Category: News

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: being an actor must be weird.

Look at Andrew Scott. The Fleabag and Sherlock star has won a BAFTA and a Critics’ Choice Award, and been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy. He’s also an acclaimed theater actor. But for the rest of his life, whenever strangers see Scott on the street, they will yell “HOT PRIEST” at him. It’s what I would do.

There are worse things than to be associated with one of the best TV shows of the 2010s, and also be called “hot,” but it still must take getting used to. At least he’s not wasting his “hot” talents.

Scott and Lily James star in BBC’s The Pursuit of Love, “a romantic comedy-drama about love and friendship. An adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s celebrated novel and set in Europe between the two World Wars, the story follows the adventures and misadventures of the charismatic and fearless Linda Radlett and her best friend and cousin Fanny Logan.” That stuffy-sounding plot summary leaves out Lily James spitting bath water on her friend; Andrew Scott making out with a scantily-clad woman on the dance floor; and McNulty from The Wire screaming about how “an adulterous women is the single most disgusting thing there is.” It looks like a steamy good time.

Look out for The Pursuit of Love on BBC and Amazon Prime Video soon.

Back in September, Hayley Williams was one of a bevy of artists to contribute to Good Music To Avert The Collapse Of American Democracy, a 40-track compilation of songs released for just 24 hours to benefit the voting rights organization Fair Fight. So, her cover of Broadcast’s “Colour Me In” has been officially unavailable since the album was removed from digital shelves, but now Williams has re-shared the cover on its own.

Williams says of the cover, “I really love Broadcast. It was hard to choose which song of theirs I wanted to cover, but I feel like this one hits me in a sweet spot that’s strangely comforted by longing and melancholy. I recorded this days before lockdown last year and it’s just been floating around in the ether. So happy it’s got a place to land now. Enjoy.”

Back when the Good Music To Avert The Collapse Of American Democracy compilation was initially released, Williams wrote, “TODAY ONLY get an unreleased cover of ‘Colour Me In’ (one of my favorite Broadcast songs) along with tons of other unreleased songs by so many great artists on @bandcamp!”

Listen to Williams’ cover of “Colour Me In” above.

Hayley Williams is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Following his death in 1992, Francis Bacon’s studio revealed dozens of destroyed paintings. The idea of those completed works hung in galleries or private homes existed in some form or fashion for Bacon, but that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t what it was meant to be. And yet, those works remained, in their mangled form. The destruction was its own act of creation, part of Bacon’s process, one that created sacred beauty out of the profane.

Recently, very much alive guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López was featured in German newspaper The Süddeutsche Zeitung along with Clouds Hill producer Johann Scheerer in advance of The Mars Volta’s massive, career-spanning box set La Realidad De Los Sueños, out today. In the interview, the two discuss the role of pain in work, among other topics. And Rodríguez-López expresses his thoughts on the physical act of creating art, or in this case, a song:

“You’re destroying all the possible ways in which it may have developed. You’re erasing all the different chords, intervals, melodies and arrangements in order to see a manifestation of your own view – which is the same as taking control of destruction and turning it into creativity. You’re cooperating with destruction. When I’m starting off with a song, I can hear hundreds of different versions and I love each and every one of them. They all make me happy. But I have to choose one that’s going to be mixed, mastered and printed.”

There’s no doubt when listening to The Mars Volta that pain and destruction form a common thread. Rodríguez-López famously spoke of trying to “wrestle the guitar” due to his combative and complex relationship with the instrument. Singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala utilizes the profane amidst the sacred in his lyrics, often tying death and decay directly to religious iconography. The pair’s musical journey has been filled with tragedy and loss since their early At The Drive-In days.

And yet, there was always creation in destruction.

That’s on full display in La Realidad De Los Sueños, an eye-opening 18-LP set featuring no shortage of surprises (including pins, 3D glasses, illustrations, and yes, that truly haunting “Mr. Muggs” song — but strangely, missing the “Frances The Mute” single). Nowhere is that motif clearer than the disc that’s (rightfully) drawing the most attention: the unfinished Deloused In The Comatorium sessions (titled Landscape Tantrums). This destroyed canvas showcases the raw, the exposed, the unsanded of the band at its earliest, still reeling from the dismantlement of At The Drive-In. Holed up in Long Beach, Calif. (at a place they dubbed Akinulapo — which translates to “he who carries death in his pouch”), the band would find its voice, one as unique as any in modern rock.

