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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12314599" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cher" source="Orion">Cher</keyword> filed a lawsuit in federal court against the widow of <keyword id="12314600" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sonny-bono" source="Orion">Sonny Bono</keyword> on Wednesday. </li><li>The suit alleges Bono is illegally withholding royalties from hits by the popular duo Sonny &amp; Cher.</li></ul><p>Cher filed a lawsuit against the widow of Sonny Bono, alleging that she is illegally withholding royalties from hits by the popular duo Sonny &amp; Cher in the 1960s.</p><p>The lawsuit - filed against former Massachusetts Rep. Mary Bono in a Los Angeles federal court on Wednesday - is asking for damages that could exceed $1 million, according to court documents.</p><p>Deadline first <a href="https://deadline.com/2021/10/cher-sonny-bono-lawsuit-royalties-withheld-mary-bono-1234855746/">reported</a> the lawsuit on Thursday.   </p><p>Cher and Sonny Bono divorced in 1975 and agreed to equally split the royalties from songs they recorded together. Their shared hit songs included "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On."</p><p>The lawsuit alleges that Bono has denied Cher of royalties and other rights from the agreement, though court documents did not mention anything specific. According <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/cher-files-federal-lawsuit-against-sonny-bono-s-widow-over-n1281593">to NBC News</a>, the lawsuit alleges that Mary Bono (through the Bono Collection Trust) "told Cher she would be cut off from royalties to Sonny &amp; Cher hits" last month. </p><p>Mary Bono was the fourth wife of Sonny, who died in 1998 in a skiing accident. He and Cher were married from 1967 to 1975. </p><p>Cher's lawyers and Mary Bono did not immediately respond to a request from Insider for comment. </p>

Cher sues Sonny Bono's widow, claiming she is holding back on royalties from their 60s hits

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Cher says she dates younger men because older ones are either dead or intimidated by her.</li><li>She spoke about her relationship choices during an appearance on "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK3Z33-CzKU&amp;t=14s&amp;ab_channel=JenniferHudsonShow">The Jennifer Hudson Show</a>."</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chers-daring-outfits-ever-2018-5">Cher</a>, 77, has finally revealed why she dates younger men.</p><p>In an interview with Jennifer Hudson on "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK3Z33-CzKU&amp;t=14s&amp;ab_channel=JenniferHudsonShow">The Jennifer Hudson Show</a>," the singer spoke about her career and her relationship choices.</p><p>"And the reason why I go out with young men is because men my age or older — well, now they're all dead — but before, they just never, they were always terrified to approach me," Cher said.</p><p>Cher has a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cher-40-year-age-gap-boyfriend-alexander-edwards-2022-11">40-year age gap</a> with her boyfriend, Alexander Edwards, 37. They went public with their relationship in November 2022. The couple attended the iHeartRadio Music Awards together in April, where the "Believe" singer was honored with the Icon award, per <a target="_blank" href="https://people.com/iheartradio-music-awards-2024-cher-performs-believe-duet-with-jennifer-hudson-8623067">People</a>.</p><p>Cher added that younger men were "the only ones" who weren't scared of her because they were "raised by women like me."</p><p>This isn't the first time she addressed the age gap between her and Edwards.</p><p>In October 2023, she told <a target="_blank" href="https://extratv.com/2023/10/23/cher-addresses-age-gap-with-bf-alexander-a-e-edwards-exclusive/">Extra</a> that their age difference is especially evident when he doesn't understand the pop culture references she makes.</p><p>"Sometimes I'm talking to him and he has no idea who I'm talking about," Cher told Extra. "He'll look at me and go, 'I wasn't born yet.'"</p><p>This isn't Cher's first age-gap relationship: She met her ex-husband and singing partner Sonny Bono <a target="_blank" href="https://www.denverpost.com/2010/11/03/people-cher-calls-sonny-bono-a-terrible-husband/">when she was 16 and he was 27</a>. They were married from 1964 to 1975.</p><p>Cher also isn't the only <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/celebrity-couples-with-the-biggest-age-differences-between-them-2017-9">celebrity in an age-gap relationship</a>. Others include <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/beyonce-jay-z-net-worth-music-first-billionaire-couple-money-billion-2019-4"><u>Jay-Z and Beyoncé</u></a>, who have a 12-year gap, <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-george-and-amal-clooney-met-fell-in-love-2017-9"><u>George and Amal Clooney</u></a>, who have a 17-year gap, and <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blake-lively-ryan-reynolds-work-parenting-kids-personal-life-2024-2"><u>Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds</u></a>, who have an 11-year gap.</p><p>In March, Whoopi Goldberg revealed on "The View" that she once <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/whoopi-goldberg-40-year-age-gap-relationship-the-view-2024-3"><u>dated a man who was 40 years older</u></a> than her.</p><p>In that same episode, her cohost Joy Behar commented that it's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joy-behar-women-date-younger-men-age-gap-relationship-2024-3">"scientifically smart" for women to date younger men</a> because they'll have similar lifespans.</p><p>A representative for Cher did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.</p>

Cher says she dates younger men because older men were too 'terrified' to approach her

