FILE PHOTO: Kenny Rogers poses backstage after accepting the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement award at the 47th Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tennessee Nov . 6, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Henderson/File Photo
(This May 31 story corrects date in penultimate paragraph to 1983 from 1982)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Country singer Kenny Rogers on Friday dismissed “wild misinformation and speculation” about his health and said he planned on “sticking around” for years to come.
A statement issued on his behalf by his representatives was published after a U.S. tabloid report claimed the “Lucille” singer had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and was dying.
Friday’s statement said Rogers, 80, was recently admitted to a hospital in Georgia and treated for dehydration.
“He will remain there to complete some physical therapy to get his strength back prior to discharge ... and can assure everyone he plans on sticking around through the years to come,” it added.
Rogers embarked on a world farewell tour in 2016 but in April 2018 he canceled the last few shows citing “a series of health challenges.”
Rogers, a three-time Grammy winner and a Country Music Hall of Famer, is best known for songs like “The Gambler” and his 1983 duet with Dolly Parton “Islands in the Stream.”
After beginning his career in the 1950s with a jazz group, Rogers went solo in the 1970s and released his break-through single “Lucille” in 1977.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by James Dalgleish
(Reuters) - Flesh-eating zombies terrorize a small town in Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die”, a comedy horror in which polar fracking sets off strange reactions and raises the dead.
72nd Cannes Film Festival - Photocall for the film "The Dead Don't Die" in competition - Cannes, France, May 15, 2019. Cast members Bill Murray, Chloe Sevigny, Selena Gomez and Tilda Swinton pose. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
Reuters spoke with Bill Murray and Chloe Sevigny, who portray police, and Tilda Swinton, who plays a mysterious funeral parlor worker, about the film’s albeit lighthearted environmentalism.
Below are edited excerpts.
TILDA SWINTON
Q: Why is environmentalism such a key theme here?
A: “It’s the landscape of the film, it very often is in zombie films ... (they) are a very useful kind of Trojan Horse to talk about society’s relationship with itself and the environment. But I would say it’s whatever anybody sees in it and this is a landscape that really concerns Jim and all of us.”
Q: What do you do personally to be environmentally friendly?
A: “I would like to fly a great deal less. I think we should all fly less anyway for about a million different reasons and not only to do with the effect of it on our planet but also on our bodies.”
BILL MURRAY
Q: What do you do to be environmentally friendly?
A: “I’m no hero but I tried to give up plastic bottles about three or four years ago. I think I’ve had about four since the situation arose, I either had to take medicine or something like that ... I realized I was drinking probably 100 plastic bottles of water a month. I thought, well, that’s 1,200 a year, at least. And that’s one person. So I gave up and stopped it and I find that glass bottle water tastes better.”
CHLOE SEVIGNY
Q: As someone associated with fashion, what do you do for the environment?
A: “I try not to use any single-use plastic and not use the dryer, take quick showers. It’s all the little things that one can do one hopes will accumulate in some way.
“Flying is always one of the worst and that’s unfortunately unavoidable in my line of work but I do compost in Manhattan and buy mostly recycled clothes. I’m trying to just not consume as much as maybe I have in the past and just try and spread that word to especially young girls. I’m somewhat of a fashion icon and I try encourage people to buy vintage or buy slightly used.”
Reporting by Hanna Rantala; writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; editing by Jason Neely
FILE PHOTO: Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen performs during the first night of the 47th Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland on July 4, 2013. REUTERS/Valentin Flauraud/File Photo
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A collection of more than 50 love letters written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen to the woman who inspired “So Long, Marianne” has sold for $876,000, with many going for more than five times their pre-sale estimates, Christie’s auction house said on Thursday.
The archive of letters from Cohen to Marianne Ihlen chronicles their 1960s love affair and the blossoming of Cohen’s career from struggling poet to famous musician.
The top letter, in which Cohen wrote in December 1960 about being “alone with the vast dictionaries of language,” fetched $56,250 compared to an original high estimate of $10,000.
A 1964 letter, in which Cohen wrote “I am famous but empty,” went for $35,000, Christie’s said.
