Whether he’s playing Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, Arthur Fleck in Joker, or Napoleon Bonaparte in Napoleon, actor Joaquin Phoenix has a type. “He is the best player of damaged goods,” director Ridley Scott praised him in an interview with Empire. The pair, who worked together on Best Picture winner Gladiator, have reunited for the historical drama about the emperor of French.
They had other opportunities to collaborate in the 20-plus years between projects, but nothing felt right.
“I had such an incredible experience working with Ridley on Gladiator, and I was so young. It was my first big production. I really yearned for that experience again, or something similar,” Phoenix said. “He’s approached me about other things in the past, but nothing that felt like it would be as demanding for both of us. And so I really liked the idea of jumping into something with Ridley that was going to be that.”
Here’s more on Napoleon:
Napoleon is a spectacle-filled action epic that details the checkered rise and fall of the iconic French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, played by Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Against a stunning backdrop of large-scale filmmaking orchestrated by legendary director Ridley Scott, the film captures Bonaparte’s relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine, showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.
Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw Travis Scott drop perhaps the year’s most anticipated project and Post Malone come through with a pivot of an album. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
Travis Scott — “Delresto (Echoes)” Feat. Beyoncé and Bon Iver
A number of music legends have emerged from Texas over the past few decades, and a couple of them teamed up last week: Travis Scott finally dropped Utopia and one of the guests joining him in that perfect world was Beyoncé, who highlighted “Delresto (Echoes)” (as did Bon Iver, by the way).
Post Malone — “Too Cool To Die”
While Posty has so far gotten by on pop-rap, he gets into more of a singer-songwriter mode on his fifth album, Austin. He reflects on mortality on “Too Cool To Die,” singing, “I’m not here for long, my baby / I’m just passin’ by / The world keeps gettin’ hotter, baby / But I’m too cool to die.”
Offset and Cardi B — “Jealousy”
The past month introduced a bit of drama in the world of Offset and Cardi B: Some though Offset accused Cardi of cheating, and the two referenced the situation on a new song, “Jealousy.” Cardi insisted, by the way, that the drama wasn’t a clever ploy to drum up interest in the song (although it certainly did do that).
Flo Milli — “Fruit Loop”
Flo Milli serves a serving that’s part of a complete breakfast on “Fruit Loop,” which contains plenty of references to sugar-sweet cereals and treats. Uproxx’s Alex Gonzalez notes that on the track, “Flo delivers rhymes that are both hard and humorous, as she rides a fast-paced beat with pure ease.”
Burna Boy — “Big 7”
Burna Boy has become an absolute star over the past few years, and he’ll continue to tell his story with I Told Them…, a new album set for this summer. He continued the album rollout last week with “Big 7,” a celebratory new tune that kicks off with a tribute to the late Virgil Abloh.
Saweetie, YG, and Tyga — “Birthday”
Saweetie turned 30 at the start of the month, and now she’s celebrating entering a new decade with “Birthday.” YG and Tyga join her on the track, and on it, Saweetie treats herself, rapping, “Goin’ live on my birthday / Spend a hundred racks on a new chain / B*tches goin’ dumb, we goin’ insane / You can race with us, but it ain’t safe.”
Calvin Harris and Sam Smith — “Desire”
Smith and Harris know their way around a banger: their 2018 single “Promises” was a chart-topper in their native UK. The winning pair reunited for “Desire,” another summer scorcher that sees the pair, as they have before, dominate the dancefloor with a kinetic party soundtrack.
James Blake — “Loading”
James Blake has a new album, Playing Robots Into Heaven, dropping this fall and he continued the rollout this week with “Loading.” If it’s indicative of the forthcoming album’s sound, then we’re looking at an LP full of tender vocals and dense electronic instrumentals.
Mitski — “Bug Like An Angel”
Mitski fans have been eating: Last year’s Laurel Hell arrived nearly four years after Mitski’s previous album, but she already has another one, The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We, set to drop in a few months. She shared the dark and reflective single “Bug Like An Angel,” on which she sings, “Did you go and make promises you can’t keep? / Well, when you break them / They break you right back / Amateur mistake / You can take it from me / They break you right back.”