The result was the Long Beach-recorded Tremulant EP (also remastered in the box set), which gave way to the finished product of Deloused, given the appropriate amount of Rick Rubin magic that has made it as powerfully disruptive as ever since its release almost 20 years ago.

But between Tremulant and Deloused was a destruction of all the possible permutations The Mars Volta could’ve developed from. Spiritually and in some ways physically, as band members joined and left, the “train” — Bixler-Zavala’s cheeky term for the band — rolled on regardless of who was on it. That’s what makes Landscape Tantrums so intriguing, not just as a time capsule, but as a work of art. One can parse both the past and the future of Bixler-Zavala and Rodríguez-López’s work in these tracks. It’s a chance to experience those Bacon works before he would slash them to ribbons or make them unrecognizable to anyone but himself.

And in a lot of ways, this ouroboros of beginning and end in the physical act of creating a box set represents the entire ethos of The Mars Volta. By going back to the beginning, a band that ended in 2013, but always twisted and morphed — songs appearing in one form or fashion on other projects or other groups, collaborators teleporting in and out, At The Drive-In bookending both, with Antemasque (a 2014 project featuring Flea made possible by the end of The Mars Volta in the first place) and Bosnian Rainbows wedged in — could start again as an Escher painting.

Where one chooses to engage with the group is up to them, and box sets like this have power in ways streaming can’t. You’re free to dive in, but once you’re in, you’re on a staircase to nowhere. You’re in the Dark City. You’re K from The Castle.

It’s a fitting monument to a band that never purported itself to be boring or accessible. Just looking at a The Mars Volta album cover, or even just peering at a tracklisting or their song lengths, gives that away. One album is based on a cursed Ouija board that is now allegedly broken and buried. Bixler-Zavala often switches between languages, and creates his own words mid-song. Rodríguez-López presents a challenging production style to both listeners and his own musicians (who sometimes don’t know which project they’re recording their isolated tracks for). One song (in five parts) off Frances The Mute clocks in at over 32 minutes.

(All of it – from profane to sacred and from absurd to inspired – it should be noted, sounds absolutely incredible on this vinyl, and reflects the painstaking process that must have been remastering each of these recordings.)

And yet, for as silly (or “self-indulgent,” as critics loved to write as often as possible) as all of it can be, it’s also incredibly ambitious. For every musical interlude that features four minutes of coqui frogs, there’s some of the most inspired guitar work or percussion of the 2000s. For every challenging riddle or narrative in Bixler-Zavala’s lexicon, there’s inspired repeated refrains that stick with you. They’re all or nothing. They’re pain and laughter. They’re destruction and creation. And La Realidad De Los Sueños (which fittingly translates to the reality of dreams) is the beginning and the end and a new beginning (in the form of Landscape Tantrums) of The Mars Volta.

Because what is a punctuation mark if not the end of one sentence and the start of another?

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been lauded for drawing inspiration from decades of Marvel Comics, yet still blazing its own trail that keeps the films (and now shows) fresh and unpredictable, the The Falcon and the Winter Soldier season finale delivered a surprisingly comics-accurate moment for its most controversial and morally ambiguous characters: Wyatt Russell’s John Walker. If you walked away from the finale confused about whether he’s a hero or a villain now, don’t feel bad. That’s how you’re supposed to feel about John Walker, especially now that he’s assumed his more well-known persona from the comics who’s been a divisive character from the minute he first appeared on the page.

Who is U.S. Agent?

In the final moments of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finale, Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (call her “Val”) gifts Walker a new outfit that looks exactly like his old Captain America suit except its black. She then dubs him “U.S. Agent,” and literally everything about this character change is pulled straight from the comics. In the ’80s, John Walker was introduced as the new Steve Rogers after Captain America retired over the questionable patriotic zeal of the Reagan years. Walker, on the other hand, was an ultra-conservative, hardline Christian who was very eager to do the government’s bidding as the new Cap. However, things went south as it became evident that the Red Skull was manipulating Walker and the U.S. government, which prompted Steve Rogers to return and set things right. Despite being a seemingly gun-crazy killer, Walker helped Steve take down the Red Skull and returned the Captain America mantle to its rightful owner. Walker then took on the name U.S. Agent and donned a black suit similar to Steve’s.