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Cher filed for conservatorship of her son Elijah Blue Allman on Wednesday.</li><li>The singer asked a Los Angeles court to put her in charge of her 47-year-old son's finances.</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/cher-best-style-moments">Cher</a> filed for conservatorship of her son, Elijah Blue Allman, on Wednesday, according to court documents seen by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cher-conservatorship-block-son-from-spending-over-drug-use-2023-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">Business Insider</a>.</p><p>The 77-year-old singer petitioned the Los Angeles Superior Court to put her in charge of the finances of her 47-year-old son because, according to the filing, he is "unable to manage his assets due to severe mental health and substance abuse issues."</p><p>Allman is the youngest of Cher's two children. Here's everything to know about Allman and his brother, Chaz Bono.</p><h2>Chaz Bono is the son of Sonny Bono and Cher.</h2><div type="image" title="Sonny and Cher posing together." height="1800" width="2400" msid="106388844" hostid="261" sizebytes="458394"></div><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/cher-40-year-age-gap-boyfriend-alexander-edwards-2022-11">Cher</a> met fellow singer and entertainer <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/celebrity-politicians-2018-3#sonny-bono-was-part-of-the-musical-duo-sonny-and-cher-with-ex-wife-cher-but-he-was-elected-mayor-of-palm-springs-california-and-served-as-a-california-congressman-7">Sonny Bono</a> in 1962, and the pair fell in love and married in 1964. They produced nearly three dozen Billboard top 10 songs and had several successful TV shows and specials, but divorced in 1975.</p><p>Cher then went on to have a solo singing and acting career, winning an Academy Award for best actress for her performance in "Moonstruck." She is the only artist, other than the Rolling Stones, to have a No. 1 song on a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/cher-no-1-song-billboard-chart-seventh-decade-dj-play-a-christmas-song-1235518147/">Billboard</a> chart in each of the last seven decades.</p><p>Their son, Chaz, was born in 1969.</p><h2>Chaz Bono is an actor and had a brief music career.</h2><div type="image" title="Chaz Bono Cher" height="491" width="654" msid="106388845" hostid="261" sizebytes="23682"></div><p>As a child, Bono often appeared in skits on "The Sonny &amp; Cher Comedy Hour" and began pursuing acting in earnest at 13, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-chaz-bono-lost-60-pounds-2013-4?r=US&amp;IR=T"><u>People</u></a>. He was eventually offered a scholarship to a performing arts school, LaGuardia High School, in New York City.</p><p>"I started acting in high school. It was the career that I wanted, but I stopped because I couldn't really do a good job playing female characters, and I didn't know why," he told <a target="_blank" href="https://people.com/celebrity/chaz-bono-i-never-dreamed-id-play-male-roles/">People</a> in a 2013 interview.</p><p>During his senior year, he was offered a male role for the first time and "really excelled," he said. "But I told myself, 'This will never happen as a professional, so I need to find another career.'"</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-09-21-ca-37606-story.html">Bono briefly pursued</a> a music career and formed a band with a college friend called Ceremony in 1988. The band signed with a record label in 1990 and released its only album, "Hang Out Your Poetry," three years later.</p><p>In 1990, Bono was outed as a lesbian by the tabloid press, which he later said ground to a halt his <a target="_blank" href="http://edition.cnn.com/books/news/9810/14/bono.out.cnn/index.html ">coming out process.</a> He had a proper coming-out later when he appeared on the cover of the LGBTQ+ magazine The Advocate in 1995.</p><p>That was the start of Chaz's activism journey. The actor became a spokesperson for the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/human-rights-campaign-statement-on-chaz-bonos-announcement-of-transitioning">Human Rights Campaign</a>, a writer for the Advocate, and the entertainment media director for <a target="_blank" href="https://variety.com/1998/biz/news/glaad-taps-seomin-as-media-director-1117480705/">GLAAD</a>.</p><p>Following his transition, Bono pursued acting, going on to star in "Degrassi: The Next Generation," <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/american-horror-story-ranked-worst-to-best">"American Horror Story"</a> and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."</p><p>Bono has also appeared as a guest on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/rupauls-drag-race-2019-1">"RuPaul's Drag Race"</a> and a contestant on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/dancing-with-the-stars-pros-most-wins-then-and-now">"Dancing With The Stars"</a> and remains an activist for the LGBTQ+ community.</p><div type="image" title="Chaz Bono heavy" height="532" width="709" msid="106388846" hostid="261" sizebytes="20572"></div><p>Chaz's coming out caused issues with his parents, he later said. </p><p>Although Cher was a gay ally at the time, Chaz told <a target="_blank" href="http://edition.cnn.com/books/news/9810/14/bono.out.cnn/index.html">CNN</a> that his mother went "ballistic" when she found out her son was a lesbian — which Chaz privately revealed in 1987.</p><p>"I think she had certain expectations, hopes, and dreams of what her child's life would be, and she wanted it to be as smooth and easy as possible," Chaz said.</p><p>"I don't remember the exact words," he told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1998/10/chastity-bono-199810">Vanity Fair</a> in a 1998 interview. "But her initial reaction was more based on her being the last person in my immediate family to find out. And she was kind of embarrassed. I don't think it was really a shock. But I think it was this thing that she had been hoping wasn't true, and then it turned out to be."</p><p>While Sonny Bono always accepted his son, Bono's activism began to conflict with his father's role as a Republican congressman.</p><p>Sonny Bono, who served as a US congressman from 1995 to 1998, sponsored the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/104th-congress/house-report/664/1">1996 Defense of Marriage Act</a>, which denied recognition of same-sex marriages.</p><p>"I would have a lot more respect for him if he really was anti-gay and voted this way, as opposed to being so great about it, which he was when I came out," Bono told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/09/garden/growing-up-in-public-from-babe-in-arms-to-gay-advocate.html">The New York Times</a> in 1997.</p><p>Sonny Bono died in 1998. Chaz Bono told CNN he had not seen or spoken to his father in the year before he died.</p><h2>Chaz Bono came out as a transman in 2009.</h2><div type="image" title="Cher and Chaz Bono in 2017" height="1997" width="2663" msid="106388847" hostid="261" sizebytes="205136"></div><p>Chaz Bono came out as a trans man in 2009 at the age of 40.</p><p>"If I was an average Joe, I would have done this years ago," he told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-BHPl0-rsw">"Nightline"</a> in 2011. "I felt a tremendous responsibility not just for myself, but what am I doing to my family? What am I going to put them through?"</p><p>Of her earlier decision to come out as a lesbian, he said: "I mistook sexual orientation for gender identity."</p><p>Chaz documented his transition in the 2011 film, "Becoming Chaz," and a memoir, "Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man."</p><p>In October, Cher told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-10-20/cher-christmas-biden-alexander-edwards">the Los Angeles Times</a> she initially struggled with the news.</p><p>"Now I'm totally fine. But it's hard to lose one child to get a new one, especially so late," the "Believe" singer said. "I think that was the hard thing for me. I don't think it was the transition. It was waiting to see who the person would be, and would they be so much different than the person that was before them."</p><h2>Elijah Blue Allman is the son of Gregg Allman and Cher.</h2><div type="image" title="Cher and Gregg Allman" height="1747" width="2329" msid="106388869" hostid="261" sizebytes="122712"></div><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/cher-will-have-long-hair-wear-jeans-when-old-2023-9">Cher</a> married rock musician Gregg Allman in 1975, the same year she finalized her divorce from Sonny Bono. A year later, the pair had a son, Elijah Blue, but ultimately split in 1979.</p><p>Cher raised both Elijah Blue and Chaz as a single mom.</p><p>In 2014, Elijah Blue Allman said in an interview with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2551939/Cher-never-congratulated-marriage-Elijah-Blue-reveals-rift-famous-mother-recovery-heroin-addiction-explosive-new-interview.html">Daily Mail</a> that he had reunited with his father as an adult and repaired their relationship. Greg Allman died in 2017.</p><p>"I've seen my dad a lot more in the last year than I have in a long time," he said, noting that his father had been "absent when I was growing up."</p><h2>Elijah Blue is a musician like his parents.</h2><div type="image" title="a woman in a black coat and a man in a blue puffer vest standing next to each other" height="984" width="1312" msid="106388871" hostid="261" sizebytes="92278"></div><p>Allman pursued music after high school in the early '90s, using the stage name P. Exeter Blue. He then formed the metal band Deadsy with a group of friends.</p><p>The band released three albums before going on hiatus in 2007. Allman then briefly formed another band called Elijah Blue and the Trapezoids.</p><h2>Elijah Blue and Cher have had a rocky relationship for years.</h2><div type="image" title="Elijah Allman and Cher during 2002 Billboard Music Awards" height="1707" width="2276" msid="106388872" hostid="261" sizebytes="169048"></div><p>Allman married fellow musician Marieangela King in 2013.</p><p>In 2014, Allman told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.etonline.com/news/143228_Cher_Son_Elijah_Blue_Felt_Shunned_as_a_Child">Entertainment Tonight</a> that he felt abandoned by his parents as a child.</p><p>"When you go to boarding school at 7 years old, it's kind of hard to feel like you're not being shunned," he said.</p><p>At the time of the 2014 interview, Allman said he hadn't spoken to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/cher-says-she-doesnt-like-her-own-voice-believe-2023-10">Cher</a> in months due to a disagreement after he'd moved into his mother's house with King.</p><p>"You know, man, we have our issues. We've worked through a lot of them. We've got some more to go," Allmam said at the time. "But when you're an adult, you take on a different sort of tone than when you're an adolescent, and I'm not going to sit in an adolescent's kind of a mind frame, because that will affect me negatively in my own life when I start my own family."</p><p>In a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.etonline.com/news/143189_Elijah_Blue_Allman_Opens_Up_About_Heroin_Abuse">separate interview</a>, he told the outlet he first started using weed and ecstasy when he was 11. He said he later turned to heroin and other opiates. At the time of the interview, he said he'd been sober for six years.</p><p>"I did have some close calls and some moments of really feeling at the edge of mortality," he said, later adding: "The wrong combination of things can happen, and you can just slip into the abyss. I knew it was wrong, and I knew that I was very unsatisfied with life at that point."</p><h2>Elijah Blue split from Marieangela King in 2021.</h2><div type="image" title="Queenie and Elijah Blue" height="1500" width="2000" msid="106388873" hostid="261" sizebytes="177608"></div><p>King and Allman split in 2020, and Allman filed for divorce a year later.</p><p>According to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cher-conservatorship-block-son-from-spending-over-drug-use-2023-12">December 2022 affidavit</a> seen by Business Insider, King said the pair attempted to reconcile in November 2022 and spent twelve days together. However, their reconciliation was cut short when a group of four men barged into their New York hotel room and took Allman to a drug treatment facility.</p><p>King said one of the men told her that Cher had hired them.</p><p>Multiple media outlets reported that Cher had "kidnapped" her son, but in an October 2023 interview with <a target="_blank" href="https://people.com/cher-speaks-out-on-kidnapping-plot-allegations-about-son-not-true-exclusive-8350230">People</a>, Cher denied the claims.</p><p>"I'm a mother. This is my job — one way or another, to try to help my children. You do anything for your children," Cher said. "Whenever you can help them, you just do it because that's what being a mother is."</p>

