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Music News: German men escape retirement home, try to attend heavy metal festival

A fan at the Wacken Open Air festival, 2018.
A fan at the Wacken Open Air festival, 2018.Gina Wetzler/Getty Images
  Play Now [10:16]

by Jay Gabler

August 06, 2018

Above, hear a pilot episode of The Current's new Music News podcast, which will soon be available every weekday wherever you get your podcasts. We'd love your feedback! Leave a comment below, or write to musicnews@thecurrent.org.


Two elderly German men were apprehended by authorities at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning, having run away from their retirement home to attend a heavy metal festival. The cops returned the "reluctant" men to their home in northern Germany "as a precaution," reports CNN, meaning they didn't get to see Wacken Open Air festival headliners including Judas Priest and Danzig.

Model known from Lady Gaga video dies at 32

Rick Genest, a heavily tattooed model known as Zombie Boy, has died from a fall at age 32. Genest was best-known to music fans for his appearance in Lady Gaga's 2011 music video for "Born This Way."

Referring to the death as "devastating," Gaga initially called it a suicide, but she later apologized for that statement after family members said they believed the fall, from Genest's Montre apartment building, was an accident. Authorities are currently investigating. (New York Times)

Ezra Koenig debuts Vampire Weekend music, from his phone

Vampire Weekend fans were disappointed when the band's Lollapalooza set this weekend didn't include any new songs, but frontman Ezra Koenig played some new tracks from his phone at an aftershow, at which the band reportedly played another new song. Apparently no one else's phones were allowed, since there haven't been any leaks yet. (Pitchfork)

The band are working on their follow-up to 2013's Modern Vampires of the City, the first album that won't have Rostam Batmanglij as a core member.

Demi Lovato makes post-hospital statement

Demi Lovato has made her first statement since being hospitalized for a reported overdose last month. "I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction," she wrote on Twitter, thanking her family, fans, and medical team. "What I've learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet." (Pitchfork)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmHH69KlY3L/

Beyoncé makes Vogue make history

Vogue has a cover shot by an African-American photographer for the first time in its 125-year history, and that's thanks to Beyoncé. Photographer Tyler Mitchell got the gig at Beyoncés request, and in an interview for the magazine the music star criticized the lack of diversity in media.

"If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in, they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from their own," she said.

The interview also made headlines for the revelation that the twins Beyoncé gave birth to last year, Sir and Rumi, were delivered via emergency C-section. (New York Times)

Dionne Warwick responds to Whitney

Dionne Warwick has addressed allegations that her cousin Whitney Houston was abused, as a child, by Warwick's late sister Dee Dee. "It's totally hogwash. My sister would never, ever have done anything to do any harm to any child, especially within our family," Warwick told Larry King. "I will never, and I mean this, ever forgive those who perpetuated this insanity."

Houston's mother Cissy has also said she has difficulty believing the allegations, which stem from interviews for the documentary Whitney in which Houston confidantes relate the singer confiding in them about the abuse. In the documentary, Houston's brother Gary Garland says Dee Dee Warwick molested him, although he didn't know that his sister was also allegedly a victim until the film was released. (Billboard)


Songs sampled in podcast
Jahzzar: "Comédie" (CC BY SA 4.0)
BoxCat Games: "Against the Wall" (CC BY 3.0)
The Carters: "APES**T"
Clip: Dionne Warwick on Larry King
Uncan: "Keeping Track" (CC BY 4.0)
Judas Priest: "Breaking the Law"