Entertainment

Juan Atkins, Godfather of Techno, In 6 Crucial Records

The highway of modern music flows through only a narrow band of people. Juan Atkins was one of them. Born on the east side of Detroit in 1962, Atkins died this past Saturday night, at 63, in his fifth consecutive decade of spreading the techno gospel. Provenance is a claim plenty snatch at these days, yet in Atkins’ case it was fundamentally and incontrovertibly true. From the 1980s onward, he gifted techno its sound, its name, and many of its all-time classics.
The formation of techno in the crucible of Detroit is well-trodden by now. Reams of excellent books and documentaries are available chronicling the scene’s foresight and velocity, from Techno Rebels and Electrochoc to Assembling a Black Counter Culture and God Said Give ’Em Drum Machines. Through Cybotron, Model 500, and the Belleville Three, Atkins influence on electronic music was so totalizing, it actually tended to eclipse his catalog. His nicknames usually reflect his role as a catalyst—The Initiator, The Originator, The Godfather—yet less so his ingenuity and down-home dedication.
But don’t underrate the man. Neither the Belleville Three nor the wider Techno Six would have risen without Atkins as the glue. It was Juan’s patient hand that guided Kevin Saunderson’s first production, “Triangle of Love,” to completion and helped show Derrick May how to mix records. Atkins prided himself on being a master of programmed basslines—accurately, I might add—but what we hear alongside that is the work of a malleable and highly gifted collaborator.
Even as European dance music boomed in the ’90s, offering vast commercial incentives to relocate, Atkins stayed put in the D. He’s there, in 1996’s Universal Techno, hobnobbing amiably with people who may or may not have any idea that this man qualitatively upended and reshaped the cultural history of their city. If he took flight, why should anyone stay? He was always readily available to fund acts through his label, assist artists like DJ Minx with their early break on Deep Space Radio, or make his studio available for the development of a wild conveyor belt of emerging talent, including Terrence Dixon, Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir, and DJ Stingray, who once told The Wire he laid down his first record in 1987 “at Juan Atkins’ studio, on the spot, right there.” With all of the Belleville Three operational on the same block, it’s not hard to see Gratiot Avenue as techno’s own Hitsville U.S.A.
The first and second waves of Black American dance music have been stung by loss after loss, but as the first founding father of techno to go, Atkins’ death is especially heavy. The world looked very different when he started in 2026. Bear in mind that, when Atkins began his journey, the notions of both the Information Age (which he read about in Alvin Toffler’s 1980 book The Third Wave) and mixing sequenced beats (which he heard local DJ Ken Collier do on the radio) were in their infancy. It snaps into focus how much this young man was a vessel of history across technological, musical, and conceptual lines.
Atkins had lived with health problems for years. In 2015, he disclosed that he was receiving dialysis for kidney failure caused by diabetes. He still worked ceaselessly despite visible fatigue. His presence on the scene was something we all probably took for granted—for my sins, I passed up a chance to see him play an afterparty for Kraftwerk in Detroit, which feels profoundly idiotic now. Only a few months apart in 2025, I did at least make sure to watch Atkins lay down an ambient set alongside Wata Igarashi, perform inside a laser-spewing head with Cybotron, and lead a marvellously electro-heavy London night, also featuring Dopplereffekt, DMX Krew and Onur Özer, that simply would not have existed if you removed him from the electronic timeline.
That role was the principal takeaway as tributes flooded in yesterday. Alongside a glimpse into his life as a mentor, there was an overwhelming sense of gratitude towards him, beamed in from every corner of electronic music and clubland. He wasn’t one of those artists who only becomes cherished in reflection, mythologized in past tense; thankfully, for once, he got his flowers in real time. Truly, we owe this entire thing to Juan Atkins.
Atkins’ earliest work betrays the impressions left on his spongy mind: his grandmother Lily jamming boogie-woogie on the Hammond B3; his idol George Clinton’s fondness for loud handclaps on the 2 and 4; or the role of Vietnam vet and stargazing fabulist Richard Davis, who was, by the late ’70s, already a skilled charmer of the ARP Axxe synthesizer. Inevitably, the group they formed was funky. In a delightful piece of transference from state war apparatus to working-class counterculture, Cybotron’s 1981 debut “Alleys of Your Mind” was funded in part through Davis’ soldier benefits, and while its influence on techno is beyond reproach, the song’s proximity to Ultravox’s “Mr. X” is enough to tilt our telescope elsewhere. “Cosmic Cars” is the one.
As the first Cybotron cut Atkins was in the driver’s seat for, his belief in the cosmic potential of most objects (raindance? couriers?) retains great charm. At a time when hip-hop had b-boy snap, and techno was still linked to electro-funk, the interplay between the three emergent sounds was at maximum harmony. The story goes that Atkins arrived in NYC with copies of “Cosmic Cars” to promo, only to hear “Planet Rock” and realize the future he cradled under his arms was already out of date. (”Damn!” Atkins recalled saying to himself. “They beat us to the punch!”) Steel sharpened steel: by the following year, Cybotron went “Clear,” one of the genre’s enduring standards, and electronic music’s forked path raced into view.
