The Grammy-nominated rapper is moving forward with fatherhood, healing and a sense of purpose. Now a father to a daughter, he says that growth is at the heart of his new album "QRÖMELIFE,” out Friday. The 14-track offering is executive produced by Pharrell Williams, who Quavo says helped him tune out the noise and return to the melodic instincts that made him a defining voice with the rap group Migos.

The album features appearances from Justin Timberlake, Tyler, The Creator, A$AP Rocky, Future and Lil Baby. It also reunites Quavo with Offset after the two repaired their relationship following a public falling out in 2022 and grew closer in the years since the death of Quavo’s nephew and fellow Migos member Takeoff.

“QRÖMELIFE” arrives as Quavo and Takeoff's 2022 ”Hotel Lobby" performance fuels a flood of AI-generated videos featuring everyone from Barack and Michelle Obama and Spider-Man to soccer stars Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham — even dogs and cats.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Quavo spoke about the meaning behind “QRÖMELIFE,” how Pharrell helped him tune out the algorithm, the viral resurgence of “Hotel Lobby” and a new Migos project.

Remarks have been edited for brevity.

AP: What does "QRÖMELIFE” mean to you? What does that actually look like as a lifestyle?

QUAVO: When it comes to a lifestyle, it’s a way of life. When you get up, got to go to work every day, and something happened in your life, but you still have to go hit that nine-to-five, you come in qrome. That’s your qrome state.

I feel like God put you through those states to make you qrome. It’s in your chromosomes. … Everybody go through ups and downs, but what’s gonna make you come out strong? What’s gonna make you come out qrome?

AP: You talked about becoming a father changing “the motive to the mission.” How has fatherhood changed you?

QUAVO: You got mouths to feed. You got little people of yours that look up to you. What you gonna do to add or take away from what you didn’t learn from your parents, or what you didn’t have?

For instance, I didn’t have a dad. So me being a father, it’s important to me because my dad died when I was 4 … I just want to be there the whole step of the way.

AP: What did Pharrell bring out of you while making this album?

QUAVO: Just to challenge my versatility. The “Stir Fry” Quavo, the “Congratulations” Quavo, the “Apeshit” Quavo.

You master that with one of the greatest producers of all time. … Sometimes the student passes the mentor. But in this case, it’s still light-years. I gotta catch up to him from a business standpoint.

AP: “Hotel Lobby” has become this huge AI phenomenon. Did you ever imagine you and Takeoff standing in that orange room, sharing one microphone, would become this viral moment four years later?

QUAVO: I just look at it as God. Losing (Takeoff), I just know that he's in a better place. And then coming through it at a time like this, the week before I’m rolling out my album. ... Then this hit.

It just let me know like, “Bro, I’m here. I’m here with you. I got you.”

The viralness of it made me feel like it was something bigger than just a click of a button or internet sensation. Everybody just started doing it, man. From the corporate of the corporate down to the streets.

I’m proud of it. I thank you for keeping my brother and his name alive.

AP: Some fans love the videos. Others feel uncomfortable seeing AI manipulate Takeoff’s image after his death. Where is the line for you between celebrating his legacy and going too far?

QUAVO: You can’t control it. I can’t spend all day trying to find someone that got a phone in their hand or sitting behind a desk. It don’t help me mentally. Don’t help me emotionally.

When I see it, I just say, “All right,” and go by it. You just got to be strong to be able to look at stuff and move on.

AP: You’ve talked about eventually doing one final Migos project. What would another Migos album mean to you now?

QUAVO: It means the world to me. Obviously, we miss one, and it won’t be the same without him.

I’ve been honored to be his uncle since the age of 3. So just having that relationship with him and knowing how he move and think, I kind of feel like he's in my body.

I talk to him about it. Be like, “I don’t want to do it if you ain’t got the vision for it.”

I know I can take the music that he got and get the Migos album ready. It just depends on how we want to honor the legacy. Because I want this music to benefit us and the estate.

AP: When you and Offset work on Migos music now, how do you make something that still feels like all three of you?

QUAVO: We’re cooking right now, and the chemistry is always gonna be there. We always learned to do four, five, six songs dolo and bring them to each other. But right now, we're just dumping the bags and seeing what we can put together.

