’s latest charts, there’s an anomaly: Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” is No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart … but nowhere to be found on the Country Airplay chart, or Mediabase’s radio rankings.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” now playing at L.A.’s Ahmanson Theatre, has its roots partly in silent-film slapstick, partly in British pantomime and partly in Python. But maybe the best shorthand way to describe it would be as a recapitulation of “Noises Off” by way of “This Is Spinal Tap.” It’s the comedy of incompetence in its most frantic state, taking any sense of slow-burn ineptitude and turning it up to a full, hyper-farcical 11. As with its highly popular parent production, “The Play That Goes Wrong,” the idea here is to present a show-within-a-show-within-a-show in which everything that could go haywire will.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ray Hildebrand, who topped the pop charts in the 1960s as half of the duo Paul & Paula, died Friday in Kansas City at age 82. No cause of death has been given. Paul & Paula reached No.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Hozier’s third album, the just-released “Unreal Unearth,” has serious conceptual underpinnings that include references to literary and even mythic tropes like Dante’s “Inferno.” Even with that time spent in the underworld, though, fans can assume that the Irish singer-songwriter will take them somewhere closer to heaven — and, for sure, “Church” — when he mounts a major U.S. tour this fall, including a sold-out stop at the Hollywood Bowl Nov. 4.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Zach Bryan’s upcoming self-titled album, due out Sept. 25, looks to be shorter than his 2022 blockbuster breakout “American Heartbreak” — it will be a manageable 16 tracks, compared to the previous release’s juggernaut 24.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s been a few years since Rhiannon Giddens did anything remotely in the ballpark of a “pop” album, and it’s not hard to come up with reasons for that: Besides her having a full dance card, you could almost argue she’s overqualified for the job. The recipient of both a MacArthur “genius grant” and a Pulitzer, the banjo-wielding balladeer has sustained herself for a while at the intersection of earthy and highbrow, most recently winning acclaim for her opera, “Omar,” and she looks at least at much at home fronting the LA Phil as she used to leading the old-fashioned string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Viral sensation Oliver Anthony has spoken — or rather written — at length for the first time since his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” became a nearly overnight national phenomenon, going into his circumstances and background and saying he has no intention of rushing into any record deal. “People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers,” he wrote in a 730-word message posted to his Facebook account Thursday morning. “I don’t want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Bruce Springsteen may be haunting the pharmacies of Philadelphia, as his being under the weather has been cited as the reason for the postponement of two shows that were supposed to take place in the city. An announcement on his X/Twitter page said that concerts on Wednesday and Friday night would need to be rebooked. “Due to Bruce Springsteen having been taken ill, his concerts with the E Street Band at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on August 16 and 18 have been postponed,” said the social media account.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The 50th anniversary celebration for the Roxy in West Hollywood this September is picking up some added components, including an additional appearance by Neil Young and Crazy Horse; a recreation by Stephen Marley of his father Bob Marley’s “Live at the Roxy” album; and a compilation album that will draw on performances from the nightclub’s five-decade history. Young was already announced to appear at the Roxy on Sept. 20, the 50th anniversary of the night he officially opened the club with a multi-night engagement.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Robbie Robertson left a legacy of storytelling behind him when he died at age 80 on Aug. 9 in Los Angeles. It’s not just the tales he concocted for his work with the Band and, later, his solo records, but his prowess as one of music’s great raconteurs, whether he was harking back to an upbringing that had him visiting Native reservations with his mother or telling of the high life among the rich and infamous.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Try to Remember,” the most famous song to have come out of the stage musical “The Fantasticks,” was noted for its autumnal feel, sung by someone reflecting back on youthful days. The happy irony is that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote that song prior to the show’s original 1960 staging when they were both still relatively young men of about 30, fellows who still had about two-thirds of their lives ahead of them.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “Try to Remember,” the most famous song to have come out of the stage musical “The Fantasticks,” was noted for its autumnal feel, sung by someone reflecting back on youthful days. The happy irony is that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote that song prior to the show’s original 1960 staging when they were both still relatively young men of about 30, fellows who still had about two-thirds of their lives ahead of them.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic What, in pop music history, is anyone to compare Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour to? If you’re at all flummoxed by that question, join the club, populated by scores of journalists and commentators who’ve tried and failed to find reasonable parallels. “I promise that you’ll never find another like me,” Swift sang a few years ago, and although she meant that as a sing-along, not a superstar’s statement of purpose, truer words really never were spoken On a pure business level, everyone can agree that it’s unprecedented.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Fans’ predictions that Taylor Swift might use her 8/9 date at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium to announce a re-recorded version of “1989” proved correct. Swift took a moment out at the show to reveal that “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is on the way, just before giving a long-awaited performance of “New Romantics” as one of the acoustic “secret songs” of the night. “There’s something that I’ve been planning for a really, really, really, ridiculously embarrassingly long time,” Swift began, teasing the ecstatic sold out crowd.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift has been prolific enough that even the material she’s put out as bonuses — whether that’s added tracks on deluxe editions or Vault songs on her re-recordings — has added up to a whole separate library wing of its own. It’s open to question whether she has ever considered these actual discards, before deciding to bring them before her voracious public, or has greater strategies in mind.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift’s pop dominance in 2023 is not going unnoticed in this year’s MTV Video Music Awards nominations. Swift came out as the leader in the nods announced Tuesday morning, with eight nominations altogether for her videos, followed by six for the videos of SZA. The competition thickens when it gets down to the six artists tied for five VMAs nominations each: Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Kim Petras, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj and Sam Smith.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The new collaborative album by Vince Gill and instrumentalist Paul Franklin is not a vocal duets record. But for anyone who believes that there’s something about the steel guitar that’s uncannily akin to the moan of the human voice, in spirit if not sound, maybe it’s close enough.