Johnny Walker, best known to fans as the inimitable Mr. Wrestling II, has died at the age of 85. Bill Apter announced his passing on social media on Wednesday morning. At this time, the cause of death is unknown.

The original Johnny Wrestling was introduced as the tag team partner of the original Mr. Wrestling, Tim Woods, and was a popular star in Championship Wrestling from Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling throughout the 1970s and ’80s. Under the persona he was able to win and hold the NWA World Tag Team, NWA United States Junior Heavyweight, NWA National Heavyweight, and NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championships during an incredible 35+ years in the sport. Walker made his debut in 1955 and retired in 1990, but came out of retirement in 2007 at the age of 73 to win the HCW Kekaulike World Tag Team Championship with his rotégé, Steve Corino, also known as “Mr. Wrestling 3.”

Walker was also President Jimmy Carter’s favorite wrestler, and reportedly made Secret Service agents mad by hanging out with Carter and the First Lady, Lillian, at the White House in his full wrestling mask. He was supposed to attend Carter’s inauguration, but passed because he didn’t want to unmask. You don’t become Mr. Wrestling by letting everyone know your civilian identity.

If you aren’t familiar with his work, we’ve included some videos below to help familiarize you. Rest in peace to another wrestling legend.

Margo Price announced her triumphant third record That’s How Rumors Get Started back in March alongside a handful of tour dates. But after canceling her tour due to the pandemic, Price has elected to delay her album until July. However, the postponement has allowed Price to share another preview of the record. Following her singles “Stone Me” and “Twinkle Twinkle,” Price debuts “Letting Me Down,” which, along with the rest of the album, is produced by Sturgill Simpson.

Directed by Kimberly Stuckwisch, who drove a trailer from LA to Nashville to film in Margo’s home and an abandoned hospital, the track’s accompanying visual reflects the moodiness of Price’s lyricism. About the filming process, Stuckwisch said they were able to maintain social distancing: “We were able to abide by the 6-feet social distance CDC recommendation as we set up a remote head for the camera that we operated from a closet outside of the room. We wore masks the entire time and Margo supplied us with multiple bottles of hand sanitizer and spiked seltzers.”

Along with sharing “Letting Me Down,” Price addressed her album delay through heartfelt prose:

“Take me back to the day I started trying to paint my masterpiece so I could warn myself of what was ahead. Time has rearranged, it has slowed down, it has manipulated things like it always does…the words to some of these songs have changed meaning, they now carry heavier weight.

I’ve seen the streets set ablaze, the sky set on fire. I’ve been manic, heartbroken for the world, heartbroken for the country, heartbroken from being heartbroken again and again.

This album is a postcard of a landscape of a moment in time. It’s not political but maybe it will provide an escape or relief to someone who needs it. Sending love to everyone out there and hope I see you down the highway.”

Watch Price’s “Letting Me Down” video above.

That’s How Rumors Get Started is out 7/10 via Loma Vista. Pre-order it here.

Today is an unexpectedly big day for changes in the music industry. This morning, the Recording Academy announced some major Grammy rule changes, which include the renaming of the Best Urban Contemporary Album category, which is now known as Best Progressive R&B Album. Now, another storied musical institution is also shaking things up: Billboard is making some alterations to their alternative and rock charts, and Billie Eilish is part of the reason for it.

The chart purveyors have announced that their Hot Rock Songs chart has been renamed to Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. Additionally, they have also debuted a pair of new charts stemming from that one: Hot Alternative Songs and Hot Hard Rock Songs. Billboard notes that these changes reflect “the rise of artists making music that is often considered alternative, but does not fit within the commonly held boundaries of rock,” going on to cite Eilish, Powfu, and Benee as examples.

The new Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart “will house songs deemed either rock or alternative, or both, as it expands beyond a listing of core rock titles, including those with an alternative bent, to include songs considered a hybrid of pop and alternative, rap and alternative and more.” Meanwhile, Hot Alternative Songs “will include only songs categorized as alternative in any way,” and Hot Hard Rock Songs “will feature only guitar-based rock songs with a heavier edge.”