AP: Has the work you’ve done through the Rocket Foundation helped you process your own grief?

QUAVO: It helped me just realize that this could happen to anyone. You would feel some type of way, but you don’t feel it till it hit home.

And when it hit home, I thought when it got to me everybody is gonna stop. But it still kept going.

You can go into a hole and not do nothing, or you can stand up and try to change and do something.

Seeing other families go through what I go through, I feel like I’m turning into this superhero to be a therapist to a family where I need a therapist.

The show came at an uneasy moment for luxury: cosmetics giant L’Oréal overtook Louis Vuitton owner LVMH as France’s most valuable listed company in September. And consultants forecast modest growth in personal luxury goods this year after two years of contraction.

Designer Chemena Kamali returned to Chloé’s archives for her spring-summer 2027 “Obsession” collection.

It was a personal declaration of affection for the house — and a test of how much decoration its promise of easy dressing could bear.

Luxury, ready to wear

Gaby Aghion founded Chloé in Paris in 1952, pioneering luxury ready-to-wear: finely made designer clothes sold ready-made, rather than couture created for individual clients.

The idea helped bridge exclusive dressmaking and mass production, offering luxury with less formality.

That inheritance sets a demanding standard: elaborate workmanship should not make the clothes look difficult to wear.

“I wanted something deeply personal — to return to things I love, the emotions they trigger in me,” Kamali said.

Broderie anglaise — embroidery punctuated by small decorative holes — appeared on crisp cotton and sheer organza.

Kamali traced the patterns to 19th-century needlework, while raised floral embroidery recalled the 1960s. Puffed sleeves, tiered ruffles and swinging tassels added volume and movement.

At times, flowers, lace and tassels competed within a single look.

The workmanship impressed, but the result could feel crowded: a lot of visible effort for clothes meant to suggest ease.

Lingerie offered a leaner proposition. Kamali cut away lace to create what she called “romantic harnesses,” framing exposed skin with delicate lines.

A metallic bust strap added a hard glint among the floating fabrics.

These pieces needed fewer flourishes to command attention.

Romance meets rainwear

The coats supplied the collection’s most convincing change of pace: reds and yellows interrupted the softer colors, while wide-brimmed hats pushed the proportions toward the theatrical.

Fishermen’s coats and capes provided the starting point.

Kamali layered transparent vinyl in smoky shades over her silhouettes, bringing sharper outlines to the collection’s softness.

Here, the contrast worked. Substantial outerwear gave the delicate clothes a counterweight, and the bold shapes carried the drama without requiring another layer of ornament.

Tailoring brought further definition. Kamali cited Chloé’s scalloped 1972 “Noël” tuxedo as a reference, revisiting the house’s history of adapting men’s suiting for women.

It offered a firmer framework for her romantic instincts, and her affection for Chloé was clear.

The strongest moments came when that familiarity produced a clear idea: a fisherman’s coat expanded to dramatic proportions, or lingerie stripped back to its outlines.

Those transformations gave the collection direction.

“It should be normal to take time to create your next album. I know we live in a world where we want everything fast,” the three-time Grammy winner said in an interview with The Associated Press. For inspiration, she said she had to let life take its course.

“I’m OK with people asking for more music or feeling like, ‘Dang, I missed her.’ Or this is a comeback, because that makes me feel like there was a gap in time where they noticed that I was gone,” the artist said.

The “On My Mama” singer returns Friday with “Frequency of Love,” a 22-track studio project that follows her Grammy-winning “Jaguar II,” which she made in 2023.

The new album is powered by singles like the house-flavored “Reach Out,” yacht R&B-inspired “Juicy” and “Let Me,” which is a slow jam that already reached No. 1 on Billboard’s adult R&B airplay chart. Some of the new work features heavyweights Bruno Mars and SZA, as well as R&B hitmakers Bryson Tiller, Leon Thomas and Chlöe Bailey.

“I’m really, really, really passionate about love. ... A lot of it was just reflective of what I was going through or feeling while dating,” said Monét, who originally considered creating a yacht-R&B album. “The album covers many bases, including love for my daughter, love for the world, what I want to see for it.”