Cher has 2 sons. Here's what to know about Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Cher, 76, confirmed that she is dating music exec Alexander Edwards, 36, on Twitter.</li><li>Cher snapped back at "haters" who had called out their 40-year age difference.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/cher-mac-campaign-saweetie-never-having-gray-hair-2022-1">Cher</a> is asking for a bit of "Love and Understanding" from fans regarding her latest romance. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.insider.com/cher-best-style-moments">iconic musician</a>, 76, confirmed that she is dating music exec Alexander Edwards — who is 40 years younger than her — on Twitter over the weekend, days after the pair were spotted walking hand-in-hand in West Hollywood.</p><p>The "Believe" singer tweeted a photo of the 36-year-old, who works for Def Jam Recordings, and wrote: "Alexander" followed by a red heart emoji. </p><p>In a follow-up tweet, Cher snapped back at "haters" who had called out their age difference, writing: "I'm Not Defending us. Haters are Gonna Hate…Doesn' Matter That and Not Bothering Anyone."</p><p>To one fan who expressed concern regarding Edwards' "intentions" towards the icon, Cher replied: "As we All Know …I WASNT BORN YESTERDAY,&amp; What I Know For Sure…There Are No Guarantees. Anytime you make a Choice You Take a Chance. I've Always Taken Chances… It's WHO I Am."</p><p>She also wrote to another follower: "LOVE DOESNT KNOW MATH, IT SEES."</p><p>In other responses to her tweets, Cher gushed that Edwards treats her "like a queen" and that he has already been introduced to "everyone in my family." </p><p>The singer first hinted about her new relationship last week, cryptically tweeting: "One part of my life is SO AMAZING."</p><p>Edwards previously dated <a href="https://www.insider.com/netflix-removed-kanye-west-david-letterman-interview-report-2022-11">Kanye West's</a> ex <a href="https://www.insider.com/amber-heard-says-johnny-depp-introduced-daughter-to-weed-2022-5">Amber Rose</a>, 39, with whom he shares three-year-old son Slash Electric Alexander Edwards.</p><p>In August 2021, Rose accused the producer of having multiple affairs. She wrote on Instagram Stories, per <a href="https://people.com/music/amber-rose-accuses-alexander-ae-edwards-of-cheating/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">People</a>: "All 12 of y'all bums (the ones that I know of there's probably more) can have him."</p><p>Edwards later <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSvgbuTCDRK/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared on Instagram Live</a> with DJ Big Von to discuss the accusations and admitted they were true.</p><p>Meanwhile, Cher was married to Sonny Bono between 1964 and 1975 and to the late singer Gregg Allman between 1975 and 1979. She has also been romantically linked to Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, record label boss David Geffen, and Kiss frontman Gene Simmons.</p>

