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Ed Sheeran, who is out of his isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 and will appear as the musical guest on SNL Saturday night (Nov. 6) as planned, spoke about his diagnosis and recent recovery in a new interview with Howard Stern.
The singer-songwriter explained the timeline of his experience with COVID-19 and said that his young daughter, 1-year-old Lyra, also tested positive at the time.
“Everyone was saying they were scrambling to find a replacement,” Sheeran said of rumors about his SNL appearance being affected, but “I was always playing that. I tested for COVID and I announced it a couple days afterwards because I had to cancel [some] stuff.”
Sheeran had shared his diagnosis just days before the release of his latest album, =, and earlier this week clarified that he out of quarantine and “excited to hit the ground running with work again, and SNL is still on.”
“It’s quite an odd thing getting that and then having to announce it to the world, and then suddenly like, I’m now out of it, and I’m still sort of being treated [like he has COVID]. It’s kind of an uncomfortable,” Sheeran admitted to Stern.
The Howard Stern Show radio host asked Sheeran, “Did you have heavy symptoms at all? I assume you were vaccinated,” to which the singer replied, “I was, yeah, but I was super ill and rundown before.”
“As soon as I got a cold, I just started testing every single day. I was just like, I want to make sure I don’t have it,” said Sheeran.
Sheeran talked about the busy schedule he had, waking up early to do promotion for his new album, and said, “I was really, really, really rundown and then just one day I caught it [COVID-19].”
“My wife was away, so, I was there with my daughter. Basically, it was me and my daughter for a week. She had it, too, so it was kind of heavy. Three days of really, really bad symptoms, I think,” Sheeran recalled.
Watch his interview clip with Stern below.
Travis Scott addressed his fans in a video posted Saturday night (Nov. 6) following the tragedy that took place during his set at Friday’s Astroworld Festival in Houston, where eight people died amid a crowd surge.
“I just want to send out prayers to the ones that was lost last night,” Scott posted in a clip posted on his Instagram Stories. “We’re actually working right now to identify the families so we can help assist them through this tough time.”
He added, “You know my fans, my fans really mean the world to me and I’ll always just really want to leave them with a positive experience.”
“Any time I can make out anything that’s going on, I stop the show and help them get the help they need,” Scott said. “I could just never imagine the severity of the situation.”
“We’ve been working closely with everyone to just try to get to the bottom of this. City of Houston, HPD, fire department — you know, everyone to help us figure this out. If you have any information, please just contact your local authorities. Everybody, continue to just keep your prayers,” said Scott.
“I mean, I’m honestly just devastated and I could never imagine anything like this just happening,” he said. “I’m gonna do everything I can to keep you guys updated and keep you guys informed on what’s going on.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner confirmed at a press conference that took place shortly after 3 p.m. local time Saturday that there were eight fatalities from the music festival, and that the ages of seven of those who died ranged from 14-27 years old. One male victim of the incident was yet to be identified.
As of this afternoon, 13 of the 25 people rushed to the hospital Friday night were still there, and one of the 25 was confirmed to be a 10-year-old who remained in critical condition.
During the press conference, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said “there were some individuals that were trampled” in the crowd surge. Houston authorities are awaiting autopsy results and plan to provide more information once all families of the deceased are contacted.
Finner also confirmed a report about a security officer receiving a needle prick from an unknown person at the festival. The officer went unconscious, was treated with Narcan and was successfully revived. Fire Department Chief Samuel Peña confirmed “there were several, many instances where they administered Narcan on the scene.”
Scott’s Saturday night video follows a note he posted earlier in the day, a statement in which he echoed some of what he said on camera.
On Saturday afternoon, he wrote, “I am absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival. Houston PD has my total support as they continue to look into the tragic loss of life. I am committed to working together with the Houston community to heal and support the families in need. Thank you to Houston PD, Fire Department, and NRG Park for their immediate response and support. Love you all.”
Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Peña is warning that the death toll could rise following the tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival on Friday night (Nov. 5).
At press time, eight people died and about 300 were injured as Scott performed the closing set during the festival’s opening night at NRG Park in Houston, with fans surging toward the stage and pushing so close together that they reportedly couldn’t move their arms or breathe.
“What we know is that we have eight people who have died as a result of the injuries suffered at at that event,” Peña told MSNBC on Saturday morning. “That number may rise, because we did transport more people in critical condition. We took 11 that they were performing CPR on en route to the hospital.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said that the ages of those killed at the Live Nation-produced festival were between the ages of 16 and 23. The names of the casualties have not yet been made public. A press conference is set for 4 p.m. ET on Saturday with police, firefighters, Turner and others involved in the ongoing investigation.
During a press conference on Friday night, Peña said a “mass casualty” event occurred at 9:38 p.m. local time at NRG Park, with an estimated 50,000 people in attendance. He said trouble began shortly after 9 p.m. when “the crowd began to compress toward the front of the stage and that caused some panic and started causing some injuries. People began to fall out and become unconscious and that created additional panic.” Peña said Astroworld’s medical tent and staff was “quickly overwhelmed” by the scale of the incident, after which the Houston fire department stepped in and dispatched 50 units.
The fire chief added on Saturday morning that authorities “still don’t know what caused the initial surge of crowd up toward the stage, but the Houston Police Department is looking at video that was taken from cameras that were present there for security purposes and other reasons.”
Peña also noted that Scott and Live Nation made the call to “essentially pull the plug” on the event on Friday “when the when the situation started to escalate.” Astroworld representatives confirmed that the second day of the festival, schedule for Saturday evening, has been canceled as a result of the tragedy.
