Latest news with #MrJones
CBC
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
Adam Duritz of Counting Crows wrote a song about wanting to be famous — and it came true
In 1993, Michael Jordan retired from basketball for the first time, Jurassic Park was making a killing at the box office, and Counting Crows released their debut single, Mr. Jones. That song became an inescapable radio hit that catapulted Counting Crows into the cultural zeitgeist. For lead singer Adam Duritz, the success of Mr. Jones came as a total surprise, but there was also something prophetic about the song, seeing as he wrote it about his desire to be famous. "We all wanna be big stars," he sings on the track. "But we don't know why and we don't know how." In a new interview with Q 's Tom Power, Duritz looks back on his breakout hit and shares why overnight fame maybe wasn't a dream come true for him after all. WATCH | Adam Duritz's full interview with Tom Power: It all started when Duritz spent a fun night out in San Francisco with his friend Marty Jones, whom he'd played with in his old band, The Himalayans. Jones's dad, a flamenco guitarist, was in town, so they went to check out his gig before eventually heading to a bar called New Amsterdam. "We went to a lot of bars that night, trailing around after this flamenco troupe and getting hammered," Duritz recalls. "Just feeling like this is really cool: basking in someone else's spotlight and kind of wishing it was me in the spotlight." Duritz says a lot of the lyrical details in Mr. Jones are based on things that actually happened that night, like when his friend started flirting with an older woman named Maria — a beautiful "black-haired flamenco dancer" who "dances while his father plays guitar," as the song goes. WATCH | Official video for Mr. Jones: The Counting Crows frontman penned Mr. Jones when he got home later that night, but he didn't expect it to be a hit. By the time the band released the song in December of 1993, they had already been hustling as musicians for years. "I was 27 before anyone from any record company came to see any band I was in, and it wasn't Counting Crows," Duritz tells Power. "I was 28 when we got signed and I was 29 when that record came out. And we had been on the road for about three or four months as an opening band, opening for Midnight Oil, opening for Suede, opening for Cracker. And after two or three months, some TV shows started calling us — Letterman first and then SNL." When Counting Crows performed on Saturday Night Live, the band wasn't even in the top 200. After appearing on the show, Duritz says their debut album, August and Everything After, "jumped 40 spots a week for five or six weeks." Then, in April of 1994, there was a major turning point when Counting Crows returned back to the U.S. from a European tour. "We flew into New Orleans, and we'd been out of the country for a while, so whatever had happened back here, we weren't here to experience it," Duritz says. "The first morning after we got there, I went out to the [Tipitina's Jazz Festival], as I always did, and got mobbed. And that's when I realized, 'Oh, what the hell happened?'" With hundreds of thousands of people mobbing him at festivals, fans hounding him everywhere he went and his privacy being invaded by tabloids, Duritz learned the hard way that fame isn't all it's cracked up to be. These days, he rarely plays Mr. Jones.
The Independent
09-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
UK-US trade deal was needed to save 150,000 livelihoods, Labour minister says
A senior Government minister has said that the UK-US trade deal was urgently needed to protect as many as 150,000 livelihoods, and will be 'really good for Britain.' The deal removes tariffs on UK steel and aluminium imports to the US, and cuts the levy on cars from 27.5 per cent to 10 per cent, offering British luxury carmakers like Jaguar Land Rover a reprieve. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds indicated on Thursday night that thousands of people were perhaps 'days' away from losing their jobs without the deal. Asked by BBC Breakfast on Friday if agreeing the deal was urgent, Treasury minister Mr Jones said: 'Yes. Yes, it was.' Pressed if this was because of the threat of job losses, Mr Jones added: 'Of course, which is why it was so important that we've got the deal over the line.' The minister also brushed aside suggestions the UK is no better off than before Mr Trump's tariffs were first introduced. He told the BBC: 'If I could rather be in a world where there were no tariffs, of course I would. But that's just not the world that exists. So it's not really an option on the table. The option on the table is to have not signed a trade deal with the United States and had higher tariffs, or to have signed a trade deal with the United States and had lower tariffs. 'We've signed that trade deal. We've got lower tariffs in critical manufacturing sectors in the UK. 150,000 people's livelihoods that we've protected as a consequence of that trade deal. 'That is, by definition, factually better off as a consequence of the action that this Government is taking to stand up for working people across the UK.' Mr Jones later elaborated on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, signalling the 150,000 figure included the families of those whose jobs may be impacted in the car, steel and aluminium sectors. Mr Reynolds told Newsnight 'we were at risk of thousands of people losing their jobs' without an agreement, adding this could have happened within 'days'. The deal was confirmed in a conversation between Sir Keir Starmer and US President Mr Trump that was broadcast live on both sides of the Atlantic on Thursday afternoon, coinciding with VE Day. While car and steel makers have been offered a stay of execution by the deal, a blanket 10% tariff imposed on imports of most goods by Mr Trump as part of his sweeping 'liberation day' announcement remains in place, but talks are ongoing in a UK effort to ease it. Plane engines and other aeroplane parts are excluded from trade tariffs as part of the deal, and British Airways's parent company has already bought 32 new Boeing planes from the US, following the agreement. Gareth Stace, director general of UK Steel, said the exact details of the deal for the industry had not yet been revealed, including when it comes into force and which steel producers will be included. He told Times Radio: 'There may be issues around ownership, around where the steel is made, and until we see those details we don't know whether this heavy burden will be lifted from us.' New reciprocal trade arrangements for agriculture have also been agreed, which will allow new access for American beef into the UK market. Ministers have however insisted there will be no downgrade in British food standards as a result of importing US meat. Neil Shand, chief executive of the National Beef Association, said the deal will create market growth with 13,000 tonnes of US and British beef being exported to either country. But he added it is likely the US-imported beef will be used in the services industry instead of being sold on supermarket shelves, as leading retailers 'are not going to break rank' on British beef agreements. The general terms of the deal were published late on Thursday, and stated the UK and the US are 'beginning negotiations' to 'develop and formalise the proposals' that have been made. It also suggested either country could 'terminate' the 'arrangement' in the future with written notice, and it could be further altered in the future at the request of either side. The UK's digital services tax, which mainly applies to US tech companies, was not revised as part of the deal as had been speculated. The deal also does not include any concessions on the Online Safety Act or the NHS, the Business Secretary insisted. In future, the UK will have 'preferential treatment' when it comes to pharmaceuticals, as Mr Trump considers import taxes on drugs and medicines. Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the benefits the deal offers are 'still very unclear' in many areas, after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch claimed the UK had been 'shafted' in the agreement. Senior Tory Mr Griffith told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'There's some good elements to yesterday's deal – I think the car industry and steel industry will welcome at least the reduction. But overall, it's quite disappointing. 'It's still very unclear what happens to pharmaceuticals, a really big UK industry, there's nothing on film and TV, and yet (at) the start of the week, the Government was talking about 100% tariffs on that.'