The inaugural Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart is led by Powfu’s Beabadoobee-featuring “Death Bed,” followed by Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted,” Benee’s “Supalonely” (featuring Gus Dapperton), Tones And I’s “Dance Monkey,” and Twenty One Pilots’ “Level Of Concern.” The new Hot Alternative Songs chart has the same top five.

Aside from the aforementioned, Billboard is also launching the following new charts: Alternative Streaming Songs, Alternative Digital Song Sales, Alternative Songwriters, Alternative Producers, Hard Rock Streaming Songs, Hard Rock Digital Song Sales, Hard Rock Songwriters, and Hard Rock Producers.

This news appropriately comes shortly after Eilish discussed the ways her music is categorized, telling GQ in a recent interview, “The world wants to put you into a box; I’ve had it my whole career. Just because I am a white teenage female, I am pop. Where am I pop? What part of my music sounds like pop?”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Tyson Fury is the current undisputed king of the heavyweight division in boxing after he dominated Deontay Wilder back in February to win the WBC crown and remain the undefeated, lineal champ. Fury and Wilder will meet for a trilogy fight at some point in the future as Wilder exercised his rematch clause, but that date, initially set for July, remains up in the air amid the COVID-19 pandemic as the two sides hope to fight in front of a full house to maximize revenue.

While Fury is in a holding pattern for a third Wilder fight, he’s already getting ready for what’s next and ensuring that he lines up a fight with the next biggest name in the division, Anthony Joshua. Joshua, a fellow Brit, was likewise once an undefeated champ before being stunned by Andy Ruiz last year in a knockout loss, the first of his career. Joshua would go on to avenge that loss with a unanimous decision victory over Ruiz back in December, and has not fought since reclaiming the WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO titles.

Joshua’s immediate future remains murky, but in 2021 he and Fury will meet in the ring, pending everything going right for both in upcoming fights, after agreeing to a two-fight deal, per Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn.

Now, Hearn notes there are no contracts signed, but that the two have verbally agreed to financial terms of a deal, which is always the biggest stumbling block in these negotiations. Distribution will be the other hurdle to be worked out down the road, as Fury is a Top Rank fighter, who has a deal with ESPN, while Joshua has a DAZN deal stateside. However, as we’ve seen with Wilder-Fury (PBC/Top Rank), it has become easier to get cross-promotion worked out now compared to the past when HBO and Showtime were the two top dogs in U.S. boxing distribution and rarely liked to work together, barring a superfight like Mayweather-Pacquiao (and even that took years to figure out).

One would expect these bouts to take place in one of the massive arenas or stadiums in the UK, as it would be a huge fight there that could pack out the O2 or Wembley. It would be a very interesting litmus test for Joshua, who’s best win remains his star-making performance against Wladimir Klitschko back in 2017, but has not faced either of the elite level heavyweights — Wilder or Fury — yet. That knockout of Klitschko pushed him into that class, but the loss to Ruiz knocked some of the shine off of the young Brit that he needs to regain, and knows the only way to do so is by challenging the best in Fury.

Just in case the message of PartyNextDoor’s PartyMobile standout “Savage Anthem” wasn’t entirely clear, the Toronto crooner has released his animated video for the song to clarify a few points — mainly, that you really, really should not, under any circumstances, fall in love with him. The PIX3LFACE-directed video tracks Party through his nights of debauchery, occasionally juxtaposing his hedonism with scenes of a would-be paramour crying her eyes out after failing to heed his warning, “don’t wait on my love.”

Party’s other videos for PartyMobile have used similar innovative techniques to avoid going the traditional route. His video for “Loyal” with Drake utilized Claymation and premiered on Adult Swim. Other singles from the album include the Rihanna-featuring “Believe It,” “Split Decision,” and a remix of “Loyal” that included international superstar Bad Bunny.

Since then, Party has popped up as a featured artist on a number of releases from others. He appears on the new DVSN album, A Muse In Her Feelings, as well as on Trippie Redd’s new single, “Excitement.” Clearly, he’s staying busy despite coronavirus lockdown — just don’t think that’ll make him finally slow down for love.

Watch PartyNextDoor’s “Savage Anthem” video above.