Monét aimed to channel Michael Jackson's risk-taking artistry

“Frequency of Love,” executive produced by Camper, takes listeners on a sonic excursion beyond romance, with several interpolations of classic '90s R&B songs skillfully peppered throughout.

“Almost,” which includes a reference to Brandy’s “Almost Doesn’t Count,” is a sensual take on feeling sexually unsatisfied, while “For You” reimagines Kenny Lattimore’s classic romantic ballad. “Care for Somebody (Interlude)” is Monét's rendition of a song she first encountered as a child while watching Halle Berry in “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” with her grandmother.

Michael Jackson’s musical growth between “Off the Wall” and “Thriller” inspired Monét’s creative process. While she’s quick to halt any comparison to the commercial and critical acclaim of one of music’s most prolific artists, she aimed to channel the same risk-taking artistry.

“I did not make ‘Thriller,’” Monét said. “I just made my version of what I would make with that mindset.”

The singer, 37, is keenly aware of heightened expectations. But she was slightly unprepared for some negativity that followed her 2024 Grammy wins for best new artist, best R&B album and best non-classical engineered album.

“I think there was a flip from me being an underdog that everyone wanted to support,” she said. “If I get millions of supporters, I can also have millions of haters. But who am I paying attention to? And that’s what the album for me is about.”

Monét was in the recording studio — and in the kitchen

Recently serving as a special guest on the European stretch of Bruno Mars’ “The Romantic” tour, Monét is gearing up for her own “Frequency of Love” dates, visiting 27 North American cities starting in late October.

After beginning her career penning songs for Ariana Grande, Blackpink, Chloe x Halle and Selena Gomez, Monét is still interested in writing collaborations and working with “unexpected” artists. She also dreams of writing scripted TV and film projects, including a comedy.

A creative at heart, Monét also recently graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education as its top student. During class, she’d listen to music associated with the country of the dish she was preparing. Often bringing meals to her production team during recording sessions, she says the vibes of the international music, and the camaraderie that food and fellowship can bring, would influence some of the sonic tones of her songs.

So why would a performer at the height of her career become a chef?

“Maybe rebellion. ... I want to do something that I don’t get paid for, that I’m not defined by,” said Monét. “You don’t have to make your schedule around only the things that clearly pay you. And you never know where it will take you.”

“Frequency of Love” will largely dictate where her career is headed next. But Monét hopes to move with intention and a spirit of gratitude, which she's prioritizing throughout her life.

“I went through a moment where I was critical of everything. I was looking around and seeing what could be better: criticizing myself, the workplace, the state of my mood, the state of music, state of voice, my body, just nitpicking everything,” she said. “And so, it’s really been a journey to come to a place where I can operate in that shift — that paradigm shift — that makes me OK with everything that is, and also OK with everything that is going to come.”

Her case began with vocabulary: the same animals are “sea life” when people marvel at them and “seafood” when they order.

“Who makes that decision?” she said backstage.

Of the industry that stocks the menu, she was blunter: “It’s war. We’re at war with the oceans.”

For one piece of fish on a plate, she said, the nets bring up dolphins and octopuses, and most of the catch goes back over the side dead.

Through the greenery, models walked to PJ Harvey’s “Down by the Water,” a murder ballad that keeps its promise.

Juliette Binoche sat near Lopez. On the runway, Karlie Kloss and Miranda Kerr came dressed in waves.

Suits that swim

The clothes made the case more gently.

The palette ran seafoam, sage, coral, blush and chocolate, and the tailoring — schooled under Savile Row’s Edward Sexton — loosened until it moved like water.

Drawstrings threaded through oversized blazers, a rain-jacket trick smuggled into office clothes.

The back-on-trend peplums were everywhere — and rounded softly at the hip.

Sheer layers left bandeaus and brief-cut shorts in the open, on the season’s underwear-as-outerwear tide.

Sport, her other signature, answered back: second-skin leggings under boxy technical jackets and airbrushed dolphins mid-leap across T-shirts.

Kloss’ minidress had small waves curling over one shoulder; Kerr’s seafoam gown was cinched in a knot at the waist.