Gucci Mane — “Woppenheimer”
Gucci wins the award for the week’s most fun musical release: Upon the release of the Oppenheimer movie, a meme of a fake Gucci song named “Woppenheimer” blew up online. So, Gucci actually released a song with that name and even used the original fan-made cover art for the single. This is what the internet is for.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Cardi B made headlines this weekend in Las Vegas when she threw a microphone at a fan while on stage. It turns out, though, that wasn’t even the only mic she threw while in Sin City.
On Friday (July 28), Cardi performed at Drai’s Nightclub, as HipHopDX notes. As she finished a rendition of “I Like It,” she turned and launched her microphone towards the DJ booth, as seen in a fan-shot video shared on TikTok. It’s not clear why she threw the mic, but one comment on the TikTok post notes, “Dj keeps cutting her tracks multiple times,” while another reads, “the djs be thinking it’s they performance [crying laughing emoji] this his second time doing that to her.”
As for the other microphone-throwing moment, that came the next day at an outdoor daytime performance at Drai’s Nightclub. A fan splashed Cardi with a drink, so the rapper retaliated by throwing the microphone at them. A number of people thought Cardi was justified in her actions, with one person tweeting, “Even Adele said you throwing stuff at her, she would be throwing hands. Why are people thinking this is an acceptable thing to do. I don’t condone violence but come on now some people gonna react like Miss Cardi, don’t be shook when you acted first.”
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It was Steven Adams’ birthday and Santi Aldama wanted to give him ham. A cake, obviously, would have been the more traditional thing, but it’s not every day a group of 23 pro basketball players gather together in a gym that looks like a futuristic UFO hangar, owned by Jose Calderon, overlooking the Alboran Sea. This had to be special.
The occasion — beyond Adams’ birthday — is a performance retreat called The Sanctuary. Now in its second year, the part training session, part cultural encounter is a three-day event put on by the NBPA, who fondly refer to it as a kind of hybridized “performance box”.
“This is not a camp,” Matteo Zuretti, the NBPA’s Chief of International Relations and Marketing, stresses to Dime, on a call from The Sanctuary, “We don’t program it. We give them a box, and they put whatever they want inside.”
Zuretti, one of the minds behind The Sanctuary and its programming, is originally from Rome but now based in New York City for his job with the Player’s Association. In the NBA offseason, Zuretti would hear from international players who wanted to spend the summers at home, but felt like they were missing out on something when their American teammates shared videos and photos of themselves participating in summer camps and training runs. Zuretti, with a foot in Europe and the States, had a personal understanding of that gap.
“It’s hard to find similar conditions that the guys have in the U.S. elsewhere in the world,” Zuretti says, “I said, let’s take the conditions the guys have in L.A., Miami, Atlanta, and bring it in a beautiful place abroad.”
Enter Calderon, who was in the process of transitioning out of his role in the league to manage a state-of-the-art basketball facility in Marbella, a small seaside city a stone’s throw from the bustling hub of Malaga. Zuretti reached out to Calderon with the idea, and the inaugural Sanctuary was launched in the summer of 2022. Last year, 14 players attended. This year that nearly doubled, including some Sanctuary alumni like Mason Plumlee, Immanuel Quickley, and Jaylen Brown (who had some Boston media complaining that his involvement in the program was holding up sealing the deal on his now historic contract extension).
“I think there’s something to be said for a place to go and be away and focus,” Plumlee told Dime, when asked what made him want to take time out of his summer to return to the program. “To me, what they’ve set up here is really unique. I’m not familiar with anything else like it. It just allows you to enjoy the game, be in the gym, and they make everything around it easy.”
That sense of ease was a crucial aspect Zuretti and the NBPA hoped to cultivate through The Sanctuary and its offerings. NBA athletes account for a very small group of people that are nevertheless accustomed to being “bombarded by the best of the best at every level of their life,” Zuretti said. Part of how The Sanctuary hopes to entice players to return or try it out are a curated selection of “high touch” experiences, be that access to private yachts in the Marbella harbour, rounds of golf at some of the beautiful nearby courses, or planned excursions to explore the culture of the Iberian region. Another way is through the most reliable resource the NBPA has: reviews to members from other members.