Cher defends 40-year age gap with new boyfriend Alexander Edwards: 'Love doesn't know math'

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="1655181" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Zendaya">Zendaya</keyword> channeled two of <keyword id="32119" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Cher">Cher</keyword>'s iconic yellow outfits from the '70s at the <keyword id="6376611" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="oscars">Oscars</keyword>. </li><li>The actress' Valentino dress was similar to a look Cher wore to the Oscars in 1973. </li><li>Writing on his Instagram story, Zendaya's stylist Law Roach called Cher a "constant inspiration." </li></ul><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/category/zendaya">Zendaya</a> wore a yellow cutout dress to the Oscars on Sunday evening, and the look was similar to an outfit worn by Cher four decades ago. </p><p>The actress, 24, paired the custom Valentino gown with $6 million worth of layered diamond necklaces, earrings, and rings from Bulgari, <a href="https://www.insider.com/oscars-zendaya-neon-yellow-gown-2021-4">Insider's Amanda Krause previously reported.</a></p><div type="image" title="Zendaya oscars 2021" height="2771" width="2000" msid="82262435" hostid="261"></div><p>The look was reminiscent of an outfit worn by Cher to the Oscars in 1973.</p><p>The star attended the 45th Academy Awards in a yellow midriff-baring outfit. Her jewel-embellished sheer crop top and matching skirt were designed by Bob Mackie, <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/red-carpet-dresses/g8546/cher-oscars-style/?slide=2">Harper's Bazaar reports.</a></p><div type="image" title="cher" height="3000" width="2149" msid="82262436" hostid="261"></div><p>Cher and her then-husband Sonny Bono presented the best original song award at the award ceremony. </p><p>Zendaya's dress also shared similarities to a yellow dress worn by Cher on "The Sonny and Cher Show in 1970," <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/zendaya-oscars-valentino-dress-cher-reference">Vogue initially reported.</a></p><p>Zendaya's stylist Law Roach appeared to confirm that Zendaya's outfit was partly inspired by this look on his <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stories/luxurylaw/2560005448250904273/">Instagram story</a>. He shared a link to a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CAbPoL3DL6M/">video</a> that featured this dress, alongside other outfits from "The Sonny and Cher Show," with the caption: "Constant inspiration."</p><p>The stylist spoke to <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a36200209/zendaya-oscars-outfit-2021/">Harper's Bazaar</a> about Zendaya's jewelry choices at the awards ceremony, saying she was involved in the selection process.</p><p>"When it was time to just try jewelry on, there was a piece that Zendaya was absolutely in love with, that we had saw at a little preview," Roach told the publication. "We went to the store about a week ago, and so we saw it, and she said, 'Oh my God, this is incredible. This could be the one.'"</p><p>He added: "I think Zendaya and I, our relationship is just filled with so much trust. It depends on how much or how little she inserts it in each situation. I like to joke and think that I'm the boss, but she's really the boss."</p><p>"She trusts me to bring her the things that I think are the best and that really suits her and really speaks to who she is as this fashion phenom," he said. </p><p>Representatives for Roach did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.</p>

Zendaya's yellow Oscars dress channeled two of Cher's iconic outfits from the 1970s

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Caitlyn Jenner has a staunch ally in the form of Siri, iPhone's voice-activated virtual assistant.<p>Siri got attention recently after users discovered its sassy response to the question, "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/siri-divide-zero-by-zero-math-apple-iphone-2015-7"></a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/siri-divide-zero-by-zero-math-apple-iphone-2015-7">What's zero divided by zero?</a>"</p><p>Since that revelation, iPhone users have been discovering even&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/best-siri-responses-2015-6">more quirky responses</a> from Siri, uncovering a programmed personality of sorts.&#xa0;</p><p>The latest revelation? Siri is more capable than some humans when it comes to understanding gender identity.</p><h2>Check out how Siri reacts when users ask a question about Jenner's gender.</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><h2>&#xa0;</h2><h2>Ask a question using Jenner's former first name, Bruce, and Siri will reply using Jenner's new name.</h2><p>&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><h2>&#xa0;</h2><h2>Keep asking about "Bruce," and Siri might even get a little impatient with you.</h2><p>&#xa0;</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></h2><h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This also applies when you ask Siri questions about Jenner's life.</span></h2><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p><h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></h2><h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Siri respects Jenner's chosen name and gender identity, refusing to call her by her previous name.</span></h2><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></p><div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div><div></div></div><p>&#xa0;</p><div><div></div></div><h2 class="embed-spacer"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;</span></h2><h2>Caitlyn Jenner isn't the only transgender person on Siri's radar.&#xa0;</h2><p class="embed-spacer">Siri aced the gender pronouns when I asked it about four other famous transgender people.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Balian Buschbaum is an accomplished German pole vaulter and a transgender male. He was born with the name Yvonne Buschbaum.</p><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><h2 class="embed-spacer">Laverne Cox is a member of the cast of "Orange is the New Black." She is a transgender woman.</h2><p>&#xa0;</p><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><h2 class="embed-spacer">Alexis Arquette was born with the name Robert Arquette. Siri acknowledges Alexis's female gender identity.</h2><p>&#xa0;</p><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><h2 class="embed-spacer">Chaz Bono is a transgender male born with the name&#xa0;Chastity Sun Bono. He is the son of entertainers Sonny Bono and Cher.&#xa0;</h2><p>&#xa0;</p><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p class="embed-spacer"></p><p>This isn't the first time a computer proved it was able to adapt to gender changes more quickly than humans could - a Twitter bot spent the day of Jenner's Vanity Fair cover reveal <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-robot-tweeting-about-caitlyn-jenner-2015-6">scolding people for messing up her pronouns online</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/siri-tell-me-story-response-apple-iphone-2015-7">You get a really long-winded answer when you ask Siri to tell you a story</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="dwaWIydjo-nPKGk-h29mo7XNj0SMl4C8" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Siri has been programmed to respect Caitlyn Jenner's gender identity