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

The MLS announced its plan for what it’s calling the MLS is Back Tournament — a very matter of fact name — that will take place in July and August in Orlando at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.

All 26 teams will participate in the tournament that features six groups, one of six teams and the rest made up of four, and each team will play three games in pool play before the top two teams from each group, plus the four best third-place teams, move on to a knockout round. Games will be played from July 8 through August 11, with the top seeds in the six groups being host Orlando City SC, Atlanta United, LAFC, Seattle Sounders FC, Toronto FC, and Real Salt Lake. Teams must arrive in Orlando seven days before their first game, but can go as early as June 24.

For the purposes of making the groups work, Nashville SC will operate as an Eastern Conference team for the rest of the season. The group stage games will count towards each team’s regular season record, and the winner of the tournament will get a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League. The tournament will span 54 games in total, with players eligible to earn bonuses from a $1.1 million prize pool, and games will be played at 9 a.m., 8 p.m., and 10:30 p.m. ET during group stage play.

There will be 1,200 people in total entering the Orlando bubble, including 750 players, and the MLS has worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci to craft a testing and antibody testing plan for all of its members — they will also contribute antibody testing to the central Florida community in a gesture of goodwill as well.

Once the tournament ends, the plan is for the MLS to return to an adapted regular season schedule with teams playing in their home markets, with the full schedule still to be announced.

One of the bigger Hollywood-focused questions during the pandemic is whether Christopher Nolan’s Tenet (starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, and an actual plane crash) will actually make its summer release date of July 17. Even as other tentpoles have pushed back titles for as much as a year, Nolan and Warner Bros. have stood firm in hoping to make theatergoing a national pastime again, sooner rather than later. California has officially given the greenlight for theaters to reopen on June 12 with restrictions, and now, the another studio release (from TriStar) has stepped ahead in line for a July 10 opening.

Granted, there’s also a Russell Crowe indie movie (a road rage story called Unhinged) from Solstace Studios that’s appeared on the schedule for July 1, but TriStar Pictures/Sony is throwing its hat in the game with The Broken Hearts Gallery, which is executive produced by Selena Gomez. Gomez made the following statement about the Natalie Krisnsky-directed film and why it’s being released so quickly. Via Deadline:

“Hearing from more female writers and directors is very much needed. Natalie is a wonderful talent, and I am happy to be a part of her debut film. I understand people’s concerns regarding returning to activities we all loved prior to COVID-19. I hope everyone will listen to scientists’ recommendations and consider others’ health and safety while enjoying the movie theater experience.”

The romcom, which sounds typically romcom-my, will star Geraldine Viswanathan (Bad Education) as and Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) in a story about making fresh starts in life after breakups. It’s an unusual choice these days for a romcom to land in theaters at all, especially in a time generally reserved for blockbusters. Still, Sony Josh Motion Picture Group President Greenstein declared the studio’s belief that there will be a theatrical rebound, “and we look forward to being there right out of the gate with our exhibition partners’ anticipated reemergence.” Perhaps after considering safety measures, a feel-good movie could really help Hollywood get back into multiplexes? If not, there’s always the drive-in route.

(Via Deadline & Hollywood Reporter)

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In the spring, when the coronavirus pandemic was just starting to change the way life works worldwide, music festival organizers began postponing their 2020 events, thinking a delay of a few months would be a sufficient enough wait. It appears the music world may have to hold out a bit longer, though, and festivals are starting to realize that; The 2020 edition of Lollapalooza was just canceled outright, for example. It was reported a few weeks ago that Coachella was getting ready to pull the plug on this year’s fest, and if new reports are to believe, it looks like they already have.

Although Coachella organizers Goldenvoice have yet to offer an official announcement, Billboard reports that Coachella 2020 has been called off. Additionally, Goldenvoice parent company AEG apparently isn’t sure what their plans are for 2020: The two major options seem to be hosting a 60-percent capacity festival in the spring of 2021, or waiting until the fall of that year. Ultimately, these decisions won’t be made until AEG has a better understanding of the pandemic’s continued impact.