As U.S. Agent, Walker is mostly a hero and has worked with several teams including leading The Avengers at one point. But he continued to operate in a morally grey area, and built a reputation as a cocky, obnoxious asshole, which seems to be the direction the MCU is taking Russell’s interpretation of the character. In the finale, there is definitely some question marks around whether he’s really good or bad, and he seems to be concernedly pumped about working for Dreyfus’ Val. Let’s not forget that Russell’s version of Walker killed an unarmed man in cold blood after recklessly injecting himself with super-soldier serum. The guy is still very unstable, and that can present problems down the line.

What happens to U.S. Agent next in the MCU?

Now, we’re in fan theory country. Here’s what we know: After the events of Endgame, The Avengers appear to be disbanded. In the five years between The Snap and The Blip, Black Widow and Steve Rogers were running the team. They’re both off the table along with Iron Man, who sacrificed himself to defeat Thanos. As for Thor, he jetted off with the Guardians of the Galaxy. So that leaves the Earth without an Avengers team, and it’d be a solid bet that someone is going to step in and fill that vacuum. Judging by Val being positioned as a more pragmatic (and possibly evil) version of Nick Fury, it seems like Dreyfus’ character is putting something together.

There’s also the matter of Zemo, who’s now being held at The Raft, the super prison under the purview of William Hurt’s General Ross. In the comics, Ross forms his own team of seemingly reformed villains called the Thunderbolts that was led by, you guessed it, Zemo. Could Val be helping to put together an MCU version of the Thunderbolts that includes U.S. Agent? Maybe. Could she be forming an entirely different team with Walker that doesn’t have the same moral compunction as The Avengers? Also, maybe.

What is known for certain is that wherever he shows up next, U.S. Agent’s methods will be problematic, morally ambiguous, and frankly, a true representation of modern-day America as John Walker unflinchingly uses deadly force on whoever’s in his way.

A lot of very famous people worked at County General Hospital over ER‘s 15-season run: Julianna Margulies, Ming-Na Wen, Linda Cardellini, Angela Bassett, and of course John Stamos. But the most famous was George Clooney, who played Dr. Doug Ross on the NBC medical drama until he left in season five to become an Oscar-winning actor.

Would he ever consider returning for a reboot?

“I don’t know. The hardest part is that when you look at the show and consistently over so many years — it would be hard to say that you could do it at the level that we did it,” Clooney said during a virtual cast reunion on Thursday. “I’m not sure that that’s available.” He added, “I’m not sure [about a reboot]… It’s hard to catch lightning again.”

But Clooney has been re-watching ER with his wife, Amal, a decision he now regrets. “This has been a very, very disastrous thing for me because I forgot all of the terrible things I’d done as Dr. Ross,” he joked. “My wife keeps going, ‘Is that it? Are you done? Season three, do you finally settle down with Nurse Hathaway?’ It’s been a disaster for my marriage.” Nurse Hathaway was played by Margulies, who admitted during the reunion that she had a “crush” on Clooney. Join the club.

The chemistry that erupted between Margulies and actor George Clooney turned them into one of TV’s hottest on-screen couples. “That can’t happen if you don’t have a crush on each other,” Margulies allows. “And with George and me, it was so organic. I was just supposed to be a guest star, number 39 on the call sheet. But he treated everyone the same.”

Also in attendance for the reunion, which benefitted Waterkeeper Alliance: Anthony Edwards (Mark Greene), Noah Wyle (John Carter), Gloria Reuben (Jeanie Boulet), Laura Innes (Kerry Weaver), Goran Visnjic (Luka Kovac), Ming-Na Wen (Jing-Mei Chen), and CCH Pounder (Angela Hicks), among others. You can watch it below.

Also, watch ER! It’s a good show that people don’t talk about enough.

(Via People)

After producing a few hilarious skits and a slick new single, we’re still not sure exactly what Chance The Rapper’s “House Of Kicks” really is. However, the creative run he’s been on since teasing “The Heart & The Tongue” last month has apparently extended to shooting live, stripped-down performances, as well. Today, Chance shared a self-directed video of his good friend Vic Mensa performing an acoustic rendition of his soulful single “Shelter” at Chance’s house, with The Rapper filling in for Wyclef Jean on the chorus.

