Latest news with #JoanOsborne
The Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Legendary rocker looks worlds away from Live Aid – 40 years after iconic concert
ONE of the rockers at the forefront of the historic Live Aid concert looks completely different four decades on. Eric Bazilian, 71, is a founding member of the US band, the Hooters and wrote Joan Osborne hit, One of Us. 3 3 The rocker fronted the Philadelphia-born band during the 1985 US leg of Live Aid on July 13. Live Aid was an unprecedented series of concerts that brought together some of the biggest musicians from around the world to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. The global event saw Madonna, U2, David Bowie, Elton John and Queen, among others, perform at simultaneous concerts at Wembley Stadium and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. The Hooters opened the US Live Aid with their hits, And We Danced and All You Zombies. Eric founded the band with Rob Hyman in 1980 and their second album, Nervous Night, catapulted them to fame and went platinum. Outside of the band, Eric co-produced Joan Osborne's 1995 album, Relish, which would go on to be nominated for six Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year for One of Us. Live Aid is gearing up to celebrate its 40th birthday this week, including with the release on Friday of Just For One Day, The Live Aid Musical album. The 30-track collection of songs from the groundbreaking concert is recorded by the cast of the theatre show. Live Aid was spearheaded by Boomtown Rats front man, Bob Geldof, and the Band Aid Charitable Trust has raised more than £150million for people in need since its launch. The musical opened at London's Shaftesbury Theatre on May 15 and ten percent of tickets sales are going to the charity. Kevin Cronin and Speedwagon play Roll With The Changes at Band Aid Band Aid was also responsible for the release of charity single Do They Know It's Christmas? which sold three million copies in the UK alone. The single was inspired by a haunting 1984 BBC News report from Ethiopia, where famine had ravaged the country and led to 1.2million deaths between 1983 and 1985 alone. Eric previously opened up on why it was special to be a home grown band opening Live Aid in Philadephia. "I think we had a tremendous amount of Philly pride, we were able to say, 'Welcome to Philadelphia'," he told NBC10 Philadelphia in 2022. "We were able to welcome the world. We were only able to play for 10 minutes, but that was 10 minutes that changed our history and rocked the world." 3
Buzz Feed
08-06-2025
- Buzz Feed
15 Stories About People Who Were Kidnapped
Recently, I came across this Reddit thread where u/ZeusDX1118 asked "People who've been kidnapped, how did you survive?" Here's what people shared: "It was 1988. I was kidnapped way before my memories formed, so this is all from my parents and the police report. Basically, a lady in the nursing ward decided to give me a 'spicy adoption' by hiding me in some sheets and taking me out of the hospital. She was tracked down a few days later, and I was handed back to my parents. She didn't mistreat me. Apparently, I was a healthy, normal child, and she even bought the expensive stuff in order to take care of me. I got to meet her in my teens. I asked her, 'Why me?' and it was because my family hadn't done the paperwork for me correctly, so I was easier to slip out and potentially give her more time to disappear with me. If you have more questions, feel free to reply to the message, and I'll answer them." "I was kidnapped when I was 7. It was by a very person addicted to drugs, a family member, who told me he was bringing me out for ice cream. He left me on a bench outside a bar when the bartender told him he couldn't bring kids in. It was a dirty biker bar in Las Vegas during the 90s. I was young, scared, and didn't fully comprehend the situation. I was confused why we didn't go to an ice cream shop. The family member came out with two men who fully terrified me. One of them touched my curly, bright red hair and smiled widely. I remember not knowing what to do, so I started singing Joan Osborne's 'What if god was one of us?' They got freaked when I wouldn't stop singing and walked back into the bar. I was definitely a weird kid, but scream singing as self-defense was kind of smart." "I was kidnapped at gunpoint along with my younger brother and my early-twenties mother when I was in kindergarten. My father, 40 years old, hadn't taken the divorce well and already had some psychiatric illness, so he forced us all into his truck and drove us from California to Mexico. At the time, my parents told us kids that we were taking a family trip. I remember the drive, shopping in a street market, and being greeted by the flashing lights of police cars when we eventually returned to the States. The police were nice and let us sit in the police car! I remember being excited about that." "A cousin of mine was kidnapped as a baby by his aunt and