Latest news with #LaRocque
Newsweek
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Woman Loses Sister Aged 23—Nearly Decade on, Tragedy Hits on the Anniversary
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. For Taylor LaRocque, life has taken a series of unimaginable turns. In an Instagram reel, she revealed the shocking loss of her mother that she suffered eight years after her sister's death—on the very same day. Since then, she has taken to the internet to share her reflections about grief and family, finding her voice more and more along the way. LaRocque, 31, told Newsweek about the double tragedy she never saw coming and what she wishes she had known in her earliest days of grief. "My sister passes away at 23 on our family vacation, thinking this is the lowest s*** could get," she captioned the video. "My mom passes away on the same day as my sister eight years later." Photos from Taylor LaRocque's Instagram reel about losing her sister and mother. Photos from Taylor LaRocque's Instagram reel about losing her sister and mother. @travellingthroughgrief/Instagram LaRocque's sister, Jessy, was the oldest of three siblings, with LaRocque being the youngest and her brother Wesley the middle child. For LaRocque, the five-year age gap made Jessy more than just a sibling. "She was my all-star, my Beyoncé, my everything," LaRocque said. As a role model, Jessy even got LaRocque and her brother their first phones, first jobs and first credit cards. With their parents working long hours, Jessy's role became more than just a sister from a young age. "My sister was a sensitive soul and the kindest human being in the world," LaRocque said. They had dreams of living together and traveling, and she strongly believes her travel-loving sister is "by the ocean somewhere, enjoying a drink." LaRocque's mother, Rose-A-Lee, was a similar icon of inspiration and love. Independent early on, she left home at 18 to build a remarkable career. LaRocque described her as "the bread winner, a boss queen and an inspiration to my siblings and I." Her parents had been together since high school, moving to Ottawa as young parents and buying their first home when LaRocque was born. "My mom created a home, family holidays, backyard celebrations and an open-door policy to my siblings and I and our family and friends," LaRocque said. "[She] was my best friend, an inspiration, the most-caring human." A Horrible Tragedy Repeated LaRocque's first family tragedy struck on November 25, 2012. She and her family were on vacation in Cuba when Jessy passed away at the age of 23 from "sudden death of cardiovascular origin." "We found her unconscious in her hotel bed in the early morning," LaRocque said. The experience was harrowing. "There was no defibrillator; unsuccessful CPR attempts by my father and I; and a jarring transport ride on a golf cart to a medical station on the resort that left my family and I scarred for life. "Taking a flight home beside an empty seat where my sister should have sat will leave my family and I heartbroken for the rest of our lives," LaRocque added. Then, eight years later, on the exact same date in 2020, history tragically repeated itself. She found her mother unconscious in their family living room after shoveling snow. Just moments before, they were on the phone as LaRocque was on her way to spend the difficult anniversary of her sister's death together. "My mom died of a heart attack and a broken heart," she said. "Another failed CPR attempt and a frantic phone call to 911 still did not bring my mother or my sister back." Navigating Loss Navigating such immense and compounded grief has been an arduous journey for LaRocque. "Honestly, I really do not know how I have gotten through these last 13 years," she said. After Jessy's death when LaRocque was 18 and in her first year of university, she said time was "ultimately a blur." She began therapy while managing the grief of the rest of her family, while studying and working full time. Her work in youth and child services, however, provided a crucial sense of purpose, helping her process the loss. But her mother's passing in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges. "Our family and friends were unable to come together to celebrate her until … 2021, [for] my mother's 58th birthday," LaRocque said. This second loss was a "major wake-up call." During a period of job and moving transitions, she decided to start sharing her story online and create community around her grief—an "eye-opening and amazing experience," she said, which helped her feel less alone. Her Advice for Healing Reflecting on her journey, LaRocque offered valuable advice to her younger self and others facing similar pain. A phrase her mom often used, "this too shall pass," deeply resonates. "I would make sure to tell younger Tay that your friends and family are going to lift you up in the darkest of times and 'you got you, Tay' … Working through your grief is understanding that grieving is not linear …," LaRocque said. "I wake up every day and make the decision to work through the day, and sometimes that looks like laying on the couch all day." LaRocque said she hopes her shared story brings solace to others facing similar tragedies. "No one knows when death will hit you, your family or friends," she added. "But leaning in, listening to your body and prioritizing yourself will be the greatest gift you can give yourself in your hardest times."