“Doesn’t matter that they’re members and they trust our union, you need to build a compelling thing. And sometimes the compelling angle is guaranteed by advocates who came before, kind of the trail blazers who say ‘Oh, let me try it.’ I’m more curious than anybody else, I want to travel the world,” Zuretti says of how crucial word of mouth has been in growing the program. “There are players that are just more inclined, and are more educated global citizens, and we really leverage them to be the advocates in the locker room that can talk about this experience and kind of be the stamp of approval.”
“Personally, I just love to travel. So any reason to go and see the world, I’m always about it,” Plumlee chuckles when asked about his own impetus to return. But he’s practical, too. “Some of my teammates from Charlotte came this year, and I’m always encouraging guys to come out because it makes for better pick up games.”
Beyond the floor, one of the big additions to this summer’s Sanctuary programming was the addition of The Summit, a speaker series featuring a mix of executives, investors, leaders in sports science, plus athletes from other leagues, like Ndamukong Suh, and former NBA players Andre Igoudala and Evan Turner, who did a live session of their Point Forward podcast with Sanctuary attendees, Jaylen Brown and Donovan Mitchell.
NBPA
Plumlee, who’s had a fulsome NBA career and just signed a new one-year deal to stay on with the Clippers, finds something like The Sanctuary valuable on multiple fronts. Beyond the travel aspect, he’s liked learning about “what’s the latest and greatest” technology in health, wellness, and injury prevention. Especially things that don’t “always translate to the locker room or your season routine” like cryochambers and meditation floating beds that use “water without getting wet”. It’s also a place where, outside of the hectic 82-game season and postseason beyond, he can catch up with friends around the league.
“You know how it is, the NBA is small, but to get a chance to connect with some of those guys is really fun,” Plumlee says. “As you’re older in the league — like I got to play with Donovan Mitchell in the World Cup, it’s great to see him here. Nick Richards, I even saw Evan Turner here who’s doing his podcast, he was a teammate in Portland.”
For Zuretti, keeping that sense of brotherhood central in who was invited to take part in The Sanctuary’s second year was all-important. The NBPA is, after all, a working union. The Sanctuary’s programming, robust and thoughtful as it is, could never really compare to the vacations or offseason activities players could have on their own time, with their own earnings. What it’s meant to do is instil a sense of togetherness, or a connection to the larger whole of the Player’s Association. It’s why the attendee mix, while balanced, skews young, because those are the people the NBPA wants invested to keep itself a strong, viable and well-informed organization.
“Historically, the general image of the union is one that’s going to help and support the guys transitioning, the guys who are in trouble,” Zuretti says. “Here, we want to get the young guys closer to us. Forty percent of the players who are participating in our programs are under 25 years old.”
“In the end, we’re in the business of creating leaders,” he continues. “Leaders who can be at the CBA table, that can help us figure out what data ownership means, or what their needs are in the offseason. We represent the collective. And we also recognize this is not a monolith. There are different facets of life. And when we build community and have these crossovers, it’s fantastic.”
Moreover, as the NBA continues to stress growth on a global scale as one of the league’s main economic drivers, it becomes all the more important for an organization like the NBPA to expose its members — some who’ve never travelled outside the U.S. before — to the wider world. For professional preparation through exposure as much as for personal growth.
Which is why the ham that Aldama presented Adams, an entire leg of cured jamón ibérico, a specialty of the region that looked giant even as Adams hoisted it up in the air, was so important. Aldama grew up in Las Palmas, a city not within the Iberian Peninsula but on the Canary Islands, a chain closer to south-western Morocco than Spain but whose residents count themselves as fiercely Spanish. Adams is a proud New Zealander. The two journeyed halfway around the world to eventually become teammates in Memphis and now, Aldama wanted to welcome Adams to where it was he came from.