Even if Coachella were to be held in 2020, a lot of folks may not have attended for cautionary reasons: In a recent survey of epidemiologists, a majority of them said they would be waiting at least another year before going to a concert or similar events.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Phoebe Bridgers used to conduct phone calls while walking outside her home in the trendy Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. But things, obviously, have changed. “I’m getting on the treadmill right now, so you’re going to hear some weird sounds,” she warns.

I caught up with the 25-year-old Bridgers one month ago, in early May, back when things were bad but somehow better than they are now. She was already in the midst of promoting her stunning second album while sequestered in quarantine, the quietly seething Punisher, which finally drops June 19. Bridgers had planned to be on the road at that time, playing her first arena shows as an opener for The 1975. “I was terrified and excited,” she says of the nixed tour. “There’s the chance that you’re basically playing when it’s still light outside and people are getting out their charcuterie boards. So, it was scary to me, but I also f*cking love those guys. Jesus, that tour was going to be fun.”

In conversation, Bridgers speaks in a deadpan SoCal accent and punctuates her blunt and hilarious observations with generous amounts of curse words. She sounds, in other words, utterly unlike her music, which tends to be quiet, contemplative, and gorgeous. Because of her gently murmuring vocal style — ” I don’t sing with a lot of emotion, it’s almost an apathetic singing voice,” she confesses — Bridgers tends to be cast as yet another sad-sack singer-songwriter out to jerk every last one of your tears. It’s precisely that image that made her 2017 debut Stranger In The Alps a slow-burn sensation, setting in motion a promising career that was further bolstered by her participation in two indie supergroups: Boygenius (with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker) and Better Oblivion Community Center (with Conor Oberst).

Bridgers has the ability to sing a perfectly heartbreaking lyric in such a way that it makes you feel like she’s directly addressing you and your worst personal tragedies. That talent has made her a budding superstar, but it’s also attracted the sort of fan who has extreme emotional needs. “You’re, like, having just a normal Tuesday night, and then you’re holding someone crying, talking about their dead husband,” she says. “And it’s not bad, it’s just super intense that that’s your job, and that that’s the way that you affect people.”

Over time, that sort of ritualistic catharsis can take its toll. The title track from Punisher refers to the sort of fan who winds up inflicting pain on their idols. (For Bridgers, it refers specifically to her obsessive love of Elliott Smith.) Many of the songs on the album refer to Bridgers’ conflicted feelings about her own burgeoning indie fame, like the depressive travelogue “Kyoto” or the referential “Graceland Too,” which includes nods to Paul Simon and The Replacements while reflecting on the strange legacy of Elvis Presley’s Memphis home/celebrity shrine. There is a lot of humor, too, though Bridgers’ voice and the album’s muted, sneaky-sophisticated production tends to mask it. (One of my favorite lines, from the otherwise doleful “Moon Song,” takes a shot at Eric Clapton: “We hate ‘Tears In Heaven’ / but it’s sad that his baby died.”

As Bridgers settled into a steady power-walk — her “sh*tty knees” prevent her from running on the treadmill — she thoughtfully answered my questions about her life under quarantine, the making of Punisher, Eric Clapton, Elliott Smith, crazy fans, and why her “world revolves 100 percent around me.”

In the midst of all this weirdness, do you have a routine to keep yourself sane?

I’m definitely a f*cking Silver Lake bitch. I’ve been writing three things I’m grateful for every day to keep myself sane, and it does f*cking work. You don’t have to show it to anybody, you just f*cking do it. It really makes a difference. When I don’t have anything to write about, I’m like, “I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast.” Which is true, that’s exactly what I had for breakfast. I’m regressing into my high school self, as far as my eating habits, but I’m staying relatively sane.

I wanted to ask you about the last song on the record, “I Know The End,” first. It’s totally fitting for this moment, though you obviously wrote it well before 2020. What inspired it?

It’s my first end of the world song. Conor Oberst and I were joking about how he’s been writing apocalyptic songs since the beginning of time. And now his material’s going to feel like old news. I was imagining a giant tornado, or California separating from the rest of the United States. It definitely feels relevant, but in my brain it was just an invention. I am rereading Oryx And Crake, the Margaret Atwood story where she predicted the pandemic. She calls it a “waterless flood.” God, that book is insane.