uncle and taken to Australia and raised as their very own child. The kid was born to a middle-income family in a third-world country. My cousin's father's brother was a wealthy man in Australia who had spent the previous year living back home. He and his wife, who could not have children, plotted to visit the new baby and claim him as their own, with the father of the child aiding them in the kidnapping. The baby was taken from the mother in the middle of the night (they drugged her) and flown to Australia, where the uncle and aunt claimed the child was theirs." "A friend of mine was kidnapped on his paper route. The kidnappers/robbers wanted his van to commit a robbery. They handcuffed him, put a bag over his head, and left him in the back of the van during the robbery. When they were done, they told him to count to 100 before he got up and took off the mask. Pretty wild." "My grandmother's brother was kidnapped and held for ransom. He's a successful businessman. He was held at gunpoint in the parking lot of his office building. It was in the papers and everything. It was a month before the kidnappers even made contact with the family to make their demands. These guys were pros; they've done this before and did their research. They knew exactly how much he was worth. It was really tough for us. From his accounts, they never physically harmed him, but he was kept in a dark room the entire time and fed sandwiches. Even got him his medication. Prayer and thinking of his family were the only things that got him through those three months." "My parents were kidnapped at gunpoint by two dudes in New Orleans. They went out to dinner for their 1st wedding anniversary and were held up outside of the restaurant. They forced my parents into their car in the backseat, and they drove around for a while. Took everything from my parents: wedding rings, watch, and wallets. Apparently, some lady saw this take place and called 911 from a pay phone. Luckily, the two guys dropped my parents off and drove away. I don't think they were ever caught, though." "When I was 12, somebody took me from a Target parking lot and put me in their trunk. Somebody saw and started driving after us. The guy stopped and ran away when he realized that people saw him. he stopped, and I got out." "I was working alone at a gas station in my middle-of-nowhere town. A robber came in with a gun to rob the store and then kidnap me. He made me drive his Durango to the next exit, and we drove out a few miles when he dropped me off. I thought he was taking me out to execute me, but it was in reality to get me further from a phone. This was 1999, so cell phones were not popular. Took me a while to make it to the closest house where someone answered the door with a shotgun. He ended up helping me get hold of the sheriff." "I was grabbed in a parking lot and pulled into the backseat of a car. I started kicking and screaming and flailing around. The passenger had a gun pointed at me, and I was trying to hit it out of his hand while the person in the backseat was trying to restrain me. I fought for my life. There was no thinking or anything, I just went straight to fight mode. They ended up stopping in a dark neighborhood and threw me out into the street. During all this they were calling me names and saying other shit but I don't really remember those details. I just remember fighting for my life and screaming." "I was kidnapped when I was 9, but I didn't even realize at the time. My school bus got stolen, and the guy drove around picking up random kids. We caught on and started yelling out the windows. The guy panicked and dropped us off at a school none of us went to. We told the secretary what happened, and a bunch of cops came." "One of the guy's girlfriends in the house found me and took pity on me. She snuck me out when they all went out drinking. She dropped me off at a corner gas station, and I think I ran the rest of the way home...I am not a runner by any means. I'll never forget stepping into the living room of my house that how terrified I was to sleep, so I slept in the bed with my mom." "Technically, I was kidnapped by a fake cab driver in the nineties in London. I called a minicab company like a sensible 20-year-old, it being late and me being alone in a miniskirt. I wait outside the pub, the car turns up, and the driver says, 'Are you [my name]?' So I get in, he puts on the fare meter and off we drive, his company radio babbling in the background. A few minutes into this, the dispatcher starts talking to another cab driver over the radio, and the other cab driver on the radio says, 'That [my name] girl isn't at the Red Lion pub, someone said she got into another car. I look at his radio set up, his radio doesn't have a handset, just receives. Basically, this guy had bought a radio receiver to eavesdrop on the cab messages and poach their customers. So... I'm in the back of a total stranger's car now, no one knows this, and the car has taken an odd turn, not the route