For evening, gowns wound around the torso and dropped in unbroken columns, after Madame Grès, with ruffles breaking like surf at the hems.

“It’s really, really important to want to wear the clothes,” McCartney said. “For me, that’s the main thing.”

Message in a bottle

The house called the ready-to-wear 100% responsible: recycled cotton denim, organic cotton and silk, and a black pigment grown from algae rather than refined from oil.

Older fronts are better supplied: the certified wool she uses is traced back to the farm, and since 2026 she has knitted with Brewed Protein, a wool alternative fermented by Japanese biotech firm Spiber.

A week before the show, McCartney co-founded The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition with Amazon and the forest nonprofit Canopy, pooling the orders of more than 60 companies so such materials can reach factory scale.

She bought back LVMH’s minority stake in her label last year, but still advises its chief, Bernard Arnault.

“I’m advising him on so many things in sustainability,” she said.

McCartney took her bow in jeans, a white T-shirt and a roomy blazer, thumbs up, and was gone.

Backstage, when the questions finally drifted from oceans to hemlines, she asked one of her own: “You mean you want to talk about the clothes?”

After 25 years, they are still her best argument.

But he no longer claims to be an underdog.

“It would be so disingenuous to say you’re an underdog, ‘as he said from his penthouse,’" Stallone said during a recent interview, on a high floor of a luxury Manhattan hotel. "Yeah. Come on. I am a lucky dog.”

Stallone, who turned 80 in July, is among the most successful movie stars and filmmakers in history. He has generated billions of dollars through such blockbuster franchises as “Rocky,” “Rambo” and “The Expendables” and portrayed some of the most memorable film characters. And he is still working, starring as mobster Dwight “The General" Manfredi in the Paramount+ series “Tulsa King.”

By choice and otherwise, Stallone has been reliving his early years as a struggling actor-writer who somehow convinced United Artists to back his modest story of a journeyman boxer's shot at the heavyweight championship, and even allow him to play the lead despite having little acting experience. His memoir “Steps,” published Tuesday, arrives less than two months before a fictionalized and semi-authorized version of his story, Peter Farrelly's “I Play Rocky," arrives in theaters, with Anthony Ippolito in the starring role. (Farrelly spoke about the film with Stallone, who was otherwise uninvolved.)

“Rocky," which beat out “Taxi Driver” and “All the President Men's” among others to win the best picture Oscar, is one of those classic movies that only seem to benefit from the back story; Stallone's own journey from the streets of Philadelphia to the Oscars stage echoes so well his character's improbable rise.

As he writes in “Steps,” he was a hard-luck case, an unplanned and unwanted child who seemed to face endless discouragement right through the production of “Rocky," when he feared every day on the set might be his last.

Stallone was in Manhattan to promote his book, but spends much of his time at the Palm Beach, Florida estate he shares with his wife, Jennifer Flavin. Even when — especially when — he's talking about his rare fortune, Stallone speaks in a warm, rumbly, offhand manner, a kind of private street talk that suggests he doesn't believe it all.

Last year, he was a Kennedy Center honoree, his award presented to him by President Donald Trump, who had previously named Stallone, Jon Voight and Mel Gibson his “ambassadors” from an otherwise liberal Hollywood. Stallone has called Trump “the second George Washington,” but he has contributed to both Republicans and Democrats and broken with conservatives by calling for stronger gun control laws. He also condemns war, including the Iran War, as a story of sending people into a "meat grinder while the military complex is making zillions of dollars."

“I do believe that you have to defend yourself. But to go on the offensive?” he says, adding that he would prefer not to be known as a ”political figure."

“I love the common architecture of trying to just survive. That’s noble," he says. "To be a politician, that’s a different animal.”

During his interview, he also talked about fate, insecurity and why he was probably better off for his unhappy childhood.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: Why write this book?

STALLONE: I was approached a few times (over the years) and the one thing I didn’t want to write about is my life. It’s this ambivalent roller coaster ride. It's not always the most pleasurable ride. And I thought, ‘What am I known for?’ Pulling off this minor miracle in 1976, which falls under the heading of inspiration. That’s what I want to do. Because the character was an inspiration, I wanted to tell the people how it all came to be.