Cohen and the Norwegian-born Ihlen met on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960 and she became the inspiration for several of his best-known songs, including “Bird on a Wire,” “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” and the 1967 track “So Long, Marianne.”
Ihlen died of leukemia in Oslo in July 2016 at age 81. Cohen, who was also suffering from leukemia, died in November 2016 at the age of 82.
The letters were sold by Ihlen’s family. The buyers were not revealed.
The top lot in the five-day online auction was an Italian bronze bell dating from the 15th or 16th century that hung in the Hydra home that Cohen and Ihlen once shared. It realized $81,250 compared to a pre-sale estimate of up to $12,000.
The bell is believed to have inspired the lines, “There is a crack, a crack in everything” in Cohen’s 1992 release “Anthem.”
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Leslie Adler
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was charged on Thursday with groping a woman at a Manhattan bar last weekend, New York City police said.
The “Jerry Maguire” actor faces one misdemeanor account of forcible touching in an incident on Sunday when an unidentified woman said Gooding touched her breasts.
Gooding, who denies the accusation, emerged in handcuffs after being charged at a New York police facility. He did not speak to reporters.
He was the latest Hollywood figure to be swept up in a sexual misconduct scandal that has roiled the entertainment industry in the last two years.
Gooding’s attorney, Mark J. Heller, said he was “completely confident that (Gooding) will be totally exonerated.” He told reporters that Gooding will enter a not guilty plea at an initial court appearance.
“There is not a scintilla of criminal culpability that can be attributed to Cuba Gooding Jr.,” Heller told reporters.
Heller said he was “shocked and horrified” that the case was being prosecuted after he presented police with security video from the bar that the attorney said showed no criminal behavior by Gooding.
Gooding, 51, won a supporting actor Oscar in 1997 for “Jerry Maguire” and had roles in “A Few Good Men,” “The Butler” and the television miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
The actor, who is divorced, is one of dozens of men in politics, entertainment, sports and the business world who have been accused of sexual misconduct since allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein triggered the #MeToo movement.
Weinstein is to stand trial in New York later this year on charges of rape and forced oral sex involving two women. He has denied any non-consensual sex.
Former “House of Cards” actor Kevin Spacey in January pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man at a Massachusetts bar two years ago, while singer R. Kelly was charged in Chicago with sexually assaulting three teens and a woman.
Slideshow (4 Images)
Heller accused the woman who lodged the complaint against Gooding last weekend of seeking “simply to get their 15 minutes of fame” and said he hoped she would herself be prosecuted once Gooding’s case is resolved.
New York media reported on Thursday that another woman had come forward this week alleging inappropriate touching by Gooding in 2008.
Heller said Gooding had “no knowledge” of the alleged 2008 incident, which falls outside the statute of limitations for any potential charges.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Leslie Adler, Susan Thomas and Richard Chang
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. arrives at New York City Police Department's (NYPD) Special Victims Division (SVU) in the Harlem neighbourhood in New York, U.S., June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
(Reuters) - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was charged on Thursday with forcible touching after a woman accused him of groping her at a Manhattan bar last weekend, New York City police said.
The “Jerry Maguire” actor was charged after reporting to police on Thursday, the New York Police Department public affairs office said.
He faces one misdemeanor account of forcible touching in an incident that occurred on Sunday when an unidentified woman said Gooding touched her breasts at the bar.
Gooding’s attorney, Mark J. Heller, said he was “completely confident that (Gooding) will be totally exonerated.” He told reporters that Gooding will enter a not guilty plea at an initial court appearance.
“There is not a scintilla of criminal culpability that can be attributed to Cuba Gooding Jr.,” Heller said after the actor was charged.
Heller said he was “shocked and horrified” that the case was being prosecuted after he presented police with security video from the bar that the attorney said showed no criminal behavior by Gooding.
Gooding won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1997 for his portrayal of an athlete in the film “Jerry Maguire.” In 2016, he was nominated for an Emmy for playing O.J. Simpson in the miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
New York media reported on Thursday that another woman had come forward this week alleging inappropriate behavior by the actor in 2008.