But was there anything in particular that made you want to write a song like that?

I was talking to a friend the other day about what separates the millennial generation from other generations, and for the most part, we’re the first generation to not really be living for the next generation. So many people fought for a better world before us, like our parents. And now we’re just fighting to even stay alive. People have stopped romanticizing the future. I just feel like I could never imagine a time beyond now. I used to know what my life would look like in eight months, now I certainly don’t.

Do you feel like that’s a scary thing? Or is the pessimism so ingrained now that it only inspires apathy?

I feel like I have learned these skills through trauma, and f*cked up sh*t in my life. But I tend to completely not live in myself and dissociate when sad or good things happen to me. So, right now it’s coming in handy. I’m like, “I’ll have this feeling later.” I’m trying not to be scared. Trying to listen to the news every morning and then shut it off so that I find the line between staying informed and torturing myself.

You’ve talked about how during the making of Stranger In The Alps you were going through a depression. How was the experience of making Punisher?

So fun. I’ve been getting a pretty regular question of, were you afraid to put out your second record because there’s more pressure? I’m like, “F*ck no.” I made the whole record knowing that people were going to hear it. And I made the first record being like, “I wonder if I’m going to have to get a day job after this.” Mostly I just wanted it to be better than the first record, which I think it is.

How so?

Lyrically better. I didn’t really want to be as dirge-y anymore. There are some dark songs, for sure, but I tried to get creative a little bit with the production. I just had more fun. I wanted to sound like an adult wrote it. I wrote a lot of Stranger In The Alps when I was still in my teens.

How do you think you’ve improved as a writer since then?

I’m learning how to tell the truth. There’s some language on my first record that I don’t use in real life. Like that “Chelsea” song is almost in old English or something. I just try not to put anything in songs that I wouldn’t actually say.

What’s a line from Punisher that you wouldn’t have written before?

“I’m going to kill you” [from “Kyoto”]. On the first record I’d be like, “Oh, I can’t say that.” And then as I started writing better songs, I just got more comfortable with it.

You’ve said that “Kyoto” is about being on tour in Japan and not being able to enjoy it.

Yeah. I think you’re stealing from yourself if you don’t go to therapy, basically. I thought for a lot of my life I could just kind of bulldoze through my own mental health issues and just live my life anyway. And it works sometimes, but then in quiet moments by a f*cking river in Japan when you’re thinking about your f*cking … or you’re not thinking about anything and your thoughts become weird, gray matter. You’re like, “Damn, maybe I should examine why my brain does that.” That’s mostly what it’s about.

When that was happening, did you know in the moment you were going to write about it?

Not at all. But I do think it’s a recurring theme on the album. It has to be something I think about in my subconscious. Missing home when you’re away and missing tour when you’re home.

How much do you miss touring right now?

Oh my god. So much. I’ve actually been DMing with Clairo about this. We’re like, basically, sexting about playing a show. I was like, “I would literally kill to f*cking play the sh*ttiest show.” And she was like, “Yeah, PA doesn’t work in a basement.” And I was like, “Smells bad. It’s an early show because there’s a DJ after you.” Yeah, I would love to be on the sh*ttiest tour in the world right now. In a hot van.

The one thing that writers always note about you is that you are much funnier in conversation than you are in your songs. Have you ever considered being more funny in your songs? Or are your songs already funnier than most people give them credit for?

The latter, for sure. I think there are jokes in my songs that totally get missed. Like if I were to say them in my “I work at the Circle K” speaking voice, I think people would think they’re funny. But because I sing them in my singing voice, that’s generally pretty, I don’t know … I feel like I don’t sing with a lot of emotion, it’s almost an apathetic singing voice. So, I don’t think people get my jokes when I sing them.

Which songs of yours do you think are funny that people don’t see as funny?

There’s definitely going to be those on this album, but “Scott Street” I feel like is pretty funny. Drinking a beer in the shower.

The lyric that made me laugh from Punisher is in “Moon Song,” when you reference your hatred of the Eric Clapton song “Tears In Heaven.” But then in the next lyric, you acknowledge that it was “sad that his baby died,” which is a bit of a gut-punch.