AP: How hard was it to relive some of those early memories?

STALLONE: It was very hard because I spent 50 years burying that stuff. And it’s like you come across a lost city, and you start to become your own spiritual archaeologist, digging down. And it’s not pretty. But I didn’t want this to be, ‘Oh, woe is me.’ Everyone has issues and a lot worse than me. I just wanted to touch on the essence because I still have this conundrum. If everything was really nice, maybe I wouldn’t be here, you know what I mean? If I didn’t have that insecurity which drives us. You know, insecurity is a great motivator.

AP: For people at your level of success, do you find they all have that sense of insecurity, that drive?

STALLONE: I think so — especially the ones that are desperate to do better and constantly pushing it. For example, I don’t have to do my dialogue for another month before we start “Tulsa King.” I'm up every morning at 5:00 o'clock, studying until literally it’s like breathing. Now, that’s probably insecurity, but that’s the way I approach it.

AP: When was the last time you actually watched “Rocky” in its entirety? Did you look at it while working on the book?

STALLONE: No, I didn't. You know what I see. You're sitting there and going through messages and somebody who's 18 has put it on the internet or on TikTok. And how would this person relate to an 80-year-old guy? They're not, though. They're not relating to me. It's that character.

AP: Young people know about Rocky.

STALLONE: In retrospect, that to me is the greatest gift. You know, you write something — I’m just trying to get some footage on myself. I'm just trying to write something really simple. I didn’t ever expect it to be in more than one or two theaters. So all this is a tsunami of good luck. It ('Rocky') tapped into something that I cannot take credit for.

AP: Writers talk a lot about how they learn how they think through the act of writing. Did you experience some of that while working on this book?

STALLONE: A lot of it, yeah.

AP: Like what?

STALLONE: I was thinking while I was working (on the book). “You were really at the end of your rope.” Nothing was working. I was 29 years old. And I had this epiphany, like in the backyard, pounding the soil, asking for spiritual help. I had always avoided it. And I had thought, you know, “To each his own.” I don’t want to rely upon some idol, god, symbol, anything. But maybe we need something that makes us believe in the invisible — faith. I had no faith. I was agnostic, and then it came literally back that night.

And that's why I pay homage in the “Rocky” movie. The first scene is, you know, at “The Resurrection” (gym). It's amazing we found that place. A boxing club called "The Resurrection."

AP: You've described how the priests in Catholic school said it was necessary to suffer for your faith, and how you turned away from that. But look at what you put yourself through to make a movie.

STALLONE: It's the way I’m built, I think. There are no free lunches. I’ve had back operations, neck surgeries, both shoulders, heart — you name it. And it’s all because ... you do it yourself. There was a necessity to feel it. You’re not going to be like the other guys. You’re going to do it, which is completely wrong (laughs).

AP: And now you have a movie about you, “I Play Rocky,” coming out.

STALLONE: How strange is this? A movie about me being in a movie.

AP: What did you think of it?

STALLONE: It’s fantastic. And the kid (Ippolito) did a great job. This is so odd. They usually do this when you’re dead and gone. It's 50 years almost to the day when it came out and if he gets nominated ... It’s so surreal. I have to give Peter Farrelly, the director (credit). I never in a million years had any confidence this would work. But he said that to the everyday person, this is kind of a fantastic journey. Rocky is fiction, this is real. And that's what people are holding on to.

There’s Anne Hathaway’s titular character, a wildly popular novelist who is unable to speak or move after a car accident, but whose secret, and disturbing, autobiography speaks volumes. There’s Dakota Johnson’s struggling author, Lowen, who has been hired to finish Verity’s remaining novels and who finds herself living in Verity’s home and fantasizing about her more successful counterpart’s life, and husband. And then there’s Josh Hartnett, as said husband, who is caring and responsible but perhaps a bit quick to suggest that Lowen borrow one of Verity’s dresses for their night out on the town.

The actors couldn't help get the giggles on set

It is all quite heightened in the way that one might hope for in a sexy, psychological thriller, which opens in theaters Friday. At some point, Lowen even starts to suspect that Verity might be faking her paralysis. And the actors often found themselves doing something that the script did not call for: Giggling.