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Belcourt man to serve 360 days for involvement with transporting fentanyl in Grand Forks County
May 30—GRAND FORKS — A Belcourt man changed his plea Wednesday, May 28, and was sentenced to five years in prison, first serving 360 days, for committing fentanyl crimes in Grand Forks County. Christian Lee LaRocque, 22, pleaded guilty to his two felony charges: Class A felony possession of at least 40 grams of fentanyl with intent to deliver and Class C felony unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. The Class A felony charge has a maximum 20-year prison sentence, but with credit for time served since Oct. 26, he has 145 days remaining in custody. After release, LaRocque will be on supervised probation for three years. He forfeited any items seized in the case, and must also complete a chemical dependency evaluation within 60 days. LaRocque was part of a group of five people who were pulled over on Oct. 25 after law enforcement tracked them on suspicion that they were involved in transporting drugs from Detroit, Michigan, to North Dakota, according to a declaration of probable cause filed in the case. It was believed that the group planned to bring the drugs to the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Law enforcement located a vehicle that was speeding and, after pulling it over, established probable cause to search it because of a marijuana odor, the declaration said. They found a bag of fentanyl in the back of the driver's seat that weighed 90.31 grams, another bag in the back of a rear passenger seat that weighed 104.72 grams, drug paraphernalia, eight fentanyl pills inside of a soda can and 15.5 Suboxone pills. At the time, LaRocque said he was working for the task force and only got involved because he knew law enforcement was looking for Olivia Rain Patneaud; he said he planned on attempting controlled buys from her, according to the declaration. Law enforcement knew this was not actually the case. Patneaud and two other defendants, Jomell Emery Helm and Melvin Earl Byrd, have been indicted by a grand jury on federal drug charges: conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute controlled substances; possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance; and two counts of maintaining a drug-involved premises. Their state-level cases were dismissed. At this time, their trials are scheduled for June 24. The final defendant, Darla Rae Belgarde, pleaded guilty to the same felony charges as LaRocque in February and was sentenced to six years in prison. She was the driver of the vehicle that was pulled over, according to court documents.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Andy La Rocque on why he is no longer a 120mph soloist – and we can expect from the long-awaited King Diamond album
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Once he finally opens it up to the public, King Diamond's Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920 album is going to be insane. It's been a few years since the Danish occult-metal icon started talking up this much-anticipated project – which will be his eponymous band's first full-length release since 2007's Give Me Your Soul…Please. The famously falsetto-flying frontman first teased its storyline around a supernatural asylum when he dropped the Masquerade of Madness single in 2019. Though Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920 has been inching along in the background since then, the launching of King Diamond's tour last fall showed great promise for the project when the group debuted two brand-new bangers at their opening date in San Antonio – Spider Lilly, a phantasmagoric prog-metal slam propelled by a pinch-squealing walkdown riff from longtime guitarist Andy LaRocque, and a chugging creeper called Electro Therapy. LaRocque says both songs are part of their developing concept record about 'this place where you kind of end up between life and death,' an oddly prescient parallel to a record seemingly caught up in production purgatory. But when it came to Spider Lilly, which features neo‑classically sculpted and shredded solos from LaRocque and co-guitarist Mike Wead (the latter also performing with the King in equally evil-sounding metal greats Mercyful Fate), the song actually came together quickly. 'King presented the idea of Spider Lilly maybe a week before we left,' LaRocque says from an Atlanta tour stop, adding that the full band – which also features bassist Pontus Egberg and drummer Matt Thompson – cut the track between their respective home studios before hitting the road. The guitarist recently gave it a rough mix from his Sonic Train facility in Varberg, Sweden. 'We have about four songs more or less recorded,' LaRocque says of the broader progress. 