“We could’ve given him a cake but we said, No! Let’s give him a jamon,” Zuretti laughs. “These cultural nuances are what drives us, drives the guys. We really want to help them become global citizens, and that’s a great example of friendship, brotherhood and the joy to share their own culture with each other.”
At the end of the day, no matter the sleek facilities or the bespoke experiences on offer, the “performance box” The Sanctuary offers provides a rarer thing. It allows a quiet enclave outside of the churning world of the game, or even the cascade of catching up on social obligations and celebrations in an athlete’s offseason. A place to slow down, palm a basketball, or eat jamon right off the leg with a bunch of the biggest guys you know.
Even still, Scott assured fans the following day that a Utopia performance at the Pyramids “will happen” at some point, “but due to demand and detail logistics, they just need a bit a time to set lay on lands. I will keep u posted on a date which will be soon love you alllll.”
It appears that some fans were unwilling to wait another second, as unconfirmed video circulating on Twitter over the weekend showed a group of Scott fans jumping around and singing — “singing” in its loosest application — along to “No Bystanders” from Scott’s 2018 Astroworld album.
A Travis Scott fan page reposted the video with the tweet, “THREW A PARTY AT THE PYRAMIDS.” The account separately promoted an event called “Futbol At The Pyramids” in Giza, Egypt for Friday night (July 28).
All Cody Rhodes was looking for was closure. It had been six years since Rhodes left WWE to pave a trail all on his own, rebranding himself as the American Nightmare, becoming one of the hottest acts on the independent scene, and working in tandem with the Young Bucks to eventually launch All Elite Wrestling.
But Bruce Pritchard, Vince McMahon, and WWE knew they had a chance to bring Rhodes home. Working without a contract in AEW, Rhodes agreed to meet Pritchard and McMahon, who were on a flight the next day to see if they could convince him to return.
“Here’s a guy (Vince) who helped raise me, in an entertainment sense, two guys (Vince and Bruce). And hey, you did a good job, guys. You really did. I’m here. I got this going on. I got that going on. Thank you. And I’m sorry how I left. I’m not sorry completely for how I left, but there (were) things I did that I hope you understand why I did them. It was all on the table. Stardust, everything was discussed,” Rhodes told Uproxx Sports at a screening event for Peacock’s American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes documentary.
Rhodes says the meeting didn’t actually feel like a meeting though. They spoke about his family. Vince spoke lovingly about his daughter, what she means to him. And at the end, they asked if he was interested in wrestling Seth Rollins at WrestleMania and coming back to the WWE.
Rhodes path to WWE the first time — and eventually back — is covered in detail throughout the documentary, which airs on July 31 on Peacock. It’s an interesting position to be in for Rhodes, who has spent so much of his life being drawn back to his father’s legacy.
“In my mind, I still feel like I’m 20 years old, pulling up to 4400 Shepherdsville Road, going to go into OVW to introduce myself,” Rhodes says. “I was a producer on my dad’s documentary, and it’s funny what a creator, a director, Matt Braine being mine, the things they’ll center on, the things they’ll focus on. It may not be the thing you thought.”
One of the things that impressed Rhodes in working with Braine and WWE’s Senior Vice President & Executive Producer of Documentaries, Ben Houser, was the choices they made on what was important in documenting his story.
“There’s plenty of things that have gone wrong and bad and there’s a negativity to how I left and the things I did,” Rhodes continues. “But to not trip over anything that’s behind us. And that, I really liked as far as watching it. There’s darkness for sure in a documentary that covers the path I’ve been on.”
The common thread the documentary portrays is Rhodes’ lifelong dream to hold the one championship his father held briefly at Madison Square Garden, but never actually won. Winning that belt was one of his very first goals in life. He recalls telling Dusty of ambitions to give him the belt and that this time, no one could take it away from him.
The story takes viewers through Rhodes’ journey in high school wrestling, his relationship with Dusty, and the path he carved along the way, deviating from his father’s footsteps. He shared the challenges of hitting a glass ceiling within WWE, the organization’s refusal in allowing him to shed the Stardust gimmick, and what led to him hitting the independent scene.