<p class="p1">The death of <keyword id="334157" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reddit">Reddit</keyword> co-founder Aaron Swartz has prompted an outpouring of tributes on Twitter and the web.</p>
<p class="p1">Here is some of what people are saying this morning:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>"Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. I think a lot of what people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity."RIP Aaron Swartz</p>
— Stephen Quinn (@CaddyQuinn) <a href="https://twitter.com/CaddyQuinn/status/290127757093003264" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:07:02+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Reading my feed this morning apparently everyone knew Aaron Swartz, no surprise. I had various dealings with him over the years, always good</p>
— Glenn Fleishman (@GlennF) <a href="https://twitter.com/GlennF/status/290133943590723584" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:31:37+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<p>Let's remember: the US govt went after Aaron Swartz with everything they had, to put him away for 35 years for DOWNLOADING JOURNAL ARTICLES.</p>
— Tim Carmody (@tcarmody) <a href="https://twitter.com/tcarmody/status/290131355596120064" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:21:20+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<p>"If I get hit by a truck…" Aaron wrote in 2002. "BTW, I'll miss you all." <a href="http://t.co/Wh6Q7V8x" title="http://bit.ly/ZHxoIZ">bit.ly/ZHxoIZ</a></p>
— Glenn Fleishman (@GlennF) <a href="https://twitter.com/GlennF/status/290137000080719872" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:43:45+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Whaaa??! "Aaron Swartz Commits <keyword id="6356238" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Suicide">Suicide</keyword>"<a href="http://t.co/b8HmM04A" title="http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ZVMT_qURao8/story01.htm">rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/sl…</a></p>
— Christopher Schaefer (@ChrisSchaef) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisSchaef/status/290126840385908736" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:03:23+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Sad to hear about Aaron Swartz. RIP</p>
— Travis Berry (@travisberry) <a href="https://twitter.com/travisberry/status/290127409360031744" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:05:39+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>A hugely important internet voice. RIP.<a href="http://t.co/3OqHkh9v" title="http://www.zdnet.com/hacker-activist-aaron-swartz-commits-suicide-7000009725/">zdnet.com/hacker-activis…</a></p>
— Jonathan Hendler (@hendler) <a href="https://twitter.com/hendler/status/290127617011638273" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:06:28+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Sad to hear of the passing of Aaron Swatrz <a href="http://t.co/dyhEAbDU" title="http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html">boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip…</a> <a href="http://t.co/rxVOhlYA" title="http://www.aaronsw.com/">aaronsw.com</a> @<a href="https://twitter.com/aaronsw">aaronsw</a> Too soon too soon</p>
— Paul Jones (@smalljones) <a href="https://twitter.com/smalljones/status/290128114246381568" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:08:27+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>If we can have a copyright act named after Sonny Bono, we can have a copyright reform act named for Aaron Swartz. In a better world, maybe.</p>
— Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) <a href="https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/290121231661940737" data-datetime="2013-01-12T15:41:06+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Legit had never heard of Aaron Swartz before today, now see that I should have. Sad story, condolences to his friends.</p>
— Brian Papa (@bpapa) <a href="https://twitter.com/bpapa/status/290127730400444416" data-datetime="2013-01-12T16:06:55+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Only the good die young. thanks fir everything Aaron Swartz. Internet will never forget you. Peace, little star <a href="http://t.co/xVgeWVZZ" title="http://boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz.html#more-205376">boingboing.net/2013/01/12/rip…</a></p>
— Om Malik (@om) <a href="https://twitter.com/om/status/290124892937015297" data-datetime="2013-01-12T15:55:39+00:00">January 12, 2013</a></blockquote>

<p><strong>Aaron's mom has posted a statement on <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047398">YCombinator</a>:</strong></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="color: #000000;">Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful.</span></span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;">Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 60px;"><span style="color: #000000;">Aaron's mother</span></p>
<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">See Also: <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/26-year-old-reddit-co-founder-aaron-swartz-has-died-2013-1">26-Year-Old Reddit Co-Founder Aaron Swartz Has Died &gt;</a></span></strong></p>

How The World Is Remembering A 'Hugely Important Internet Voice,' Aaron Swartz

<p><em><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Getty </span></p></div><p></p></div><br /></span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="https://twitter.com/derekkhanna">Derek <span class="il">Khanna</span></a> is a fellow with Yale Law School's Information Society Project, associate fellow with R Street Institute, technology consultant, and former congressional staffer.</span></em></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Today, R Street Institute released a </span><a href="http://www.rstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/RSTREET20.pdf">report</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> on copyright duration entitled: "Guarding Against Abuse - Restoring Constitutional Copyright."</span></p>
<p>In recent decades, a number of special interests that have been <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2002/12/31/copyright_extremists_shouldnt_control_information">called</a> the "copyright lobby" have ensured their copyrighted works would never enter the public domain by keeping their copyright terms continually elongated. The public policy goals of this copyright inflation movement have been in clear violation of the Constitution's text and its original public meaning. The recapture of works that would be in the public domain represents one of the biggest thefts of public property in history, and has had a significant economic impacts upon our culture, personal liberty and economy.</p>
<p>The effects of this grand larceny <a href="http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview-finalreport.pdf">impact</a> learning, creation and innovation.</p>
<p><strong>Figure 1: Copyright duration and the Mickey Mouse Curve</strong></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://agoraphilia.blogspot.com/2009/08/copyright-duration-and-mickey-mouse.html">Tom W. Bell/Derek Khanna</a></span></p></div><p></p></div><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p>The copyright for 1928's "Steamboat Willie," which introduced the world to Mickey Mouse, was extended by both the 1976 and 1998 amendments to the Copyright Act. It currently is set to expire in 2023.</p>
<p>Current U.S. law provides copyright protection for the life of the author plus 70 years. For corporate authors, the term is 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication. But those changes reflect only part of the reality. In fact, lobbyists have usurped the policy-making process itself to ensure that whenever one term of copyright is set to expire, the law is extended again.</p>
<p>Several times, these extensions have even been made retroactively, re-applying copyright protections to works that already had moved into the public domain. Thus, the degree to which the current "life+70" standard can be relied upon to accurately project when some specific work may move into the public domain is quite limited.</p>
<p>The practical effect of this policy is, effectively, a regime of indefinite copyright. During oral arguments of the 2002 case of Eldred v. Ashcroft, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said of the policy of continual copyright extension that it "flies directly in the face of what the framers had in mind, absolutely."</p>
<p><strong>If You Repeat a Lie Often Enough<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></strong></p>
<p>Jack Valenti, then-head of the Motion Picture Academy of America, testified during the legislative run-up to passage of 1998's Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (known colloquially as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act") that "copyright term extension has a simple but compelling enticement: it is very much in America's economic interests."</p>
<p>We have lots of reasons to be skeptical of Valenti's claim, 1) it wasn't backed by data, 2) there is overwhelming data to the contrary from economists and 3) Valenti was well known for making stuff up that was demonstrably untrue and having little regard for the rest of the economy.</p>
<p>As a case in point, consider the content industry's campaign of trying to ban the VCR which the MPAA warned would destroy the entire industry. In 1982, Valenti <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/27/how-the-content-industry-almost-killed-blockbuster-and-netflix/">testified</a> before Congress:</p>