'As soon as we get back from the tour, we're going to pick that up again and really work it out. Once we have the arrangements, it's only going to take us a few days to record. We'll send King a basic rough mix, and he can start doing the vocals.' Before we behold the full bedlam of King Diamond's next album, LaRocque discusses 40 years of making exquisitely ghoulish horror-metal alongside the face-painted metal royal, the guitarist's new signature shred-machine and more. Some parts are going back to Fatal Portrait and Abigail when it comes to the riffing style, but it's also going to be totally different from what you've ever heard from us before You and King have mentioned over the past few years that these next songs would be, in some form, a return to the earliest King Diamond records. What elements from the past did you want to tap back into? 'It's mainly to get that organic sound back, where everything doesn't have to be… placed perfectly in time, or even in pitch. There's got to be some rock 'n' roll to it. [Laughs] If you listen to an album that's totally perfect, it gets boring. We wanted to make an album where it's a little bit more alive, like it was in the Eighties. 'We're trying to avoid the stiffness of the albums of the Nineties and early 2000s. Really, we're just trying to loosen it up a little bit. Then again, we also had a talk about going back to the roots with the songwriting. Some parts are going back to Fatal Portrait and Abigail when it comes to the riffing style, but it's also going to be totally different from what you've ever heard from us before.' You're nearly 40 years into your partnership with King. What do you recall about linking up with him during the Fatal Portrait sessions, and coming into the band after they'd already started making the album? When I came down to the studio and first heard all the songs, I was blown away. The horror feel… I'd always been into that – Kiss, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath 'That was a really cool thing. I knew [drummer] Mikkey Dee from Gothenburg, where we both lived; we'd been jamming together back in '83-84. And then when he joined King Diamond, I thought, 'Hey, this is really cool!' They were in the studio for about two weeks [in 1985] when Mikkey called me and said, 'The guitarist didn't really work out for us, so I think you need to come down and meet the guys.' 'I was working in a music store at the time, so the same day I called my boss and said, 'Hey, I really gotta do this. I have to quit.' The next day I left for Copenhagen with my Marshall head and my guitar, and I met the guys at [Sound Track Studio]. I listened to a few of the songs, and then later in the afternoon they asked me to audition on a song called Dressed in White. 'I played along a few times, worked out a solo and recorded it, and then they had a meeting. After an hour or so, they said, 'Welcome to the band!' That was a great moment. That solo was the first thing I ever did for King Diamond.' You shaped that solo, but ultimately the bones of those songs were already there. Do you have a different relationship with Fatal Portrait as compared to anything from Abigail onwards, because of that? 'I guess a little bit. It was [mostly] written by the time I came down to the studio. The only thing left, I believe, were the vocals and solos from me and [former King Diamond/Mercyful Fate guitarist] Michael Denner. But when I came down to the studio and first heard all the songs, I was blown away. The horror feel… I'd always been into that – Kiss, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath. That, mixed with Dracula and Frankenstein movies. That was a totally cool thing to me.' Before joining King Diamond, had you been involved in any projects that went for that grand, theatrical presentation? 'No, it was mostly local bands. My first show with King Diamond was in Copenhagen a couple of days before Christmas 1985. At that time, we'd gotten our first stage set, which was not as grand as what we have now… but it was still epic! We had parts of an old castle up there, and little gates. People were freaking out over the show.' What's your setup on this latest tour, and how different is it compared to that first show? 'Back then, I had two Marshall cabinets, a 50-watt Marshall JMP head and an Ibanez Tube Screamer. That was about it. Very basic, but that's what you had in the Eighties. Nowadays, me and Mike are doing the Neural DSP Quad Cortex, which is really convenient because you can do your own captures. 'I had a Marshall head and cabinet in the studio, a really good microphone in front of the cab and an overdrive from a Swedish company called ZETA – great pedal, kind of like an aggressive Tube Screamer. I did a capture of that with the Neural, and that's what we are using live. I've got the Neural and an analog wah pedal. No cabs. Everything is coming out of the wedges and the PA.' How about guitar-wise? You're an ESP player at the moment, right? 'I love ESPs. I was with Dean at the time, but I tried one of Mike's ESPs around 2015 and was like, 'This is exactly the neck I want.' So I talked to Chris Cannella, who worked for ESP at the time, and he hooked me up. Right now, I'm with LTD, which is also owned by ESP. 'I'm actually playing a prototype of a guitar that will be my new signature model. That's going to be released sometime [in 2025], I believe. It's based on a Horizon. One single coil, a Seymour Duncan STK-S6 and one JB Humbucker. With a Floyd Rose. 