Heller said Gooding had “no knowledge” of the alleged 2008 incident, which falls outside the statute of limitations for any potential charges.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Leslie Adler and Susan Thomas
Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. arrives at New York City Police Department's (NYPD) Special Victims Division (SVU) in the Harlem neighbourhood in New York, U.S., June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
(Reuters) - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was charged on Thursday with forcible touching after a woman accused him of groping her at a Manhattan bar last weekend, New York City police said.
The “Jerry Maguire” actor was charged after reporting to police on Thursday, the New York Police Department public affairs office said.
He faces one misdemeanor account of forcible touching in an incident that occurred on Sunday.
Gooding has denied the accusation, which was made by an unidentified woman who said Gooding touched her breasts at the bar on Sunday night.
Gooding’s attorney said on Thursday, before the actor was charged, that security video from the bar showed no criminal conduct by Gooding.
Gooding won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1997 for his portrayal of an athlete in the film “Jerry Maguire.” In 2016, he was nominated for an Emmy for playing O.J. Simpson in the miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Leslie Adler and Susan Thomas
LONDON (Reuters) - Pop singer Robbie Williams, a judge on Britain’s “The X Factor” television show last year, is taking a stake in a performing arts college as he looks to mentor more “jazz hand people” like him.
The singer of “Angels” and “Let Me Entertain You” will have a 20% stake in Liverpool’s LMA, which offers degrees in music, performing arts and games design.
Williams, who hails from Stoke-on-Trent, a city 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Liverpool, mentored a choir from LMA on “The X Factor” last year and said he really enjoyed the experience.
“I was looking into the eyes of all the students and I was like ‘They are me. That’s who I was and who I am’, you know, we sort of ‘jazz hand people’,” the 45-year-old singer told a news conference.
“It’s just that energy that I wanted more of and also I don’t mind saying I was surprised I was actually quite good at mentoring. It’s something that I want to carry on, in whatever capacity that is. I loved it.”
LMA’s plans include opening a new London campus next year.
Williams, a member of popular 1990s boyband Take That, will help drive LMA’s expansion in Britain and abroad.
“I’ll find out more as we go along. But I want to mentor. I want to be there. I want to find out how to teach ... I have a bit of experience in the business.”
Williams, whose wife Ayda Field was also a judge on “The X Factor” alongside series creator Simon Cowell, is working on an album and will not return to the show this year.
Slideshow (2 Images)
“I’m going to be all over the place promoting that. We wanted it desperately to work with ‘The X Factor’ but it just wasn’t (to be),” he said.
“It’s a to-be-continued because myself and Simon are good friends, our family are good friends, the kids hang out all of the time and I think it’s just a pause on the relationship,” Williams said.
“This year I’ve got to go and promote my album to death. So that’s what I’ll be doing.”
Reporting by Hanna Rantala; writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; editing by Jason Neely
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. intends to turn himself in to New York City police after a woman accused him of groping her at a Manhattan bar over the weekend, NBC News reported on Wednesday, citing Gooding’s representative.
The Oscar-wining actor plans to present himself to the NYPD’s sex crimes unit on Thursday, according to NBC News.
The woman, who has not been identified, alleged that Gooding touched her breasts at the bar on Sunday night, the network said, citing law enforcement sources.
In a video posted on TMZ.com, Gooding denied that he had groped anyone. The actor said he went to a bar, talked and took pictures with people, and left.
“I trust the system,” he said as he walked through Los Angeles International Airport, adding that there was a tape “that shows what really happened.”
Asked if “there was any groping involved,” Gooding said “no, nothing.” He also said “absolutely not” when asked if he was guilty.
Attorneys for Gooding did not immediately respond to requests for comment or confirmation.
FILE PHOTO: Cuba Gooding Jr. attends the 69th annual DGA Awards in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., February 4, 2017. REUTERS/Phil McCarten
NYPD spokeswoman Detective Sophia Mason said she had seen the news report, but had no information on it.