<p>Of course, just two years after the 1984 Supreme Court decision in which the MPAA <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">lost its suit to ban the VCR, revenues from video tape sales and rentals were $4.38 </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">billion, eclipsing 1986's box office revenues of $3.78 billion. In 2012, the home media </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">consumption market that the MPAA tried to stamp out blossomed into an $18 billion </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">dollar market.</span></p>
<p>Given the content industry's track record, policy-makers should be highly skeptical <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">of the industry's claim that longer copyright terms are in our national interest. Despite </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Valenti's assertion, like their argument that home media consumption would destroy </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">their business, the MPAA has produced no credible research to back up the claim </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">that extending copyright terms is in the U.S. economic interest, while evidence to the </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">contrary is overwhelming. The extension of copyright, particular to life+50 under the </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Berne Convention, is a direct result of importing foreign law with lobbyists arguing </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">for "international harmonization."</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The Rise of Special Interests:</span></strong></p>
<p>When the idea of international harmonization was first presented in the United States, in the 19th century, Congress wisely chose not to disregard the original public meaning for copyright. Mark Twain even testified before Congress in favor of longer copyright terms and importing international law through the Berne Convention. At the time, Congress rejected Twain's arguments. This was a big deal, the US rejected increasing copyright terms vastly to life + 50 under Berne in particular, because the US was the only major industrialized country that wouldn't join the convention. This demonstrates how big of a deviation such a long copyright extension was perceived to be.</p>
<p>But the content industry would get stronger over a hundred years, fulfilling the fears of our Founding Fathers. And while James Madison warned us that copyright must be guarded with "strictness ag[aint] abuse." When the content industry corrupted copyright, there was no standing up for the Constitution, the public, and content creators. The United States would join the Berne Convention in the 1980's, over 100 years after it was proposed.</p>
<p>Today, copyrights have been extended from 14 years, to life of the author plus 70 years, special interests are trying to lock in life + 70 through international treaty (TPP), and in 2018, major copyright holders will likely push for an even longer copyright term of life plus 100.</p>
<p><strong>Steep Costs of Long Copyright:</strong></p>
<p>The steep costs to perpetual extension of copyright have been long known and well documented. This is why the British copyright statute, the Statute of Anne, limited copyright duration to 14 years; why 12 of the original 13 colonies had similar copyright durations in their own statutes; why the Constitution includes the phrase "limited times"; and why the founders limited copyright to 14 years.</p>
<p>In a brief submitted during the Eldred case, Nobel laureates Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, James Buchanan, George Akerlof, Kenneth Arrow and 11 other economists argued that a "lengthened copyright term...keeps additional materials out of new creators' hands" and ultimately results in "fewer new works" and "higher transaction costs in the creation of some works." The economists argued that the 1998 extension is inefficient and "reduces consumer welfare," as consumers are denied the ability to acquire derivative works and content that otherwise would be in the public domain.</p>
<p>Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer authored separate dissents in the Eldred case, with Breyer noting the increased royalty payments that result from copyright term extension "will not come from thin air."</p>

<p>As a result of extremely long copyright terms and unclear fair use laws, we have clear evidence that, rather than serving as an incentive to create, excessively long copyright - well beyond what the founders would support - actually hinders creation. New artists, directors and writers are unable to create derivative works without paying fees that can be so high as to make the cost of derivative works prohibitive or even <a href="http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/khanna_-_tehranian_comments.pdf">impossible</a>.</p>
<p><strong>BANNED "Happy Birthday to You":</strong><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p>There are very real costs to indefinite copyright: it hinders creativity, stifles innovation, limits free speech and hurts the general public. The R Street Report delves into each issue in depth, but as one case in point, we can see how indefinite copyright hurts society with the timeless song "Happy Birthday to You."</p>
<p>Recently Warner/Chappell has claimed a copyright to "Happy Birthday to You," which the Guinness World Records book calls the <a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/211469471.html?src=news-stmp">most famous song</a> in the English language. Their claim is based upon a published version of piano arrangements from 1935.</p>
<p>Warner/Chappel is a major record label representing Madonna and Michael Jackson's estate, not a fly by night operation. So far they have collected an <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1111624%20or%20http:/dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1111624">estimated</a> over $2 million a year in licensing fees from thousands of people that they have forced to pay licensing fees. According to one <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/11165823451/filmmaker-finally-aims-to-get-court-to-admit-that-happy-birthday-is-public-domain.shtml">estimate</a>, it is the song that earns the highest royalty rates.</p>
<p>Today, every time somehow wants to use a portion of this song in a video or publicly perform it they have to pay a license fee or risk being sued. It has been reported that restaurants such as Applebee's and Shoney's have developed songs that are used instead of "Happy Birthday to You" to avoid copyright infringement and avoid paying hefty royalties. Under current copyright law, "Happy Birthday to You" will remain under copyright under 2030, but we should expect a push to continue to expand copyright even further beyond 2030.</p>
<p>What is the public policy rationale for requiring people to pay a license fee to Warner/Chappel, for a song that is over 80 years old? Warner/Chappel didn't even compose the song, but today they can use it to receive a rent from the economy. Such a long copyright term does not "promote the progress of the sciences" the Constitutional purpose for Copyright.</p>
<p><strong>Get the Data:</strong></p>
<p>The Constitution provides a clear roadmap for Congress on how to design copyright laws: they must "promote the progress of the sciences." In order to do so, Congress should first get the data. Congress no longer cares about the data.</p>
<p>There have been numerous studies on copyright duration, and every one of them shows that today's copyright terms are killing content creation and hurting the public. There simply is not any study to justify the current copyright system. The only explanation is cronyism. In fact, at times the MPAA has even been frank on how it wields its enormous checkbook and political influence to get it's way:</p>