Mixed in are his independent bookings, Rhodes’ matches against Kurt Angle, and how his appearance in New Japan Pro Wrestling was the lightbulb moment that blended his past experiences as ‘Dashing’ Cody Rhodes, Stardust, and eventually the American Nightmare.
There’s a surprising amount of Being The Elite and All In footage, which he says the Young Bucks signed off on. He also briefly touches on his decision to leave AEW, which he says didn’t have anything to do with money or a problem with talent.
“It’s like I knew I’d be back,” Rhodes says about returning to WWE. “When we did All In, I remember telling them I want to have signs backstage to tell you where the rooms are, and I want to have catering, and we’re going over all this. I wanted to replicate a WWE event, or at least the production side of it. Maybe had I looked further in at that point, I would have realized that I was starting on a path even then to getting back.”
When Rhodes returned to WWE, maintaining the gimmick he’d created wasn’t in question — he had trademarked everything and has the tattoo of his logo prominently placed on his neck. The only question was which music he’d use.
“The music, it wasn’t that there was any pushback, as much as it was, what does it matter? We make great music here too, and really they do,” Rhodes says. “I’ve heard a song that was a version for me here. That was an area where I was adamant, and Kevin Dunn was very generous in that he allowed that to be the case. Now I couldn’t think of the bit without it. There’s some fans who are absolutely on board and they know every part of this movie you’re going to see. And then there’s other fans who know, this is where we go, ‘whoa,’ at the show and that may be their only thing. What we’ve discovered was this rallying cry against WWE, which is what the song is, is very catchy. That was an area where I knew it was important enough to fight for it.”
When the lights went out as Seth Rollins stood in the ring at WrestleMania 38, Rhodes wasn’t sure what the reaction would be. He’d had a split crowd for much of his time in AEW, but this felt like a homecoming of sorts.
“I never underestimate our fans” Rhodes continues. “My feeling was genuinely, they get it. They get this real moment in time. They get the purpose. I didn’t even need to tell them two nights later about the title. They got it. And that was so touching.”
The documentary covers the ups and downs that have continued to follow Rhodes since his return, including how he tore his pectoral muscle, competing at Hell in a Cell with the injury, and his build to headlining WrestleMania 39 against Roman Reigns.
After losing to Reigns at WrestleMania, Rhodes has been clear that finishing the story only applies to winning the WWE Undisputed championship. It’s an honor that’s bolstered by Reigns’ historic run at the top.
“I think whoever is in the position who pins Roman Reigns and leaves with the WWE Undisputed championship, it’s almost a moment that I can’t tell you how that will feel or I can’t tell you how that will look until we see it, because I think it’s just starting to dawn on people how significant it could be,” Rhodes says.
“If that is Jey Uso, hats off to him, amazing. Not a shred of jealousy in my body. That is as pure and good a man as you can find. If it ended up a situation where I was able to get back and it was me, I wouldn’t be prepared for that onslaught of feeling. Because fans, we feel. I’m a fan as well, so when I’m watching him and this unbelievable reign that he’s put down, it’s like this conqueror of old. It’s now a time period. Roman has a timeline, essentially. This is the Roman era because of how long he’s held on to these things. It will be very significant and, gosh, the man who does it. That man is a special, special person in the record books.”
Despite not winning the belt, Rhodes has been blown away by the investment fans have in him “finishing the story.”
“If I knew (how to keep fans this invested), I would bottle it up, put a label on it and sell it. It’s almost a game of other people thinking, ‘Oh, there’s no way it’s going to get any hotter. There’s no way the moment’s going to stay right how it is now.’ And we’ve just been blessed that it’s gotten bigger,” Rhodes says.
“I dropped the ball in front of them at WrestleMania, but something about it they liked, or something about it spoke to them, or stoked a fire, and it’s almost scary, it’s fragile. As much as I want to appear strong, and be confident and all that stuff, I can’t take it for granted. Any minute now, it could go away. I want to keep it going as long as possible in a way that the transaction with fans is purely genuine. And I’m lucky that that’s been the case.”