Asked about the reported allegation on Monday, NYPD spokesman Detective Martin Brown said, “We don’t really have anything official to say about it other than that there’s been an allegation and that it is currently under investigation.”
Gooding won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1997 for his portrayal of an athlete in the film “Jerry Maguire.” In 2016, he was nominated for an Emmy for playing O.J. Simpson in the miniseries “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
Reporting by Peter Szekely and Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Bill Rigby
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jon Stewart, the popular former host of the late-night comedy program The Daily Show, criticized members of Congress for not attending a hearing on Tuesday on renewing funding for a program that provides health care to first responders who were sickened responding to the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to speak and no one,” Stewart said, pointing to a mostly empty dais. “Shameful, it’s an embarrassment to the country and a stain on this institution. You should be ashamed of yourselves for those who aren’t here but you won’t be because accountability doesn’t appear to be something that occurs in this chamber.”
Stewart was testifying before the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties about a renewal of the 9/11 first responders health care fund. Most of the panel’s 14 members were not in attendance.
“Where are they? It would be one thing if their callous indifference and rank hypocrisy was benign, but it’s not,” Stewart said. “Their indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity, time, one thing they’re running out of.”
The fund, originally approved for five years in 2010, provides medical treatment for emergency responders sickened by toxic dust inhaled at the World Trade Center site in New York in the days following the attack.
Republicans had balked at the price of the original legislation and as a compromise at the time, Democrats agreed to authorize the fund only for five years and cover the cost with an excise tax. That has set up a fight every five years to get Congress to renew the program.
Stewart criticized Congress for continuing to require the fund be renewed every five years - pointing to the panel’s top Republican, Representative Mike Johnson, for saying that Congress has to balance other emergencies as well.
“I’m pretty sure what’s going to happen five years from now, more of these men and women are going to get sick and they are going to die and I am awfully tired of hearing that it’s a 9/11 New York issue,” Stewart said. “Al-Qaeda didn’t shout death to Tribeca.”
Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Dan Grebler
FILE PHOTO: Singers Steve Lawrence and Edyie Gorme pose as they arrive at " An Evening with Larry Gelbart" July 11 at The Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills. Gelbart was honored at the musuem for his contributions to the medium of television, which include writing credits on " The Bob Hope Show," " M*A*S*H," and " Caesar's Hour./File Photo
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Steve Lawrence, the 1960s-era singer and comedian who performed at nightclubs and on television with his wife Eydie Gorme, said on Tuesday he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
In a letter released by his publicist, the 83-year-old Lawrence said the disease was in its early stages and he was “being treated with medications under the supervision of some of the finest doctors in the field.”
“Fortunately, they have managed to slow down this horrific process,” he said.
Lawrence married Gorme in 1957 and together they became a staple on American late-night and variety television programs. Their playful husband-and-wife banter was a distinctive element of their performances over the decades.
“We Got Us,” the first album from the duo that came to be known as Steve & Eydie, won a Grammy in 1960. Gorme died in 2013.
Lawrence said he was “living my life, going out in public and trying to spend as much time as possible with my family and friends while I am still able to engage and enjoy.”
“I ask for your prayers, your good wishes and implore you to find the joy every day, because what I feel is gratitude, love and hope — nothing more and nothing less, and I hope you can find the same,” he added.
Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Matthew Lewis
(Reuters) - The troubled Woodstock 50 music festival on Monday lost the site of a planned anniversary event in August, the latest setback for the weekend marking the famed 1969 “peace and music” festival, but organizers said they were pursuing a new location.
The Aug. 16-19 festival was to have taken place at the Watkins Glen motor racing venue in upstate New York with a line-up including Jay-Z and Miley Cyrus.
On Monday, Watkins Glen said in a statement it had “terminated the site license for Woodstock pursuant to provisions of the contract. As such, (it) will not be hosting the Woodstock 50 Festival,” the site owners said in a statement.
Watkins Glen did not say why it had decided to pull out.