“There would be some shots where Dakota and I would just have to stare at each other,” Hathaway recently told The Associated Press. “There’s just something about knowing that you’re supposed to be scary that makes you giggle.”

But that is just part of the fun of going big for a pulpy, popcorn thriller, where Johnson gets to blow vape smoke in Hathaway’s face and all get to participate in a fantasy sequence in which Johnson starts out kissing Hartnett’s character and ends with Hathaway on her lips.

“It just seemed really fun to play somebody who’s deeply unwell,” Johnson said.

‘Verity’ is based on a Colleen Hoover psychological thriller

“Verity" is the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation to make it to the big screen. After “It Ends With Us,” it is one of her more popular bestsellers. That film made over $350 million worldwide in theaters, but also became infamous for its off-screen legal battles.

On “Verity,” however, the drama stayed on the screen. For director Michael Showalter, it offered a chance to dip into a genre that he has been dreaming about since he took an Alfred Hitchcock film class in high school. “Rebecca” was a major touchstone.

Hitchcock, and Brian De Palma, were in his head when casting the movie too. It held extra significance that Johnson’s grandmother, Tippi Hedren, was in “The Birds” and “Marnie,” and her mother, Melanie Griffith, starred in De Palma’s very Hitchcockian “Body Double.”

Johnson deadpanned that she wasn't “really thinking about my mother or grandmother in erotic thrillers at the time of filming."

But after the fact she said she found it “inspiring in a way."

“I guess, because it’s something that has been in my family, it’s like a sense of understanding and bravery,” Johnson said. “I guess I’m inspired by my mother and grandmother that they can do, or did that. And so could I.”

None of the three leads had ever worked together before. Showalter likened them to a “super group.” He learned from Hitchcock that movies like these are as much about the characters as they are about the actors.

“I’ve always been trying to play roles that are very different from each other and from myself,” Hartnett said. “And I think as I’ve gotten older, people have allowed me more leeway to do that.”

‘Verity’ concludes Hathaway’s big year on screen

Hathaway was a producer on “Verity” and came armed with big, cinematic ideas, Showalter said. The two had worked together on the romantic drama “The Idea of You,” and Hathaway was excited to help him make his “Rebecca,” and also to be in a role in which she was sitting and staring off in the distance for much of it. She had just come off several physically demanding productions. Stillness seemed like the right choice.

“Verity's” release ends an exhaustive streak of non-stop work for Hathaway that resulted in five major theatrical releases, and press tours, this year, including “Mother Mary,”“The Devil Wears Prada 2,”“The Odyssey” and “The End of Oak Street.” On top of that, she is soon going to give birth to her third child and then, after a bit of a break, plans to team up with Tom Cruise on a “Days of Thunder” sequel. But she is not patting herself on the back for any of it.

“Please let’s not over praise the pampered actress,” Hathaway said. “There’s a lot of pregnant women out there at home and in the workplace who didn’t get a manicure this morning. I’m very happy to do my job. I have so much support.”

Hathaway went on to speak about the thrill of watching audiences come back to movie theaters this year — something that she said she and her co-stars took for granted at the beginning of their careers. The annual domestic box office is up around 19% from last year; Hathaway's four movies have made just over $2.5 billion worldwide.

“This year in particular felt like the first time for me, post pandemic, post the strikes, where the movies were so exciting and people came out in droves to see them again and again and again,” she said. “It’s just been exciting to have so many offerings in a year that feels so important to the motion picture industry and, not to sound too, you know, grandiose about it, but to American culture.”

Hartnett chimed in: “But I’m with ‘The Onion’ saying that we’re becoming overly reliant on Anne Hathaway in our economy.”

Hathaway told him not to worry.

“I’m going to rest pretty soon,” she said. “This is the last one.”

EDGE: What attracted you to the role of Magenta?

PQ: At my audition, Richard O'Brien sang "Science Fiction/Double  Feature" to me and asked if I could sing along with him. He showed me the lyrics and played guitar for me. They were auditioning me to see if I could sing or do anything at all. When I heard that song, I immediately knew it was brilliant. I can't explain why or how. I was just so struck by it.