<p>Very candid indeed, Chris Dodd said this after Member turned against their SOPA/PIPA <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">legislation to censure the internet when millions of American rose of up protest. Candidly, this </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">seems like potential evidence of quid pro quo bribery, a felony. Maybe that's an exaggeration, </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">but not a very far one. Dodd is the epitome of the fear that the Founders had of these systems </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">being abused by special interests generations later, precisely why Madison told us to guard these </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">instruments against abuse. To their credit, in moments of candor, content industry lobbyists at </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">least admit that their goal is to repeal the Copyright Clause from the Constitution.</span></p>
<p>The costs of one of the greatest thefts in American history by these special interests hinders <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">learning, destroys our cultural legacy, hurts innovation and the general public, but most </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">importantly it impedes filmmakers, artists, DJ's and other content creators that need to be able to </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">build upon the work of others to create new content - as we have done for centuries. If current </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">policy is extended, Disney will have succeeded in making billions from the public domain, and </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">then ensuring that no company could ever become another Disney again, by shutting off the </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">public domain of the future.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over 200 years ago, James Madison warned us that copyright and patents, as monopolies, must <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">be "guarded with strictness aga[inst] abuse." It's up to use to guard them now. We know the </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">costs of continuing extremist copyright policies completely removed from the Constitution's </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">original public meaning; the American people deserve better then politicians selling out to </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Hollywood.</span></p>