he should have taken to get to my block of flats." "I was 6. I wandered away from my mom at a Value City (back when they sold clothes). I don't remember everything too clearly, but this man told me he would help me find my mom, and he took me to his car. Apparently, someone saw me crying and called the police, and the cops pulled him over. They arrested him. Not sure what happened to him." And finally, "I was kidnapped when I left work one night. We struggled briefly, but he forced his way into my car. He had a gun. He said he wanted me to go to the ATM and get money. I told him I didn't have any, but I could get some money from my work. After a short time, I just drove back to my work, got out of the car, and took my purse and car keys with me. Luckily, our security person was at the door when I walked in. I just completely broke down, and he took charge. He called the police, who got there really quickly. My kidnapper was waiting for me in my car to come back with the money. The police took him to jail." If you were kidnapped and feel comfortable sharing your story, tell us in the comments or us the anonymous form below:
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Rochester made that possible:' Joan Osborne to bring Bob Dylan's hits to JCC stage
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — She says it's a coincidence that her upcoming tour, centered around all of Bob Dylan's greatest hits, comes at the time of the blockbuster success 'A Complete Unknown.' Blending those classics with classics of her own, Joan Osborne is returning to Rochester once again at the JCC Hart Theater on April 18. News 8 had the chance to catch up with the star ahead of the show. News 8's Gio Battaglia: Tell me about this upcoming tour. I know it goes off of your 2017 Bob Dylan cover project. How are we bringing it into 2025? Joan Osborne: It's an interesting time to do it. It's almost like we planned it with the release of this movie that's just gotten so much attention, we actually didn't. It was all planned around the re-release of this Dylan material, because we discovered this recording of one of the live shows that we did in 2017, and it actually sounded really good. I'm normally the harshest critic of my own live recordings, but it actually sounded really good, and we have such amazing special guests on it. We've got Amy Helm on it. We've got Robert Randolph on it tearing up the watchtower, which is a bonus track on the record, and Jackie Green too. So, we've got these amazing special guests, and it all just came together in this really natural way. And the release date just happened to be right around the time that this Bob Dylan Frenzy is now happening, especially in the younger generation. GB: What made you want to do the project initially, around 2017? JO: It was something that I had always been thinking about doing. I was inspired by Ella Fitzgerald, who, back in the 50s and the 60s, did this whole series called, it's now called 'The Songbook Series,' where she would pick a different songwriter, whether it was Cole Porter or Lerner and Loewe or all these, you know, classic American Standard songwriters, and do a whole record devoted to their material. So, I always thought that's such a cool idea. Maybe I can do something like that, but choose, you know, more contemporary writers. So we had this opportunity to do a residency at a place called the Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan, which is sort of this legendary cabaret room. And you know, I'm not really a cabaret singer, so I thought maybe this is the perfect opportunity to test this idea out. So, we ended up doing a full two-week residency and doing nothing but Bob Dylan songs. And we got such great feedback from the audiences and the press was very calm. So, we thought, all right, this is a way to move forward with this, and that's why we chose to do the whole album's work of Dylan material. GB: I know that you're obviously not short of hits yourself, and you just said that the set list then was strictly Bob Dylan. Will that carry over to this upcoming performance? JO: Well, it's going to be primarily the songs of Bob Dylan, and that's how we're presenting it, and that's how the promoters have booked it. But you know, we will slide in some Joan Osborne material there, because I think, I think anyone who wants to come and see us live, you know, they're going to have a favorite song or two that they would like to hear from my catalog. So, we're going to try to sort of balance on that tightrope. GB: Is there one, obviously, 'One of Us' is the song that a lot of people want to hear, but fans that know all the deep cuts, is there one song that carries from set list to set list that you have to include, or you'll hear about it? JO: Well, the song St. Theresa, it's not a super deep cut, but that's one that people have a really strong attachment to. So, we try to bring that one out, and pretty much every show that we do, and we've gotten a lot of great