Billie Eilish says watching porn from age 11 'really destroyed my brain'

LOS ANGELES, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Grammy-winning singer Billie Eilish has spoken about an addiction to watching pornography, starting at age 11, and how it gave her nightmares and messed her up when she started dating.

Eilish, who turns 20 on Saturday, was speaking on "The Howard Stern Show" on Sirius XM radio on Monday.

"I think porn is a disgrace. I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was, like, 11,” the "Bad Guy" singer said, saying it helped her feel as if she were cool and "one of the guys."

"I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn,” she added, saying she suffered nightmares because some of the content she watched was so violent and abusive.

Eilish, who was homeschooled in Los Angeles and has seven Grammy Awards, is known for her often dark lyrics.

In the ballad "Male Fantasy" on her second album "Happier Than Ever," she sings about being home alone and distracting herself with pornography as she recalls a broken relationship.

Eilish said she is now angry at herself for thinking it was OK to watch so much porn.

"The first few times I, you know, had sex, I was not saying no to things that were not good. It was because I thought that’s what I was supposed to be attracted to,” she said.

Eilish, who started her career wearing baggy clothes to prevent people from commenting on her body, became the youngest person in history to win all four of the top Grammy Awards in the same year when she took home the statuettes for new artist, album, record and song of the year in 2020 at age 18.

The singer said her fame had made it hard to date.

"It's really hard to meet people when, you know, people are either terrified of you or think you're out of their league," Eilish told Stern.

Reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles Editing by Matthew Lewis

Bob Dylan sells treasure trove of archive material

Bob Dylan has sold his personal archive of notes, draft lyrics, poems, artwork and photographs to the University of Tulsa, where they will be made available to scholars and curated for public exhibitions, the school said on Wednesday.

The 6,000 item collection spans nearly the entire length of Dylan’s 55 year-long career, and many have never been seen before. The collection was acquired by the George Kaiser Foundation and the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

The collection also includes master recording tapes of Dylan’s entire music catalog, along with hundreds of hours of film video.

The Foundation and the university did not say how much the Bob Dylan Archive cost, but the New York Times, which was given an exclusive preview, said it was sold for $15 million to $20 million.

Tulsa is also the home of a museum dedicated to folk singer Woody Guthrie, one of Dylan’s early influences.

“I’m glad that my archives, which have been collected all these years, have finally found a home and are to be included with the works of Woody Guthrie… To me, it makes a lot of sense and it’s a great honor,” Dylan said in a statement.

Despite being regarded as “the voice of a generation” for his influential songs of the 1960s and 1970s, Dylan, now 74, has mostly kept his items out of the public eye, resulting in high prices when they occasionally come up for auction.

A handwritten copy of the song “Like a Rolling Stone” sold for a record $2 million at a New York auction in 2014, while the electric guitar he played at 1965 Newport Folk Festival sold for nearly $1 million in 2013.

The archives handed over to the University of Tulsa include two notebooks with lyrics from the 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks,” and Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to his 1964 song “Chimes of Freedom” scrawled on hotel notepaper dotted with cigarette burns. There is also correspondence between Dylan and the late beat poet Allen Ginsberg.

source: interaksyon.com

Lorde makes king’s ransom in royalty deal though ‘decision wasn’t made on money’

WELLINGTON | Chart-topping New Zealand teenager Lorde has landed a multi-million dollar contract for the rights to her songs, it has been reported.

The Auckland singer-songwriter, who turned 17 last week, signed with boutique music publisher Songs Music in a deal believed to be worth around US$4 million after a fierce bidding war involving major labels, the Wall Street Journal said.

It said the size of the sum is remarkable because Lorde, whose hit “Royals” has spent six weeks at number one in the US charts, co-writes most of her songs with collaborator Joel Little, meaning she owns only 50 percent of the copyright for the compositions.

Lorde’s manager Tim Youngson said the singer, whose real name is Ella Yelich O’Connor, opted for New York-based Songs Music for creative, not commercial reasons.

“Even before signing her they were bringing her options for collaborations and introducing her to other songwriters,” he told the newspaper. “The decision wasn’t made on money.”

Lorde signed a recording contract with Universal in New Zealand as a 12-year-old, achieving a breakthrough this year with the release of “Royals” and her debut album “Pure Heroine”.

Music publishing deals such as the one signed by Lorde give a company the right to license songs and ensure that a fee is paid when they are used commercially, which is usually split between the writer and the company.

source: interaksyon.com