It's Time To Confront The Copyright Lobby

<p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><em>The following post is an excerpt from the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451687753/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1451687753&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=SCAXFKQ2VR3EM7XP">Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone</a> by Marky Ramone.</em><br><br>Every time I ran into [my friend] Dee Dee at CBGB in the winter of '78, he told me I ought to join the Ramones. As if you could just do that, like joining the Y or the ACLU.</br></br></p>
<p>He said the band was having trouble with Tommy, their drummer, and I was actually a little upset to hear that. I didn't want the original lineup of the Ramones to break up. I was a fan. But I didn't put much stock in what Dee Dee said. He was a nut and known to exaggerate.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It takes a nut to be involved with two psychotic women at once. About a year before, he was living in an apartment with Connie, a violent stalker, prostitute, and drug addict. Dee Dee was also having a fling with Nancy Spungen, the schizophrenic girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. When she came home to find Dee Dee in bed with Nancy, Connie grabbed an empty beer bottle, smashed it, and stabbed Dee Dee in the ass with the jagged edge.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But when Johnny Ramone asked to meet with me about joining the band, the whole proposition turned real. I arrived at Max's with Marion, and we took seats across from John and Roxy in a booth up front. I was impressed with John. He seemed to have a handle on the Ramones' business matters and a vision of how to get the band through this difficult transition. Joey wasn't exactly up to it, and Dee Dee would have sent the whole thing into the toilet.</p>
<p dir="ltr">John laid down some rules. Maybe they were more like guidelines.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Whatever they were, the Ramones didn't get high before playing. Me neither. Dress on and off the stage was leather jackets, jeans, and sneakers. I was already wearing all that and had been forever. Dee Dee always counts off the songs. Definitely. I know. We don't go away on tour for more than a month. Sounds good. We travel together, and girlfriends are welcome. Marion can come. Thanks.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The only confusing thing was the audition. There would be one at the Ramones' rehearsal studio. But John discussed the rules and regs like my being a Ramone was already a done deal. Then I thought, Whatever they call it, I'll blow it away.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>On our way out of Max's, Marion and I put our heads together. We had heard through the grapevine that the Ramones already auditioned several drummers, maybe more. Marion's take was the Ramones knew from the start that I had the experience they needed, but in the back of their minds they preferred a nobody they could boss around. It was hard to get all that in the same package, so over time they realized I was their man.</p>
<p dir="ltr">From what I had heard, Dee Dee wasn't the only one rooting for me. Tommy was, too. In fact, Tommy was the one who first suggested me. Beyond whatever had happened between him and the other Ramones, Tommy still loved the band and wanted it to continue. What better way to do it than with an experienced professional drummer who knew the ropes?</p>
<p dir="ltr">When I walked into Performance Studios on East Twentieth Street in Manhattan and sat down, Tommy was sitting at a drum set behind the set I would be using. It was an unusual way to run an audition, a show, or anything musical unless maybe you were in the Grateful Dead. I asked him what all this was about.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Don't worry about it," Tommy said. "Just in case you need a little help."</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Thanks," I said. "I got it."</p>
<p dir="ltr">I shot Tommy a little smile. I really did have it. The songs "I Don't Care," "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," and "Blitzkrieg Bop" were on the jukebox at CBGB, on my stereo, and in my world. I had listened to them again <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">before coming down, and that was enough. It wasn't like learning "From a Dry Camel." But they were great songs, and I was like Sheena and her friends-all hopped up and ready to go. Even so, I appreciated Tommy's concern. He literally had my back.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Dee Dee counted "One, two, three, four!" and we launched into "I Don't Care." It was one of the purest rock-and-roll songs written after the year 1962. With a deliberate, powerful beat underpinning a progression based on E, F, G, A, it was a song a novice could learn on but never tire of playing: not caring about the world or the girl was the entire message served up in two lines, repeated over and over like a punk mantra.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The song clocked in at a minute forty seconds. We were locked in as a band within the first ten of those seconds. Thirty seconds in, the audition-if there ever was one-was over. We were relaxed and smiling. Rehearsal had begun.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I had my work cut out for me. Recording for the new album, Road to Ruin, was set to begin in less than three weeks. We'd be doing shows immediately after. We were scheduled to do fourteen songs for the album, and the Ramones' live set was twenty-four songs. <br><br>So I had almost forty songs to learn, minus the three for the audition, in about the length of a honeymoon. The Ramones handed me a pair of cassette demo tapes with all the songs. I stopped in at Sam Ash on Forty-Eighth Street and picked up a set of drum pads. <br><br><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>When I got back to the apartment on Ocean Avenue, I hooked up a pair of headphones to the boom box I had gotten with the Voidoids advance. Right next to it, I set up the pads. And that's where I spent most of the next eighteen days.</br></br></br></br></p>
<p dir="ltr">My favorite song on the Road to Ruin demo was "I Wanna Be Sedated." It was catchy and huge even in stripped-down form on a cheap cassette tape. <br><br>It was pop but without sacrificing hardness. Lyrically, being sedated could mean any number of things, but at its simplest level it was about needing a drink. The song captured being on the road just about perfectly. Of course, I had never been on the road with the Ramones, but I would be finding out what that was like soon enough.</br></br></p>
<p dir="ltr">I also really liked "I Just Want to Have Something to Do" and "Go Mental." "Mental" was faster than most Ramones songs-and faster than<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">most songs, period. It felt like what it was about: sitting in a hospital bed and losing your mind. The album's one cover song, "Needles and Pins," was written by Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono back in 1963. <br><br>The original single was done by Jackie DeShannon, but the Searchers had more success with it the following year, giving it an early-Beatles feel. The chord changes and subject matter-heartbreak and holding back tears-were right up the Ramones' alley.</br></br></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div>We recorded at Media Sound in Manhattan. I was prepared, but everyone there totally expected that of me. I understood my role from the get-go. I was not a ringer, mercenary, hired gun, or session player. I was a member of the band who could nonetheless deliver what a ringer, merce- nary, hired gun, or session player could deliver. But I wanted to take it a step further. I wanted to help take the band's sound to the next level.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There was a lot of heavy competition out there. Not so much from the punk bands. I considered the Ramones the originators of punk, so in that sense there was no one to compete with. But the Ramones were a punk rock band with the emphasis on rock. In rock, there were a lot of big boys with heavy drums: AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, and Van Halen. Van Halen were the new kids on the block, and someone the Ramones might not even have considered. Yet their self-titled album had just come out and it was worth considering.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Van Halen stood out from the corporate rock clones being churned out monthly by the music industry. Eddie Van Halen loved Page, Beck, and Clapton but squeezed his influences out of his black-and-white-striped red Charvel with a new, wild hammer-on style of playing that was melodic, smooth, and raucous all at the same time. Alex Van Halen's drums were huge, sounded huge, and were locked in perfectly with his brother's play- ing as well as bassist Michael Anthony's. The band didn't take itself very seriously. They were kind of campy, thanks especially to lead singer David Lee Roth, who brought his Las Vegas A-game to the show. The album was a fun listen and made me think.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p dir="ltr">The idea for Road to Ruin, I thought, was not to be Van Halen or anyone else. The idea was to be a heavier Ramones. We had our fans and would keep aiming to please them. And we had our punk/new wave <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">competition-the Clash, the Police, the Cars. But there was no harm in letting the metalheads and all their cousins know that the Ramones could rock a stadium if they needed to.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">To begin with, I tuned my snare a lot tighter than Tommy's and used larger cymbals. I wanted to get more projection and impact from the sound. There were a bunch of other factors involving microphone placement, levels, and even the way I struck the kit that would give the songs a bolder, more muscular feel. The beauty of the situation was that I had a great producer who worked closely with me to get that sound: Tommy. He hadn't just passed me a golden baton. He was clearing the track for me. Tommy was there alongside me every step of the way.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The very first song we tracked was "Sedated." I speeded up the tempo a bit from the demo. The song itself didn't feel right sedated. It had to be manic and in need of sedation. I added a few fills here and there that helped distinguish the parts, plus a critical fill in the break. It sounded nice when we did it. Then it jumped out of the monitors and had all of us smiling.</p>
<p dir="ltr">During recording, I noticed Joey had a funny habit. He would touch a spot somewhere-the mixing console, a chair, a microphone stand-and then touch it again. And again. And again. It didn't matter. His vocals were great, and he didn't need to do them again and again and again. It was just a little weird.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">got to meet and talk to the full Ramones entourage, including Seymour Stein of Sire Records. Seymour was already my boss from the Voidoids, but he especially loved the Ramones. He appreciated the way they took the chord changes and vocal approach of the doo-wop era and spit it back out as their own-harder, faster, and a little warped. Seymour was knowledgeable, easygoing, and quiet.</span></p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p dir="ltr">His wife made up for the quiet part. Linda Stein was a short, loud, opinionated, outgoing quintessential New Yorker. She started out as a schoolteacher-probably one you would never want to be caught throwing a spitball at. She learned the music business from her husband, and the Ramones were lucky to have her managing their business.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Danny Fields was the other half of the Ramones management team.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Danny had started out doing publicity for the Doors and later was instrumental in signing the Stooges and MC5 to Elektra. In 1975, he brought the Ramones to the attention of Sire. Danny was the hands-on manager for the group, plying connections at rock magazines, booking venues, getting the band radio interviews. Together, the Steins and Danny Fields spearheaded a professional organization behind what looked like four punks in street clothes.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It was this professional team that asked me about changing my name. I was off to a good start, but we weren't going to be Marc Bell and the Ramones. My new last name was a done deal, but I needed a first name that ended in a long-e sound. Rocky Ramone was either too suggestive of the Sylvester Stallone movie or made me sound like a gangster. Timmy, Jimmy, and Willie Ramone and a dozen others made me puke. And just adding a y to Marc came out to Marcy, which was not only a girl's name but happened to be the name of the discount store Marcy's, across the street from Erasmus High School. The fewer reminders of high school, the better.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So I said, "Let's go with Marky, with a k." My grandmother called me Marky as a kid, and the name was made famous by Marky Maypo. In the fifties and sixties, Maypo was one of the big three hot cereals, along with Farina and Wheatena. Mickey Mantle was a pitchman for Maypo, literally crying if he didn't get a bowl of the stuff. Marky Maypo was the goofy, whinny, cartoon mascot wearing a cowboy hat. For the sake of nostalgia, I could live with that. So Marky, like the cereal, stuck.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There was no need to change my name legally. My bills would still come to Marc Bell. And so would my paychecks. The Ramones team let me know that I would be receiving a nice check every week, on time, from our accountant Ira Herzog. The check would come whether we were on the road or off. When we toured, there would be extra per diem payments based on the shows we did. This was all a load off my mind and off Marion's. Moving into Manhattan was on the horizon.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>From <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451687753/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1451687753&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=SCAXFKQ2VR3EM7XP">PUNK ROCK BLITZKRIEG: MY LIFE AS A RAMONE</a> by Marky Ramone and Richard Herschlag.  Copyright © 2014 by Mark Steven Bell. Published by Touchstone, a Division of Simon &amp; Schuster, Inc. Reprinted by permission.</em></p>

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