That reaction continued on what Rhodes calls his first real homecoming in a return to Atlanta on July 17.
“I’ve had shows in Atlanta that were special when you hear the announcer say, ‘From Atlanta, Georgia,’ or ‘From Marietta, Georgia.’ And, the cool thing about (Raw in Atlanta) was Samantha Irvin, the ring announcer, didn’t do that. It was just already in the air, it was already known,” Rhodes continues. “For sports entertainment, or for wrestling to be sold out and be on this path, people are just really enjoying the story and they’re coming out for this person and that person and they’ve got all kinds of things they like. But it felt like the first true homecoming I’ve had in Atlanta, and no disrespect to other shows I did in Atlanta. (Raw) felt like the first true homecoming I’ve had in my own city. And that’s after having wrestled now for essentially 18 years on television, so it’s a long time coming.”
Rhodes’ journey will continue up through SummerSlam, where he’s slated to face off against Brock Lesnar, presumably through the winter, and then we’ll see where the American Nightmare lands. If he’s in title contention around WrestleMania season, maybe that’s when he finishes the story.
And if so, what happens then?
“That’s the scariest question,” Rhodes says. “The best thing I could do if I finish the story is start a brand new one right then and right there. That’s what Roman did, especially in the WrestleMania main event, there’s some disappointment. To be honest, there’s a lot of disappointment from him in terms of what happened. And now he’s made it clear we’re in this Roman era. I’d like to start a brand new path if that day came. So when the story closes here, a whole new story opens up.”
There was some friction between Bebe Rexha and boyfriend Keyan Safyari recently, and now it appears the two are no longer a couple.
The Independent reports that during her show at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on July 29, Rexha told her audience, “I just went through a break-up, so I might get a little emotional and you need to help me.” Additionally, she was reportedly moved to tears when she read a fan’s sign that said, “You are enough.”
This comes after Rexha recently shared a text allegedly from Safyari, in which he comments on her weight. The message says, “Hey. I never said you weren’t beautiful and I never said I didn’t love you. In fact I said how beautiful you are and how much I loved you. But I always said I would be honest with you and your face was changing so I told you it was.”
It adds, “Because I care, would you rather I lied to you? You gained 35 pounds obviously you gained weight and your face changes? Should I just pretend it didn’t happen and that it’s ok?”
Bebe Rexha is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Madonna had a health scare at the end of June, a “serious bacterial infection” that landed her in the ICU. Fortunately, though, she seems to have bounced back just fine, sharing in an update a couple weeks ago that she’s “on the road to recovery,” later adding, “To be able to move my body and dance just a little bit makes me feel like the Luckiest Star in the world!”
Now she’s back with another update, in which she reflects on a gift she recently received and the emotional impact it had on her. She wrote in an Instagram post shared on July 30, “I sobbed when I opened this gift because I realized how lucky I am to be alive.”
Find Madonna’s post below.
“Love from family and friends is the best Medicine. One month out of the hospital and I can reflect.
As a Mother you can really get caught up In the needs Of your children and the seemingly endless giving……….. But when the chips were down my children really showed up for me. I saw a side to them I had never seen before. It made all the difference.
So did the love and support from my friends. If you zoom into this Picture I am holding You will see A Polaroid taken by Andy Warhol of Keith Haring wearing a jacket with Michael Jackson’s face painted on it. A perfect triangle of Brilliance.
Artist who touched so many lives including my own.
I sobbed when I opened this gift because I realized how lucky I am to be alive. And how fortunate I am to have known these people and so many others who are also gone.
Thank you @guyoseary for this gift!
And Thank you to all my angels who protected me and let me Stay to finish doing my work! [heart emoji].”
Madonna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Last week, the music world was met with the sad news of Tony Bennett’s death at the age of 96. The legendary singer and music icon’s death, though unconfirmed at the moment, came after a seven-year bout with Alzheimer’s disease. Bennett’s career is highlighted by his longevity, as he began his career in the 1950s, as well as 19 Grammy wins with his most recent one coming in 2022. That win made him the second-oldest person to ever win a Grammy award.