Gregory Peck, one of the organizers of Woodstock 50, said the team behind the festival was “in discussions with another venue” to host the event and looked “forward to sharing the new location when tickets go on sale in the coming weeks.”
Woodstock 50 is backed by the co-producer of the original 1969 Woodstock festival, which was billed as “three days of peace and music” and is regarded as one of the pivotal moments in music history.
The anniversary festival was thrown into chaos in April after the lead Japanese investors abruptly pulled out. It has been plagued with other problems, including obtaining permits and arranging security and sanitation.
Tickets for the festival, expected to attract about 60,000 people, have not gone on sale.
Organizers said last month they had obtained new funding and expressed confidence that the show would go on.
Woodstock 50 announced in March that more than 80 musical acts, including 1969 festival veterans John Fogerty, Canned Heat and Santana, would take part. Some 100,000 fans, including campers, were originally expected to attend, but that number was later reduced to 60,000.
The nonprofit Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the current owner of the field where the 1969 Woodstock festival took place, has also scaled back plans for a three-day anniversary event. It said in February it will instead host separate concerts by Ringo Starr, Santana and the Doobie Brothers.
Watkins Glen has a larger crowd capacity and is some 150 miles (240 km) distant from Bethel and about 250 miles (400 km) north of New York City.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Tom Brown, Cynthia Osterman and Dan Grebler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Director Martin Scorsese has made his second film about Bob Dylan, and this time the filmmaker has taken a cue from the elusive rock star to weave a fantastical mix of facts and imagination.
“Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story,” to be released on Netflix and in limited movie theaters on Wednesday, depicts one of the singer’s strangest concert tours - his 1975 U.S. road trip that had the playfulness of an old-time medicine show and a camera crew in tow.
The Rolling Thunder tour, with an eclectic troupe of performers that included folk singers Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez and Roger McGuinn, as well as poet Allen Ginsberg and glam rocker Mick Ronson, played in small venues with little advance notice, despite Dylan’s status at the time as a major star.
“It wasn’t a success, not if you measure success in terms of profit. But it was an adventure,” Dylan says in Scorsese’s film.
Dylan shaped some of the documentary footage into the 1978 film “Renaldo and Clara,” blending it with improvised scenes. It bombed with critics and audiences and was his last attempt at directing.
Scorsese’s film, taken from over 100 hours of footage shot in 1975, echoes the same spirit, mixing commentary from Dylan and Baez with interviews with Sharon Stone and other actors who spin imaginary tales about their supposed involvement with the tour.
“We are not calling it a documentary,” said Margaret Bodde, one of the producers.
Scorsese took a different approach in his previous film about Dylan, the 2005 “No Direction Home” which was an unembellished documentary about the singer’s 1960s transformation from a college dropout in New York City’s folk scene to an international rock star.
The new film shows Dylan in 1975 performing songs such as “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” in white face paint with wild-eyed intensity.
“There’s just a certain kind of connection to the audience that he seemed to have on this tour that I think will blow everyone’s minds,” Bodde said.
The movie’s fictional elements “really grew out of the spirit of the tour,” she said. “Because Bob looks so different on that tour and he’s kind of an actor.”
One of the invented characters in the film is an ornery Dutch filmmaker, played by Bette Midler’s husband Martin von Haselberg, who is presented as a filmmaker who tried to capture the essence of the tour in 1975.
In a mock interview, the accented Dutchman complains that Dylan never gave him straight answers.
FILE PHOTO - 71st Cannes Film Festival – Photocall as part of the Quinzaine des Realisateurs - Cannes, France May 9, 2018. Director Martin Scorsese poses. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
Scorsese, an Oscar-winning director, largely left out improvised scenes between members of the tour that Dylan used in “Renaldo and Clara.”
“The tour itself, not that movie, that’s what we were interested in,” said David Tedeschi, one of the editors on the Scorsese film.
But one scene, an encounter between Dylan and Baez bantering at a bar, made the cut. Baez wears a wedding dress and the two former lovers trade quips about why they each married someone else.
Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis, editing by Jill Serjeant and Dan Grebler
FILE PHOTO: 73rd Annual Tony Awards - Photo Room - New York, U.S., 09/06/2019 - The "Hadestown" cast and crew pose backstage with their Best Musical award. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The television audience for Broadway theater’s Tony awards slumped to an all-time low in the absence of pop culture juggernauts like “Harry Potter” and “Hamilton.”
Nielsen data on Monday showed that just 5.5 million Americans watched Sunday’s ceremony broadcast on CBS from New York, down 20 percent from 2018 when “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” took home six Tonys and rocker Bruce Springsteen won a special award for his sold-out one man show.
It was the first time the television audience for the annual awards show that celebrates the best of theater fell below 6 million.
Sunday’s TV audience also marked a sharp drop from 2017 when viewership reached a 15-year high, fueled by the success of rap musical “Hamilton.”
In Sunday’s ceremony, “Hadestown,” about a young couple’s dark trek to the underworld, took home a leading eight awards, including best new musical. The award show was hosted by late-night talk show host James Corden.
Other winners included best play “The Ferryman,” set around the sectarian struggles in 1980s Northern Ireland, and Bryan Cranston, who played the unhinged TV anchor in the stage version of the 1976 film “Network.”
The new low in the television audience marked a sharp contrast with box office receipts on Broadway, which hit a record $1.8 billion this past season.
Ticket sales for “Hadestown” increased by more than 1,300% on Sunday thanks to the Tony exposure, online booking platform TodayTix.com said.
Sunday’s show took place against stiff competition from the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup on rival NBC, which drew 6.1 million viewers, and the much anticipated season 2 premiere on HBO of female-dominated drama “Big Little Lies” starring Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Audience data for “Big Little Lies” was not available on Monday.
Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by James Dalgleish and Matthew Lewis
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Bushwick Bill, best known for his work with the Houston-based trio Geto Boys, has died after a four-month battle with pancreatic cancer, Billboard magazine reported on Monday.
The 52-year-old recording artist, publicly acknowledged in a video statement posted on May 1 by the celebrity website TMZ.com that he had been diagnosed with stage-4 pancreatic cancer in February.
Citing a statement from his publicist, Billboard said Bill died on Sunday evening at a Colorado hospital.
“His family appreciates all of the prayers and support and are asking for privacy at this time,” the statement said.
Reuters was unable to reach a representative for Bill to confirm the report.
In his May 1 video message, Bill said he wanted to record some new music before he died to provide additional “residual income” for his loved ones.
A video posted on Bushwick’s Instagram page over the weekend showed the rapper in his hospital bed, saying he had been hospitalized since May 24 with pneumonia attributed to chemotherapy he had been undergoing for his cancer.
Born with dwarfism in Jamaica as Richard Shaw, the diminutive performer started out as a warmup dance act for the original Geto Boys in 1986, performing as Little Billy, according to an Allmusic.com biography posted on the rap group’s website.
He joined a reconstituted lineup of the group as a rap singer in 1988 under the new stage name Bushwick Bill. The group’s debut album that year, “Making Trouble,” was initially blocked from release over a controversial track dealing with necrophilia and murder.
Bill made headlines again in 1991 when he accidentally shot himself during an argument with his girlfriend, losing his right eye. A photo of him being wheeled through a hospital hall on a gurney by his bandmates, Willie D and Scarface, was used as the cover art for the group’s 1991 second album, “We Can’t Be Stopped,” an LP that ultimately went platinum.
The shooting incident, which Bill admitted at the time was fueled by PCP and alcohol, was the subject of his single “Ever So Clear,” off his 1992 solo album “Little Big Man.”
The Geto Boys broke up in 1994, but regrouped a year later for a new album “The Resurrection.” Bill teamed up again with Willie D and Scarface on the 2005 reunion album “The Foundation.”
Over the years, Bill appeared on seven of the Geto Boys’ eight albums in a collaboration whose brand of provocatively violent and sexist imagery influenced southern hip-hop and rap’s “horrorcore” genre, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
Allmusic reported that the trio had returned to the studio to record another album together after a 10-year hiatus.
Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, additional reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas
