Music

Paul Anka is celebrating a huge milestone ... which explains the incredible response and tributes from across Hollywood.

An impressive list of friends and admirers reached out Friday to wish the legendary singer and songwriter an awesome 80th birthday. Jennifer Aniston, Jimmy Kimmel, Alec Baldwin, Quincy Jones, John Travolta, Jason Bateman and Simon Cowell all recorded a tribute video. Paul even got a shoutout from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet!

The entire birthday tribute can be seen on Paul's YouTube channel. His new album -- "Making Memories" -- was also supposed to be released on his birthday, but that's now been pushed to August 13.

Paul still has plenty to celebrate ... the new album will include a cover of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" -- which was written by Paul -- featuring Michael Bublé and Andrea Bocelli.

Ya gotta say, he's having a great 2021 -- having already teamed up with Olivia Newton-John back in May for a duet of his classic "Put Your Head on My Shoulder." The re-recording came on the heels of his tune going viral on TikTok.

Paul gained a new generation of fans after Doja Cat remixed his 1959 hit, and it became the soundtrack for TikTok's #SilhouetteChallenge.

Kanye West is hosting another album release for his upcoming "Donda" album at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta ... but he's still brainstorming on how to make the event unique to fill new seats.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … Yeezy and his production team locked down Aug. 5 at MBS for another "Donda" album release on the eve of the album drop. We're told stadium employees have been hired on ... and plan to work it the same as last week.

However, we're told Kanye and co. are working to figure out how to make this experience different from the first, which as we first reported, broke the Apple Music Global Livestream record with 3.3 million viewers.

Our sources say CAA and Live Nation are putting pressure on Ye and his production company to make the second "Donda" event different ... because some fear it won't be easy to sell tickets in the same market if this show's a carbon copy of the first.

We're told it's unclear what Kanye plans to do the second time around -- he could go with a new stage or new musical arrangement -- and Yeezy is known to change his mind at the last minute ... so right now, anything is possible.

There's a lot of directions Kanye could go ... while many felt his first "Donda" event was innovative, some say it was essentially just Ye standing around and playing the album for his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian.

As you know ... Kanye's been living in the stadium as he finishes up the album, so ya gotta think he knows the place inside and out, and that could come into play as he tries to switch things up for this event.

Stay tuned ...

Metal Church's late frontman Mike Howe took his own life ... according to the cops who found the rocker's body.

A spokesperson for the Humboldt County Sheriff's Dept. tells TMZ ... Mike's official cause of death was determined to be asphyxia due to hanging. Officially, authorities are calling it a suicide.

As we reported ... cops got the call Monday just after 10 AM in Eureka, CA for a report of an unexpected death at a home. When deputies arrived at the scene, we're told they found Mike dead.

The Sheriff's Dept. also told us alcohol and drugs were not believed to be factors in the 55-year-old singer's death, and no controlled substances or paraphernalia were found in the home where he died.

Mike joined Metal Church in the 1980s and helped record the band's third album, "Blessing in Disguise," which included one of their most famous songs, "Badlands."

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez can't keep their eyes, hands -- and lots of other things -- off of each other during their vacay ... even while seated in a busy restaurant!

The couple's nautical trek along the Italian Riviera stopped Wednesday in the town of Nerano, where they had a super romantic meal -- and it's not the setting that made it romantic. It's the fact J Lo -- in a very revealing red and white bandeau top -- planted her famous asset right in Ben's lap.

Apparently, there's a chair shortage over there. Not that Ben was complaining -- if you're into love and whatnot, there's plenty of it on display in these pics.

Everyone's (well, almost everyone's) favorite reunited lovers snuggled, kissed, hugged, laughed and generally looked happy as hell ... while their fellow customers enjoyed plain ol' culinary delights.

BTW, anyone else seen something odd going on with these 2 this week? While there's been no lack of PDA during their Mediterranean yacht holiday, we have noticed something is missing -- Affleck's tan!!!

"Soul!" put Black culture on the TV map at a time when it hadn't really been done before ... and if you've never heard of the first Black variety show on American television, well, it's an amazing story about an openly gay Black host who trailblazed in so many ways in the '60s.

Melissa Haizlip was on "TMZ Live" Thursday ... she produced an amazing documentary about her uncle, Ellis Haizlip, who hosted "Soul!," the PBS show from 1968 to 1973.

Ellis's show became a platform for political expression and social justice at a time when civil rights and the Vietnam War were front and center in America.

Ellis had amazing guests ... Muhammad Ali, James Baldwin, Patti LaBelle, Jessie Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Al Green. Oh, and a 16-year-old Arsenio Hall performed magic tricks on "Soul!"

It's pretty amazing ... when Ellis hosted the show homosexuality was illegal in many states, and homophobia was rampant. He even had Louis Farrakhan as a guest, and confronted him over his condemnation of homosexuality.

DaBaby's social calendar for mid-September just opened up ... 'cause he's been dropped from a music festival across the pond.

The rapper was originally slated to perform at Parklife 2021 in Manchester, England where he was supposed to be one of the headliners ... along with Megan Thee Stallion and Young Thug. But, that's not the case anymore.

You can see DaBaby's name -- which used to practically be front and center -- has now been removed from the lineup card on the festival's website.

It was just 2 weeks ago when the festival was proudly showing off its lineup on Instagram, featuring DB. They seemed pretty excited about it ... with the caption saying, "PARKLIFE 2021 🔥 TWO MONTHS TO GO 🙏🏼."

The excitement over DB headlining the event has quickly dissipated following his controversial comments at the Rolling Loud Festival. And, his removal from Parklife is just the latest in a series of dominos falling.

As we've reported ... the clothing company, Boohoo, stopped working with DaBaby soon after the ignorant comments about HIV/AIDS. Sure, he attempted an "apology," but only made things worse.

Dua Lipa's just one of the many stars who were horrified by the comments. In fact ... her collab with DaBaby -- the "Levitating" remix -- has reportedly been removed from multiple Apple Music playlists.

The battle royale between Britney Spears' father and her conservator, Jodi Montgomery, is boiling over ... Jodi wants Jamie out of the conservatorship and says Britney's doctors agree.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Jodi is officially joining Britney's bid to remove Jamie as the conservator of the singer's estate.

In the docs, Jodi says it's in Britney's best interests for Jamie to be sent packing ... and JM claims Britney's medical team wants Jamie out too. This is a huge development and could spell the end of Jamie's role in the conservatorship. If her medical doctors and therapists think Jamie's presence is tormenting Britney, that is probably enough for the judge to boot him from the conservatorship.

Jodi makes it clear in the docs ... she wants Jason Rubin to be appointed conservator of her estate in place of Jamie.

As we first told you ... Rubin is Britney's choice to replace her father. He's a CPA with credentials who Britney's lawyer, Mat Rosengart, presumably believes makes Rubin a good choice to handle the Britney's business affairs.

Bottom line ... Britney and Jodi seem to have forged a united front and they're going full steam ahead to oust Jamie.

Soulja Boy's birthday party didn't sit well with neighbors and especially the cops that shut it down ... but he was still ridin' high in a brand new McLaren that looked like a steroided-out bumble bee!!!

Soulja arrived late for his own birthday party -- in fact, so late cops already put the kibosh on the shindig before he roared up in his new ride courtesy of pal Ray J. He didn't seem to mind at all that guests were scattering left and right ... his attention was laser-focused on his screaming yellow whip.

It seems that rapper OG 3Three hosted the party, because he's the one who was imploring partiers to beat it before cops started writing tickets.

OG 3Three said cops told him the complaints were various -- noise, too many people and way too late at night. Police actually swarmed the area, both on land and in the air.

Ray J was no anonymous gift-giver ... he was more than happy to tell us he's the one who made Soulja's night with the McLaren. Ever the pitchman, Ray made sure the car had Raycon stickers, promoting his headphones.

Leslie Jordan says ignorant, uninformed comments about HIV/AIDS from people like DaBaby are exactly why some gay people aren't comfortable being themselves ... so Leslie's slamming the rapper's homophobic rant as stupid and clueless.

We got Leslie outside Kings Road Cafe in L.A. Wednesday and he laid into DaBaby ... grousing it's a shame he's using his enormous platform to spew bigotry.

ICYMI, DaBaby hit the stage at Rolling Loud Miami over the weekend, and went on a rant about HIV/AIDS. He later "apologized" twice but only made things worse.

Leslie says he's 66 years old and feels perfectly comfortable being a gay man. Problem is, he worries about those who are NOT yet comfortable in their own skin ... and DaBaby is doing great harm to those folks.

Leslie believes DaBaby will get his ... and repercussions are already coming his way. The rapper was in a collab with the clothing company Boohoo, but he's been unceremoniously dropped.

Here's the tragic 911 audio from former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison's death, and while it starts off fairly matter-of-fact ... his ex-girlfriend ends up getting very emotional about what she's discovered.

In the audio, obtained by TMZ, the caller is a woman who says she's Joey's ex, and she tells the 911 dispatcher there are lots of signs making her think Joey's dead.

She says Joey's family hadn't heard from him in days, so she went to check on him at his home ... and she feared he was dead even before stepping inside.

As we reported ... Joey's family says the famous drummer died in his sleep and law enforcement sources told us no foul play is suspected and there were no illegal drugs found at the scene.

Joey's ex held it together at the start of the call, but once the operator asked for his full name and date of birth ... her emotions started pouring out, as she choked up and sobbed.

The rock star's sudden death shocked the music world, with Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer telling us he couldn't believe Joey was gone.

Morgan Wallen's loyal fans are gonna love this ... he's out and about, taking a golf trip with buddies -- but it's another strong sign he's getting ready to come out of hiding.

Morgan and friends were on the links Wednesday down in Puerto Vallarta, so there's a good chance the country music superstar is gonna be getting sand in his boots again. Whether that's on a beach or in a bunker ... who knows?

The way he was grinning while riding around in his golf cart -- he stands out in that hot pink trucker cap -- we'd guess Morgan was hitting 'em straight during this round and generally having a good ol' time.

It's been a while since he's had reason to smile.

The trip down Mexico way comes on the heels of Morgan's sit down with Michael Strahan ... where he finally spoke out about the night he casually dropped the n-word to friends at the end of a drunken night out in Nashville. He apologized, said he'd been to rehab and got council from Black leaders about the pain associated with the epithet.

Marilyn Manson says Esme Bianco's rape claims are not only bogus, but also come years too late for her to sue him ... this according to new legal docs.

The embattled singer just filed to dismiss the 'GoT' actress' claims of sexual assault -- and the crux of his argument is that she's way past the statute of limitations to go running to court over this, and as a result ... her claims should be tossed before they're heard by a jury.

There's also this, though -- in the court filing, obtained by TMZ, Manson's attorneys write that Bianco's claims are part of a "coordinated attack" among multiple women who he says are "cynically and dishonestly seeking to monetize and exploit the #MeToo movement."

Manson doesn't deny having sex with the women, but describes all the encounters as "consensual" relationships.

Manson's team goes further, saying Bianco "spent months plotting, workshopping, and fine-tuning" her story into "twisted tales that bear no resemblance to reality." They also say the accusers, Bianco included, are trying to publicly conflate his shock rock image with fabricated/horrifying claims of abuse.

ZZ Top's longtime bassist, Dusty Hill, has died ... TMZ has learned.

Dusty passed away at his home in Houston, TX -- this according to his bandmates, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard.

They write, "We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX. We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the 'Top'. We will forever be connected to that "Blues Shuffle in C." The boys add, "You will be missed greatly, amigo."

Unclear if Dusty's death is in any way related to another health scare he recently suffered -- namely, a hip injury that the band said he had to address in the past week or so, forcing him to bow out of a string of shows across the U.S. with his bandmates.

ZZT addressed the setback on Facebook not too long ago, writing ... "The members of ZZ Top, Billy, and Frank, would like to share that Dusty, their fearless Bass player, is on a short detour back to Texas, to address a hip issue. They await a speedy recovery and have him back pronto." They replaced Dusty with Elwood Francis ... who's been playing in his stead.

The group has yet to speak on Dusty's passing. They have a show scheduled for Wednesday night in Simpsonville, SC -- but something tells us that'll be canceled in light of this tragic news.

Dusty is one of the original founding members of ZZ Top -- serving as their lead bass player and secondary lead vocalist since they launched the rock band in 1969. He's also one half of the two famous bearded, sunglass-wearing men who help make up the trio ... with Billy obviously being the other.

They initially started as a blues-y act, but they eventually adopted a traditional rock sound ... which they stuck with and helped them launch into the mainstream in the '70s and well into the '80s as well. ZZ Top has churned out a whopping 15 albums over their storied career ... and are well-decorated for it, too -- serving as pillars of the genre for decades.

On top of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ZZ Top has been honored and recognized by different music organizations, especially in their home state of Texas. They've had wild success commercially too ... with several of their records having gone gold, platinum, multi-platinum and even one diamond offering in 1983's iconic "Eliminator."

That one produced perhaps their biggest hit to date, "Gimme All Your Lovin'," as well as others like "Sharp Dressed Man," "Legs," "Got Me Under Pressure" and more.

Despite not having made a new album since 2012, ZZ Top -- including Dusty himself, who's taken to the stage countless times over the years -- has continued to tour and entertain audiences around the world.

We last talked to Dusty and Billy on 'TMZ Live' back in 2019, when they were fresh off of a press run promoting a documentary covering their lives and careers. Ever the humorists, the fellas were cracking jokes about what they had (or hadn't, rather) seen just yet as far as cuts.

Dusty's finals words in our clip are quite timely right now -- he told us he'd "lived it" as far as what the doc covered, so seeing an early version didn't make much of a difference for them.

Lived he did, indeed. Dusty was 72.

RIP

DaBaby's controversial Rolling Loud performance continues to stir up trouble -- not just for him, but also for his surprise special guest ... Tory Lanez.

ICYMI, DaBaby went out of his way to do a big reveal of Lanez Saturday night during his set at the hip hop festival in Miami, but a lot of fans weren't happy about it ... because Megan Thee Stallion performed on the same stage right before the duo.

Tory's accused of shooting Megan in the foot last summer, and Rolling Loud sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... she and her team at the festival were very upset about him appearing on stage with DaBaby less than an hour after she finished her set.

That's because a judge issued a protective order following the alleged shooting incident, requiring Tory to stay at least 100 yards away from Megan ... and we're told she was still backstage when he took the stage with DaBaby.

Even worse, our sources say Megan's camp is miffed DaBaby performed one of her songs on which he's featured -- "Cash Sh**" -- right before bringing out Lanez. We're told those close to MTS feel this was a giant "f you" to her ... mocking her and the ongoing criminal case with Tory and, in a way, menacing her.

Our sources say after the elaborate reveal of Lanez went down -- and of course, after DaBaby also went on a homophobic rant during his set -- Miami PD were contacted about the possible violation of Megan's protective order ... and the L.A. County D.A.'s office was also informed.

A source close to Tory tells us he never saw Meg at the festival nor do they believe he ever got physically close to her.

Kanye West might be a billionaire, but he certainly isn't living like one ... he just showed off his living situation inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium ... and it's pretty bare-bones.

Mr. West posted this picture of what we're guessing is his bedroom somewhere inside the stadium ... and it's just a bed, some clothes, workout equipment and a TV. Yeezy's also got a couple pairs of shoes and a bottle of water next to the bed ... and it seems he's living out of the suitcase on the floor.

As we first reported ... Kanye is living inside MBS while he finishes up his upcoming album, "Donda."

The stadium played host to Kanye's massive album party last week, and we're told he was so inspired by the crowd, he wanted to stay in the ATL and finish things up as he targets an August 6 release for the album.

Joey Jordison, one of the founding members of the heavy metal band Slipknot, has died.

Joey died in his sleep Monday, according to his family. The cause of death is unclear, but a statement from his loved ones says he passed away peacefully.

The family says Joey's death "has left us with empty hearts and feelings of indescribable sorrow" ... and they're remembering him as a prolific drummer, musician and artist with a quick wit, gentle personality and giant heart.

Joey's loved ones tell us they will hold a private funeral service for him, but it's unclear when that will happen.

As you know ... Joey's famous for starting Slipknot way back in 1995, playing drums for the super popular band. With Slipknot, JJ played drums on 5 studio albums and performed on the live album, "9.0: Live."

Joey played in other bands as well ... he left Slipknot in 2013 and formed the band Scar The Martyr, also playing drums. He played guitar for the metal band Murderdolls and most recently was rocking out with the band Sinsaenum.

Over his career, Joey played with tons of heavy metal bands, like Rob Zombie, Korn, Metallica, Otep, Satyricon and Ministry.

Joey was 46.

RIP