One of Bennett’s closest collaborators was Lady Gaga as they released a pair of joint albums: 2014’s Cheek To Cheek and 2021’s Love For Sale. Days after Bennett’s passing, Lady Gaga paid tribute to the late singer in a touching Instagram post. “I will miss my friend forever,” she began in a lengthy caption attached to a picture of the two singers sharing a hug. “I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together. With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasnt an act. Our relationship was very real.”
Lady Gaga continued, “Our relationship was very real. Sure he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight. “Straight ahead,” he’d say. He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude…Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world. I’ve been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye.”
Lady Gaga touched on Bennett’s battle with Alzheimer’s and concluded with the one thing she took away from her experience with the late singer. “If I could say anything to the world about this I would say don’t discount your elders, don’t leave them behind when things change,” she noted. “Don’t flinch when you feel sad, just keep going straight ahead, sadness is part of it. Take care of your elders and I promise you will learn something special. Maybe even magical. And pay attention to silence—some of my musical partner and I’s most meaningful exchanges were with no melody at all.”
You can view the post above and read the full caption below.
I will miss my friend forever. I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together. With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasnt an act. Our relationship was very real. Sure he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight. “Straight ahead,” he’d say. He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude…Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world.
I’ve been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye.
Though there were 5 decades between us, he was my friend. My real true friend. Our age difference didn’t matter– in fact, it gave us each something neither of us had with most people. We were from two different stages in life entirely–inspired. Losing Tony to Alzheimer’s has been painful but it was also really beautiful. An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a persons life. There’s such a feeling of vulnerability and a desire to preserve dignity. All I wanted was for Tony to remember how much I loved him and how grateful I was to have him in my life. But, as that faded slowly I knew deep down he was sharing with me the most vulnerable moment in his life that he could–being willing to sing with me when his nature was changing so deeply. I’ll never forget this experience. I’ll never forget Tony Bennett. If I could say anything to the world about this I would say don’t discount your elders, don’t leave them behind when things change. Don’t flinch when you feel sad, just keep going straight ahead, sadness is part of it. Take care of your elders and I promise you will learn something special. Maybe even magical. And pay attention to silence—some of my musical partner and I’s most meaningful exchanges were with no melody at all.
Charles Barkley is America’s most beloved sports commentator in large part because he never lies to the people. Barkley has never forced himself into giving out hot takes — he just naturally has them sometimes — and he never pretends a game or team is something its not.
That presence makes Inside the NBA what it is, and there is simply no other sports show like it. They are given more space than any other show to go down tangents, crack inside jokes (that they let the audience in on as well), and will also dive into deep basketball analysis when they see fit. However, they won’t force it when a game is bad, and aren’t afraid to admit when the game they’ve been watching simply hasn’t been enjoyable. That might run counterintuitive to a broadcast trying to get people to watch, but it’s why people stick around for the halftime and postgame shows when a game’s been miserable to watch, because you know Chuck, Shaq, and Kenny (usually in that order) are going to call it out as such.
In a new 60 Minutes profile on Barkley, he admit he sometimes falls asleep in the green room when the TNT game is especially bad, noting he won’t try to lie to the audience about a bad game because “the fans ain’t stupid.”
Sixty nights a year, Charles Barkley is the go-to guy on the riveting, unscripted show “Inside the NBA.” Barkley is known for his outspoken honesty.
The best recent example of this was Chuck gleefully telling fans during a playoff game that he was busy watching hockey in the back because the game they had was a blowout. However, the all-timer is when he begged America not to buy a Bucks-Lakers game for $6.99 on League Pass during an ad read as it was in the particularly dark days of the Lakers when they were among the league’s worst teams. It’s that honesty that makes Charles such a beloved figure in sports media because so many shows seem determined to sell us something that’s just not true. Barkley, for his faults, won’t do that, and sometimes that means calling the product TNT is literally selling out as bad.
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