“We will be dissecting this thing in its entirety,” the fire chief said. “I’ve been doing this for 27 years and I have never seen something like this.”
During a news conference Saturday (Nov. 6) about the tragedy that claimed eight lives during Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival on Friday (Nov. 5) night, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner confirmed a report about an officer receiving a needle prick from an unknown person.
“We do have a report of a security officer, according to the medical staff that treated him last night, that he was reaching over to restrain or grab a citizen and he felt a prick in his neck,” Finner said during the news conference. The security officer went unconscious, was treated with Narcan and was successfully revived. Medical staff treating the security officer later noticed evidence of a prick mark in the man’s neck consistent with that of an injection.
During the same press conference, Fire Department Chief Samuel Peña confirmed “there were several, many instances where they administered Narcan on the scene.” Later, when asked by press whether any person other than the aforementioned security officer was pricked by an unknown needle, Finner replied, “Right now we have that one.”
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner confirmed at the press conference that took place shortly after 3 p.m. local time that the number of fatalities remained at eight. The ages of seven of those who died ranged from 14-27 years old. One male victim of the incident has yet to be identified. The mayor added that six of the eight families have been notified.
As of this afternoon, 13 of the 25 people rushed to the hospital last night are still there. Four of those taken to the hospital have been discharged. One of the 25 injured has been confirmed as a 10-year-old who remains in critical condition.
In addition to the reported injection, Finner said, “There were some individuals that were trampled.” Houston authorities are awaiting autopsy results and plan to provide more information once all families of the deceased are contacted.
Houston’s Institute of Forensic Sciences is tasked with identifying the individuals and their causes of death. Lina Hidalgo, judge for Harris County where NRG Stadium resides, said at the press conference, “I and my team have been on the phone with all of the relevant agencies trying to untangle as much as we can about what may have led to this. The roles like Live Nation, the City of Houston and Harris County had in any of this.”
Hidalgo added: “It may well be that this tragedy is the result of unpredictable events of circumstances coming together that couldn’t have possibly been avoided. But until we determine that, I will ask the tough questions.”
She went on to say that security and safety plans were put together by Live Nation, the City of Houston and Harris County in order to put on Astroworld. According to numbers provided by Live Nation and the Houston Police Department, there were 528 HPD officers and an additional 755 private security members on site last night when the incidents occurred. The number is an increase from previous years after Astroworld had fans breach the barricades in 2019.
“Perhaps the plans were inadequate. Perhaps the plans were good, but they weren’t followed,” Hidalgo said. “Perhaps it was something else entirely.”
Chief Peña said, “I believe we had a robust plan for a ‘non-event.’ The level of injuries, the number of people in the venue, quickly overwhelmed the third-party vendors that were providing security and the medical component.” He continued that the fire department had to augment those who were already at the venue, with 62 units responding.
Houston officials said they would be receiving more footage tonight to help determine what happened at the festival. Live Nation and Scott’s team are said to be fully cooperating with the investigation.
“This is an artist we know has a following particularly of young people with bright futures. Those are the people who went there to have a good time and no one, no parent, no friend, no sibling, should see their loved one off to a concert by a world-renowned artist and not be able to expect them to come home,” said Hidalgo.
As news continues to emerge from Houston about the deadly crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival, musicians are taking to social media to send prayers to the victims and their loved ones.
At least eight people died and hundreds more were injured as Scott performed the final set at the festival’s opening night on Friday, with fans surging toward the stage and pushing so close together that they reportedly couldn’t move their arms or breathe. An estimated 50,000 people were in attendance at NRG Park stadium.
The eight fatalities have not yet been identified as officials work to notify family members. A press conference is set for 4 p.m. ET Saturday with police, firefighters, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and others involved in the ongoing investigation.
SZA, Kid Cudi, Kehlani and more have reacted to the news on their socials, sharing prayers and well-wishes for the victims’ families. Scott himself also released a statement Saturday, saying he’s “absolutely devastated” by the tragedy at his hometown festival.
Astroworld day 1 performer Toro y Moi posted an Instagram Story early Saturday, writing, “Team Toro is safe and sound. Sending love to Houston. Thanks for having us, we hope to be back soon! Be safe out there everyone.”
See more musician and celebrity well-wishes below:
The son of R&B legend Gladys Knight has been sentenced to serve two years in prison for failing to withhold payroll taxes for the restaurants that bore his mother’s name, federal prosecutors in Atlanta said.
Shanga Hankerson opened his first restaurant, Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles, in Atlanta in 1997. Over the next several years, he opened at least three more locations in Georgia and Washington, D.C.
Hankerson, 45, “willfully disregarded his tax obligations for many years,” Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine said in a news release. During his sentencing Wednesday, Hankerson, who pleaded guilty in July, was also ordered to serve a year of supervised release following his prison sentence and to pay more than $1 million in restitution.
He was the sole owner of the business and was required to withhold payroll taxes from his employees’ gross pay. From at least 2012 to 2016, Hankerson failed to remit more than $1 million in payroll taxes, prosecutors said.
“While ownership of a well-known restaurant in our community has its perks, it also comes with great responsibility,” IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge James Dorsey said. “Paying taxes is a way to give back to the community, but unfortunately Hankerson chose to use those funds for other means.”
Knight won a legal battle to sever ties to the business in 2017, and her son was ordered to stop using her name, likeness and memorabilia, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