The performance opens with Vic performing his verse in front of a crackling fireplace backed by a mellow orchestral arrangement sans drums. Meanwhile, Chance leans on his picture windowsill across the room to sing the tender hook and perform his own verse. The two rappers harmonize nicely on the chorus, then the video loses saturation for a black-and-white view of Vic’s final verse and the song’s outro.

“Shelter” was the friends’ first on-record reunion since 2013, when they guested on each other’s mixtapes Acid Rap and Innanetape. They had a falling out as they both rose to stardom, but were eventually able to put their differences aside as both found their footing in fame, with Chance starting a family and Vic returning to form on the fiery V Tape. They finally reunited officially on Vic’s follow-up, I Tape, and it seems that the creative chemistry they once shared seems intact and growing.

Watch Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper’s live performance of “Shelter” above.

Lil Nas X is not one to be content with releasing just one version of a song, especially when there’s potential success to be milked from remixes. That’s something he’s joked about with “Old Town Road” (which had a bunch of different versions) and a strategy he’s also put into practice with “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” So far, he has released versions of the song subtitled “But Lil Nas X Is Silent The Entire Time,” “SATAN’S EXTENDED Version,” and “but it’s lofi and something you can study to lol.” Now he’s back with another one: “Montero (Call Me By Your Name) (But Lil Nas X Makes All The Sounds With His Mouth).”

The video sees different clips of the rapper in front of colorful backgrounds arranged in a Brady Bunch grid on the screen, like what Jimmy Fallon and The Roots have done on The Tonight Show time and time and time and time and time again over the years. As for the recording itself, with all the sounds layered on top of each other, it’s actually a decent reproduction of the original song.

Watch the video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name) (But Lil Nas X Makes All The Sounds With His Mouth)” above.

Steve and Ian would be remiss if they didn’t kick off this week’s episode of Indiecast with a discussion of the Morrissey/Simpsons controversy, wherein The Smiths’ singer called the show’s depiction of him “hurtful” and “racist.”

The main crux of this episode, however, returns to the Indiecast Hall Of Fame, which was designed to honor albums in the indie rock and alternative rock realm that were influential and beloved at the time of their release, but have since been lost to the test of time and sadly — some might say shamefully — left out of the widely accepted canon of the genre. After an episode paying tribute to albums by Counting Crows, The Promise Ring, and more, Steve and Ian are now turning their attention to efforts from Saves The Day, Megafaun, Secret Machines, and Unkle.

In this week’s recommendation corner, Steve is boosting the forthcoming new EP from DIY power-pop icon Pronoun, entitled OMG I Made It. Ian is shouting out Snow Ellet, whose latest effort Suburban Indie Rock Star is out now.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 36 on Apple Podcasts and Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Twice already, Disney+ has proven that the Marvel Cinematic Universe shows can succeed on the small screen in serialized format. People were already pivoting more to watching blockbusters at home, even before the pandemic, but now, the ballgame has changed even more. People will still go to movies, yes, but streaming is the future. With that said, WandaVision successfully launched Phase Four with a tragicomic spin, and then The Falcon and the Winter Soldier took the MCU back into full-on action mode. The season finale, “One World, One People,” did wrap-up duties (while leaving the door open for more) for the begrudging-buddy-comedy vibe between Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. We learned more about the fate of the Flag Smashers, and the identity of the Power Broker surfaced. Most importantly, we’ve met the (real) new Captain America.

A lot happened! Let’s wrap our hands around it by power ranking the main players.

10. The U.S. Government: Hoo boy, did Sam Wilson ever school the Senator during the finale. All of those labels flying around — terrorists, refugees, settlements — all of them served to condemn the government’s (both globally and domestically) actions. Yes, of course world leaders botched the post-Snap era of humanity. They handed the shield to a rando (any old white, blonde-and-blue-eyed soldier) after acting relieved that Sam Wilson gave it up after Steve Rogers bestowed him with the responsibility of being Captain America. The government failed to remember that Rogers was honorable and pure of heart before he received the shield and the serum and became a superhero. Yet they expected to make some dude a hero and roll with it, and the non-strategy backfired. The Senator received a lecture from Sam about how there’s now a “common struggle” that the government should learn from, yet the U.S. government turned around and messed up again with Sharon Carter. More on that soon, but yeah: the U.S. government has had many chances to do the right thing and failed almost every time.

9. Zemo: Well, well. Zemo achieved something (beyond the “last laugh”) from deep inside a maximum-security prison. After the Dora Milaje came to fetch him and settle the score for his crimes against Wakanda’s King T’Chaka, he was swept away to The Raft. He still had access to a radio and was able to hear the Flag Smashers’ fate, which is a wild one. Although it looked as though they were being arrested as terrorists, an attending soldier uttered their mantra to them in apparent solidarity. And perhaps the guy did believe in their cause, but then the armored truck blew up via a remote bomb. We then saw Zemo listening to the radio with a smirk on his face. If he did, in fact, arrange for the Flag Smashers to be taken out, then perhaps we haven’t seen the last of Zemo, although he still loses hard because he won’t be dancing anytime soon unless he’s doing so by himself in his prison cell.

8. Karli Morgenthau: Obviously, Karli herself did not come out of this season well since, you know, she died. Still, it’s worth remembering her words earlier in the episode. “It doesn’t even matter if we die,” she told an associate. “Our movement is strong enough to continue without us.” The Flag Smashers’ cause was made (mostly) evident by the finale, and it’s clear that their perspective was born out of necessity. Now, whether they went about it in the most optimal way is a whole other issue, and there was also some degree to which they were manipulated by the Power Broker. Still, there’s no denying that the whole 5-year-Thanos-snap had some far-reaching implications. It ain’t as simple as Hulk snapping his fingers and bringing back half the population with no ramifications. This led to some deep societal rifts, ones that we will probably see more of in the MCU.

7. John Walker: I dunno, man. On one hand, John Walker got a job again after acting heroic in the finale after accelerating quickly and murdering a Flag Smasher with the shield a few episodes ago. In the aftermath, he was officially enlisted by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who gave him a new costume and deemed him as U.S. Agent. Still, we really don’t know what the heck this means. The comics would lead one to believe that U.S. Agent is a hero (in the future), although it’s clear that Walker completely lost control of himself (or perhaps he became who he truly is) once he took the serum. We really don’t know when we’ll see Walker again, or if he’ll receive additional training, rather than be a guy with the look of a hero (as was the case with his Cap tenure) who simply gets handed a shield and turned loose.

6. Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine: A lot of mystery revolves around this character, who produced last week’s honest-to-god surprise cameo that still amazes me. Julia Freaking Louis-Dreyfus is not only part of the MCU now, but I’d be willing to bet my Bucky Barnes Funko Pop that no one ever suspected that Julia would ever surface in a Marvel project. Like, this was never on anyone’s Bingo card, yet it’s an absolutely delightful development, and there’s no way that the MCU is treating Val as a one-and-done character. You don’t hire Julia Louis-Dreyfus and let her go easily, for real.

Still, we really can’t tell what Val’s plans are, or exactly what strings she pulled during this season (or if she’s playing by ear, as her “answer my calls” approach could suggest) or how connected she is to Zemo. She told Walker’s wife that the situation with the Flag Smashers couldn’t have worked out better than if she’d planned it… although maybe she did plan it? Val’s a wild card. We also don’t know who else she (for lack of a better word) plans to assemble as John’s fellow recruits. Could, say, Florence Pugh’s Black Widow character, Yelena Belova, factor into this group somehow?

5. Sharon Carter: Oh boy. Sharon Carter is the Power Broker. From the moment that she appeared in the show’s trailer, questions arose about her purpose, other than apparently having the best hand-to-hand combat skills in town. The show held her back for a few episodes, yet it became clear that she was no longer the sweet niece of Peggy Carter. Instead, she’d lived the fugitive life after Steve Rogers had forgotten all about her after she put her ass on the line for him in Civil War. Sharon fled to Madripoor, where she apparently became Queen of the Underground Art Dealings, but it was more than that. She controlled the super serum, she helped embolden the Flag Smashers, and her disillusionment with the “hero” thing has now led her to infiltrate the U.S. Government by securing a pardon. Now, she’s apparently going to be dealing out secrets and weapons? Don’t sleep on Sharon Carter, people.

4. Sam Wilson: Alright, we’ve officially scored a new Captain America. Not only has he rightfully earned that title, but he showed the world that he deserves it, and he also mopped the floor (in front of witnesses) with the government’s behavior. He’s as pure-of-mind as they come in 2021, and he’s decided to not take the super serum. “The only power I have is that I believe we can do better” is a declaration that would make Steve Rogers proud, and he put the Senator in his place for essentially acting like as much as “an insane god” as Thanos. Power, said Sam, is one thing, but the real “question is, how are you gonna use it?” Much respect, and the only reason why I’m not ranking Sam higher here is because there’s clearly gonna be a rough road ahead. Yet Sam can handle it, as he says, as “a Black man carrying the stars and stripes.” He knows that prejudices will always need to be kept at bay, but he’s chosen to fight that battle forever. Even though he’s got the respect of the public and the acceptance of the government, the reality is that he’ll be held to a higher standard than John Walker was.

3. Bucky Barnes: Well, Steve Rogers’ best friend did not get to go to Aruba, which was my ultimate hope for him because the guy deserves a vacation after decades of HYDRA brainwashing and doing the difficult work (finishing off his list of amends) to break free of it. However, Bucky does get to go to Louisiana (Delacroix, specifically) and finds himself a part of Sam’s family. Did you ever think that you’d see the Winter Soldier bringing dessert to a party before flirting with Sam’s sister while kids dangled from his vibranium arm? Nobody would have guessed that, so Bucky scores points for helping to save the world and achieving the unexpected. Plus, the guy is now genuinely happy. The music in his head is gone! He can do whatever he wants to do! Good on Bucky.

2. Isaiah Bradley: If you teared up during the conclusion of this arc (and damn, whenever Marvel Studios does a museum shot, this happens), you’re not alone. Sam Wilson made sure that, even though he officially up the shield, the first Black Captain America’s story would become public in a way that would never be forgotten. Isaiah’s character went through decades of imprisonment because of systemic racism, and in the comics (as published in 2003’s miniseries, Truth: Red, White and Black), his backstory goes back to the 1940s and acted as a scathing commentary upon the Tuskegee Syphilis Study that took root during that era. After he’d taken the super serum, his Black Cap status was buried, and a white dude (Steve Rogers, who clearly had no part in Isaiah’s fate and didn’t even know that he existed) could carry the shield. That’s how this season began as well, although Sam made it his mission to unearth the buried history, so hopefully, it doesn’t happen again. And what a performance from Carl Lumbly.

1. The MCU Audience: What a ride these MCU shows have been so far. We can now look forward to Loki in June, and look here — in 2014, Sam and Bucky made their MCU debuts in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In 2021, things are very different within the MCU, even if it only looks like one words has changed with this title card that showed up when the show cut to black: Captain America And The Winter Soldier. So, is this a signal that a second season’s coming? Kevin Feige has left the door ajar for more, and the future looks wide open.

‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ season finale is streamable on Disney+.

A couple weeks ago, Usher went viral after it was alleged that he paid a stripper with fake money that had his face on it. It was later reported that he didn’t actually do that, but rather, he and his team were just leaving the phony bills around town to promote his upcoming Las Vegas residency. Now, in a new interview with Billboard, Usher has discussed the now-infamous “Usher Bucks.”

Usher spoke about how the fake money is part of his broader promotional campaign, saying:

“The idea behind Usher Bucks was really as a way of promoting the residency. And since then, there has been more conversations, thus proving roads lead to Las Vegas. Stay tuned. We’ve been working on the merchandise for the night and that was the start of it. […] I have a really great team, behind the scenes and on the stage putting together the show promoting the show, coming up with ideas of how to promote the show and market the merchandising. A lot of great detail and thought has gone into the experience. From the moment you walk into the Coliseum to the moment you leave the Coliseum we’re going to definitely make it an environment to enjoy, experience, and celebrate.”

He also spoke about his residency, saying it will feature a live band and fresh choreography. He added, “The anticipation is beautiful. I want you to guess. I want to keep you bubbling with anticipation until I have dropped the first record and you hear the first moment. When the lights go down and you feel the energy. I promise the classics and also new stuff. It’s about celebrating the years about celebrating the records, and celebrating the ones that brought us all together. And also to introduce new ones.”

Read the full interview here.