Nothing else particularly attracted me to the role. At that point, the Usherette sang the song, and that was what captured me. They told me they wanted me for the production and that I would get the script. I hadn't read it yet, and in fact it wasn't even complete.

There was also a character named Magenta who had only four or five lines. I wasn't drawn to that role at all. There was hardly a part there. What attracted me was the opportunity to sing that song and to open the show. That's what excited me.

EDGE: Magenta is a unique and unconventional character. How did you approach playing a character in a story that challenged traditional norms?

PQ: I think this was something people had never seen before. Also, at the time, I wasn't really aware that I was challenging anything. That all came later. At the time, it just seemed normal to me. When we were rehearsing for the play, we were simply doing great songs. I never thought much about it. It all felt perfectly natural.

This was the King's Road in London in the 1970s. Everything seemed normal there. It was just part of the environment we were living in.

EDGE: Did you have any idea at the time that the production would become a global phenomenon?

PQ: No, of course not. How could we have known?

When we began, we were in the 60-seat theatre upstairs at the Royal Court. It was literally a little room with 60 wooden chairs, no stage, no set, nothing. There was just a ramp for Tim Curry to come down and a couple of pieces of scaffolding at the sides for us to climb on and hang around. That was it. There was no money at all. We were earning £18 a week. But we did it because we thought it was brilliant. The songs were brilliant.

In fact, we were still writing many of the songs as we went along. The show wasn't completely finished when we started. "Time Warp" arrived almost overnight. "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" arrived overnight too. Julie Covington, who was playing Janet, said, "I'm not singing that. That's disgusting."

It all seemed to evolve organically.

Then, within a week of opening at the Royal Court, Mick Jagger and Bianca Jagger were queuing to get into the tiny room upstairs. I walked past them in the queue, pretending not to notice. Then I got upstairs and said, "Jagger's out there. It's extraordinary."

Bowie came during the first week, too.

Word of mouth drove the success, though the critics liked it too. It just grew and grew. It was beyond belief.

EDGE: Looking back, what do you remember most vividly about those early days of Rocky Horror?

PQ: Well, I was only in the stage production for five weeks. Then I left to play Christabel Pankhurst in Shoulder to Shoulder, the BBC series about the fight for women's suffrage. I was involved in a major television production, so for me Rocky Horror was just a five-week gig.

I'd done it, and I was quite happy to move on. But the show carried on without me. In fact, it never really stopped. It just kept moving from one venue to another.
We started by turning cinemas into theatres. From the Royal Court, we moved to the Classic Cinema, which was scheduled for demolition, so it fit the show's look and atmosphere perfectly. Then we moved to the Chelsea Classic Cinema, all along the King's Road.

There was never any money behind it. The producers simply didn't have the funds to stage it in conventional theatres, so they used whatever spaces were available.
Around that time, Lou Adler was dating Britt Ekland, and she told him, "You have to come and see this little musical." So he came to see it. He was the one who took Tim Curry to Los Angeles, just Tim and nobody else. From there, things really took off.

Then, two years later, they decided to make the film.

The album collected 61,000 equivalent album units in the United States during the week ending Sept. 24, according to Billboard, which compiles its chart with data from Luminate. The chart result places Cyrus back at No. 1 for the first time since "Bangerz", which topped the Billboard 200 in 2013.

The result is Cyrus’ sixth Billboard 200 No. 1 and her 16th project to reach the chart’s top 10, Billboard reported. Variety and People also reported that the latest chart-topper is her first in over a decade.

A close chart race

Cyrus’ first-week total put "Bass Persuades" just ahead of "Dandelion", the album by Ella Langley, which stayed at No. 2 with nearly 61,000 equivalent album units. Riley Green’s "That’s Just Me" debuted at No. 3 with 60,000 units, according to Billboard. Variety described the contest near the top of the chart as tight.

The 61,000-unit figure is a combined measure, not simply a count of physical or digital albums sold. Billboard’s chart methodology includes album sales, track-equivalent albums and streaming-equivalent albums in its calculation of equivalent album units.

Of "Bass Persuades"’ opening total, 47,000 units came from album sales, while streaming-equivalent albums accounted for 14,000 units, representing 14.22 million on-demand official streams of songs from the album; track-equivalent albums contributed a negligible sum. The album also debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart.