response from this most recent album of original material called 'Nobody Owns You.' We've got an amazing fan response from that, and for us, it's great to have brand new stuff to play. So, we might dip into that as well. But, you know, that's the beauty of live performance. It's very spontaneous. So, it's possible that we'll pull something out that's even more obscure and that we don't really plan it that well, and it's just going to be off the cuff, so you kind of never know what it's going to be. GB: You've played in Rochester a couple times. What keeps you coming back? JO: I've been playing in Rochester probably since before you were born. I really started coming up there before I even had any kind of a record deal, before I even put out a record of my own and my own label in 1991 you know, it's just been an area that has always been really, really supportive of what we do. And, you know, I think maybe the first show that I did up there, I was opening for BB King in a festival outdoors. And, you know, just like a, what a stellar moment for me in my life, in my career, and Rochester made that possible. So, you know, we've been coming back for years and years, and we've got a great fan base up there, people who are either newer fans or have been following us since those early days. So, so it's a bit of a love affair, and we're very happy to continue it. GB: I was just going to say you have a nearly… I think it is sold out show coming up. How does it feel to still have that connection with the fans after all these years? JO: Well, I have to say, I'm super grateful for the audience that I have. And, you know, it's a very difficult time in the music business, and I had a super moment of, you know, white hot fame, but that was quite a while ago. But that was never really what I was seeking when I was doing music. And the people whose careers that I really admired and wanted to emulate were people like BB King or someone like Tom Waits, who never necessarily has a big, giant hit, but always has an audience there that they've cultivated over the years, always has people who are interested in what they're doing and come out to see the live shows. So, I feel like that's kind of the best possible place to be, and I'm super, super grateful to all the fans that I have, not just in Rochester, but all around the world who have stuck with me and just seem genuinely interested to continue this connection. GB: Did you have anything else that you wanted to add about where you are at right now and what's coming up? JO: I do want to acknowledge that this is the 30th anniversary of the 'Relish' album, which was my first major label record, and that's the one that I think most people know me for, and we are going to be re-recording those songs, and I've connected up with the jazz bass player Christian McBride, who is not only an amazing jazz figure, but he's also the artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival, and he tours all around the world with different bands and he's really sort of one of these lions of jazz who are continuing that tradition. So, he and I have been working on rearranging those songs for relish and re-recording them so that they'll fit into what is now this very broad definition of what jazz can be, and that's very exciting for me. I went to the Newport Jazz Festival last year and was just blown away and inspired by all of the different incredibly unique ways that jazz has sort of unfolded and exists right now. So, I'm excited about that too, and people can look out for that either the end of this year or the beginning of next year. GB: So, we have the live Bob Dylan album that comes out later this month, right for streaming services, and later this year, we'll see a new version of 'Relish.' How does it feel to go back and listen to those songs with the ear of today? JO: Well, I mean, some of those songs we don't necessarily perform live that frequently, so it was a little bit of like digging back into the archives. But you know, I think the work that we put into making that record myself, Eric Bazillion, Rob Hyman, and the producer, Rick Chertoff, we spent months and months and months in a way that hardly anyone has the opportunity anymore today to do, but we spent so much time building that record from the ground up and really taking our time. And I think it really shows, I think the songs as they were recorded back then. You know, that record still, I think, you know, it doesn't sound dated, and I think you can listen to it today and still get a lot from it. And I think the songs themselves are strong enough that they can exist in a lot of different ways. And I know people have come up to me and said, 'Oh, we cover your song in my band, things like that. 'So that's really, to me, the mark of something that can stand the test of time. 'Joan Osborne featuring the Songs of Bob Dylan' comes to the JCC of Greater Rochester stage April 18. For ticket information, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