'The cool thing is it's not the Strat scale; it actually has the Les Paul scale, which is a little shorter. It's 24.75' instead of 25.5'. I feel more comfortable with the shorter scale; it's easier to play this way. When I presented the idea to ESP, they were like, 'We can't believe we didn't do this earlier!' I just love it.' This tour has introduced new material, but what are some of the older songs you're excited to be playing again after five years off the road? 'We start with Arrival from Abigail, which is a great song. I would say some other favorites would be Sleepless Nights or Eye of the Witch. We also do Welcome Home into Invisible Guests, which are really intense songs to play back to back. You really have to be focused when you play those leads. They're just crazy, the things we came up with in the Eighties.' What side of your technique are they pushing the most? 'You have to be an acrobat to play some of those solos. They're just very intense and fast and all over the neck. Some whammy bar things. They're not laid-back, bluesy solos at all. You've got to keep your tongue in your mouth to be able to pull it off.' How has your philosophy on solos changed since the Eighties? 'Back then you thought you had to compete with all the other guys, in a weird way. You were listening to Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert… all kinds of crazy-fast players. And you tried to keep up with them. Over the years, though, you start to feel more relaxed and confident with everything. It doesn't have to be 120mph. Parts of it can be fast and flashy, but a basic melodic structure is so much more important to me now than it was back then.' You said there are four new songs recorded. Does the band have an arrival time in mind for the next album? We're going to do some festivals in Europe next summer, so everything has to be recorded and done before we do that, that's for sure 'We're going to do some festivals in Europe next summer, so everything has to be recorded and done before we do that, that's for sure. We're still working on some of the other stuff we have. It's going to be eight or nine songs on the album, I believe.' You're touring with King Diamond again, and you've got the record in the works. How has this affected the flow of your job producing and engineering out of Sonic Train? 'It hasn't ever been a problem, because the people that come into the studio absolutely understand that I'm a touring musician, too. [Sonic Train] has never really been a conflict with what we're doing with King Diamond. I know I'm going to be busy with King Diamond for the next year, so I'm not making lots of plans in the studio right now.' King Diamond are touring Europe from June. See King Diamond for dates and ticket details. This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ashley LaRocque Named Vice President of Media & Production at SUCCESS® Enterprises
Ashley LaRocque Named Vice President of Media & Production at SUCCESS® Enterprises DALLAS, March 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SUCCESS® Enterprises is excited to announce that Ashley LaRocque has been named as vice president of media and production. 'SUCCESS® Enterprises empowers entrepreneurs, leaders, and individuals who seek growth to take action,' said Amy Somerville, CEO of SUCCESS®. 'I'm absolutely thrilled to bring Ashley into this mission. With her exceptional experience, creativity, and leadership, she'll ensure we deliver high-quality, engaging content and unforgettable experiences for ambitious go-getters." 'I jumped at the opportunity to join the talented team at SUCCESS®,' LaRocque said. 'Producing innovative content for such an empowered customer base is a dream for a creative. I'm buzzing with energy for what's to come!' LaRocque has held senior roles at some of the most recognized names in the industry, rising to pivotal roles to develop new services, expand client bases, and increase revenue. Previously, she served as executive director of media production at RE/MAX, LLC, leading the development and execution of high-quality event content and globally distributed media. With her extensive career in media production, LaRocque brings creative and strategic expertise to further position SUCCESS® as an innovative leader in delivering outstanding personal and professional development content and events. About SUCCESS® Enterprises: Founded in 1897, SUCCESS® is a leading multimedia company dedicated to personal and professional development. Through SUCCESS® and SUCCESS+ magazines, SUCCESS+™, newsletters, downloadable resources, on-demand courses, live events, and more, SUCCESS® inspires individuals to dream big. Core values of optimism, determination, and resilience drive SUCCESS'® mission to provide individuals with tools for continuous growth. For more information, visit Contact Information: Kerrie Lee BrownVice President of Publishing and Editor-in-Chief, SUCCESS® A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