Billboard reported that the release was offered in a range of formats and editions, including 16 vinyl variants, nine CD variants, six download variants and a cassette. Some of those editions included bonus tracks, Billboard said.

The album’s release and chart history

Cyrus announced "Bass Persuades" on Sept. 1 and released it on Sept. 18, according to Billboard. People likewise reported Sept. 18 as the release date and described the record as Cyrus’ tenth studio album. Billboard identified the title track as the album’s first single, released Sept. 3.

The new chart leader follows "Something Beautiful", Cyrus’ previous studio project, which debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in June 2025. The gap between that release and "Bass Persuades" was a little more than a year, Billboard reported.

Cyrus’ previous No. 1, "Bangerz", arrived at the top of the chart in 2013. Billboard’s count of her six leaders includes releases credited to Miley and Miley Cyrus, as well as soundtrack albums associated with her work as the Disney character Hannah Montana. Variety likewise noted that her chart history includes projects under the Hannah Montana name.

What the chart measures

The Billboard 200 ranks albums in the United States using weekly consumption data compiled by Luminate. Under the methodology described by Billboard, an equivalent album unit can represent one album sale, 10 individual track sales from an album, or a specified number of on-demand audio and video streams. Billboard says its chart data provider reviews submissions and works with the publication to authenticate data before final rankings are published.

The chart announcement was reported by Billboard, Variety and People, with all three describing the No. 1 debut and the 61,000-unit opening total. Their reports converge on the central result: "Bass Persuades" returned Cyrus to the Billboard 200’s top position after the 13-year span since "Bangerz".

The injury happened before the group’s show at the PSD Bank Dome. Scherzinger later posted a photograph showing burns and blistering on her leg, which reports described as extending from around her knee toward her ankle.

“Nothing like boiling water falling on your leg an hour before your set, but the show must go on,” Scherzinger wrote, according to RTÉ’s report of her post. People reported that her message also thanked Düsseldorf and said, “See you soon Amsterdam.”

The singer, 48, went on to perform with bandmates Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt at the Düsseldorf concert, according to the three outlets.

The reports establish that Scherzinger performed after the spill, but they do not provide a medical assessment, specify the burn’s clinical severity or say whether she received treatment. Accordingly, the visible appearance of the injury in a social-media image should not be taken as a diagnosis.

Tour continues in Europe

The day after the Düsseldorf performance, Scherzinger performed with Roberts and Wyatt at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, RTÉ reported. The Amsterdam show followed the message in which Scherzinger thanked the Düsseldorf audience and referred to seeing fans there.

The concerts are part of the Pussycat Dolls’ PCD Forever Tour, whose current performing lineup includes Scherzinger, Roberts and Wyatt. The Independent described the Düsseldorf and Amsterdam appearances as part of the tour’s European leg.

RTÉ reported that the group was due to play Birmingham before continuing with UK dates, and that its schedule included a Dublin show on October 5 and a London O2 Arena date on October 13. People reported that the tour was scheduled to conclude on October 30 with a performance in São Paulo, Brazil. These dates reflect the schedules reported by those outlets; the reports do not confirm whether every planned performance ultimately took place.

Wider tour context

The European dates are proceeding after the group changed plans for the North American leg. RTÉ reported that the Pussycat Dolls cancelled all but one North American date earlier in 2026, while confirming that UK and European shows would go ahead. People also reported that the North American dates were reduced in May, and quoted the group describing the decision as “difficult and heartbreaking.”

The tour also marks the group’s return to performing following the cancellation of a planned reunion tour in 2022, according to RTÉ. The outlet identified the group’s current lineup as Scherzinger, Roberts and Wyatt, while describing the Pussycat Dolls as having originally formed as a six-member group.

The immediate public update on Scherzinger’s burn came from the performer’s own Instagram Stories post, as reported by the outlets. The available reports do not describe how the water spilled, identify anyone else involved, or provide further information about her recovery.

For now, the confirmed sequence is limited: Scherzinger reported being scalded shortly before the Düsseldorf concert, performed with the group that night, shared an image of her injury the following day, and then appeared at the Amsterdam show.