The initial lyric was, “I hate Eric Clapton.” And Tony [Berg, the album’s co-producer] yelled at me. He was like “Poor Eric Clapton, don’t rip on Eric Clapton.” And I was like, “I’m going to rip on racist Eric Clapton, whose music I hate.” But I’ll f*cking change the lyrics. It’s actually more brutal now. It’s a song about his dead kid. It was less brutal when it was like, “I hate your music, but it’s sad that your baby died.” Now it’s, “I hate your song about your dead baby, but it’s sad.” I don’t actually mind that song, I mind the rest of his catalogue more. In an attempt to kind of save it, I think I maybe made it a little bit worse.

What do you hate about Eric Clapton’s catalogue?

It’s just so f*cking white. And he famously said that the UK is a white place, and black people should disappear from it. I think his music is just boring. But knowing that he’s a bad dude makes it worse.

I wanted to ask you about the title track. You’ve talked about how you live in the same neighborhood where one of your heroes, Elliott Smith, once lived, and how if he were alive you would have probably run into him by now. Is that what that song is about?

It’s basically Elliott fan-fiction. If we were alive at the same time I think I might have been a little bit of a brutalizer to him, which punisher is a short term for. Just someone who doesn’t know when to stop talking, and might follow you home.

Now that you’re a popular singer-songwriter yourself, has your perspective changed on Elliott Smith and the kind of fan attention he attracted?

Totally. I think it’s easy for people on the outside to be like, “How could you hate playing The Oscars?” Now it’s like, “Obviously you f*cking hate it because you’re in a room full of people who didn’t give a sh*t.” And then every time you go to your bar, that you just want to be alone at, there’s someone like, “Hey, can I buy you a drink man?” There’s a term I love, “fansplaining,” which I feel like we’ve all seen or done.

Elliott Smith had to deal with being called a “sell-out,” which doesn’t really happen anymore. But there is this phenomenon where people dig into the pasts of musicians and “out” them on social media for having rich parents. It’s happened recently with artists like Mitski and Arca.

That’s how people’s voices get lifted up because that’s how f*cked up our country is. That a black woman from Ohio who’s making rad music in her basement is not going to have the opportunities that someone with a rich dad who lives in New York is going to have. It’s just f*cked up and true. But people always want to take away from women. If Mitski wasn’t good she wouldn’t be famous. That’s just 1,000 percent true.

Getting back to the “punisher” idea: You seem like you have some pretty intense fans. How do you deal with it?

For every punisher there is a sweet teenager that makes my day by giving me a weird homemade necklace or showing me a tattoo, or just having an actual connection with somebody who connected to something I said, which is so special and rad. But then one time I was literally chased by someone who was saying, “I would never chase you.”

Oh my god.

I was trying to get to the hotel, and I couldn’t even really tell if it was a fan, I thought I was just being followed. So I was like, “What the f*ck is happening?” And I picked up my pace and he started running, and then was like, “I would never chase you.” I’m like, “You’re chasing me.”

So yeah, people are intense. I’ve seen it happen to Conor, too. And Julien and Lucy. If you write about depression or whatever, you get people who maybe have never talked about it before. So you’re, like, having just a normal Tuesday night and then you’re holding someone crying, talking about their dead husband. And it’s not bad, it’s just super intense that that’s your job, and that that’s the way that you affect people. You can be less famous and have more intense fans if you write really personal music.

Have you ever considered writing about characters instead of yourself, just to distance yourself a bit from the work?

I mean, it is always me even if I’m pretending. If I’m writing about a friend’s experience I am putting myself there, and I see me in my mind. Songs are like dreams, kind of. I was calling you, but also you were right next to me. But when your mouth opened I couldn’t really hear what you were saying. And then you turned into my preschool teacher. It’s your perspective, but they can be about all sorts of sh*t.

I know better writers than I who have been like, “I’m not going to say ‘I’ or ‘me’ at all on this record.” And I’m like, “I would stop writing.” My world revolves 100 percent around me.

Punisher is out on 6/19 via Dead Oceans. Get it here.