Model 500 – “Night Drive (Thru-Babylon)” [1985]
In 1982, a Billboard report on new movements in pop culture described “Cosmic Cars” as “a mix of Prince and Gary Numan.” That wasn’t necessarily wrong, but it betrayed the limitations of language to seize the potential and finer details of a new form that was beginning to coalesce. Flash forward three years, and the T-word was out of containment. So if techno has a Rosetta Stone, it’s M-001 and M-002. No debate.
Everything you need to know about early techno is etched onto the initial pair of releases on Atkins’ Metroplex. “No UFOs” is one of, if not the first, techno songs of all time, a clear progenitor to the self-sufficiency anthems Underground Resistance would make their own in years that followed. But no musical movement can sustain without heat and propulsion, and that’s what “Night Drive (Thru-Babylon)” gives you. Metro Times, a Porsche; deep atmospherics, uncanny sci-fi vignettes; leery lyrics which could be interpreted as either deadpan or, perhaps, an uneasy orange flag; the Transmat refrain and “techno beat” on Atkins’ mind: it’s all here. This sound was about to be very, very cool indeed.
Magic Juan ft. Normski – “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” [1989]
…and also, from time to time, a little passé! Here’s one wrinkle in the tapestry of techno you can’t easily iron out. Well before their endeavours in the shadow of a crumbling Motor City became intellectual fodder, first wave producers did play the commercial game when expedient. This topped out in 1988, as Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit hit Europe, and Saunderson’s pop-leaning trio with Atkins, Inner City, swept the UK and U.S. charts, sparking an international frenzy of ponytail-swinging and dungaree-twirling. Meanwhile, as hip-house took hold Stateside, those who had licked a new sonic language weren’t going to sit a profitable wave out.
And lo, that’s how The Godfather wound up horsing around on a bouncy sorta-rap cut with London’s club muse and scene gadfly Normski. Atkins would bust out his Magic Juan alias well into the ’90s to signal a playful mood, be it remixes of Inner City or breaks-accented house stompers with ‘Shake’ Shakir as Visions. “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” is nevertheless the apex mountain of techno not taking itself too seriously and—no bluffin’—still a pretty good time.
Frequency vs. Atkins – “Industrial Metal” [1992]
For my money, the most well-rounded and generous Juan Atkins release of all. The holy trinity of first-wave labels—Metroplex, Transmat, and KMS—had all lost juice in their second decade, and with the talent spilled through the portal that the Belleville Three had opened, you wouldn’t have been shocked if the first wave lost a step. Not so. Atkins developed an ironclad relationship with Tresor and had updated both his working infrastructure and collaborators along the way. All this fed into Infiniti. It’s rare to see an artist reach a new peak 10 to 15 years after their debut, but such was the plenitude of possibilities bouncing around Atkins’ head from his teen years.
By turns melodic, minimalist, skippy, quirky, sci-fi, and tough, his penchant for bass programming was rarely stronger than here. “Sunlight,” especially, is an absolute riff-o-rama, itchy enough to complement the trackier house music being pumped out across the States by contemporary producers like Dan Curtin, Stacy Kidd, Gemini, and Wamdue Kids. Unlike his ’80s productions, which sound understandably brittle by modern standards, the tracks Atkins dropped as Infiniti retain ample warmth and punch. Case in point, in that early-’10s resurgence, others returned to the source and cooked up a suite of stupefyingly hypnotic remixes. Still, you can’t knock the OGs. During a three-hour set at Tresor last June, I watched DJ Sotofett drop “Game One” and had my head blown smooth off.
Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald – Borderland [2013]
Of all Atkins’ many collaborators, his work with Moritz von Oswald has spanned the longest, spawned the most, and perhaps proven the most fruitful of all—an extemporisation of the cybernetic highway forever linking the music of Detroit and Berlin. Their relationship dates way back to the early ’90s, a time spent “ping-ponging” over the ocean, as Atkins later put it. The Berliners, which also included Thomas Fehlmann and Mark Ernestus, would rummage through pawn shops in Detroit to pick up kit no one else had. On the other side of the ocean, Ernestus’ spare room above Hard Wax was always available whenever Atkins might need it. Apparently unsatisfied with his million other aliases, Atkins fused with von Oswald and Fehlmann for 3 Men in Berlin, or 3MB for short. “Jazz Is the Teacher,” by the by, is another essential from the vault.
Although Ernestus and von Oswald struck gold as Basic Channel shortly thereafter, MVO remained an important part of Atkins’ orbit, both as a remixer and engineer for Model 500’s 1995 album Deep Space. It wasn’t until 2013 that they sat together for a two-man collaboration, Borderland, which fell closer in hue and tone to Rod Modell, Echospace, DJ Pete and others at the dubbier end of the scene. That reflected both the grey fog blanketing the early ’10s scene and the two collaborators’ advancing years. And yet, sprawling cuts like “Electric Garden” sound exceedingly fresh in today’s dub-delay moment.
That’s the kind of pedigree you earn after 45 years in service to a singular, immeasurably consequential vision. Or, rather, 45 years and counting. “I’m going to be making music ’til I leave this planet,” Atkins said in 2024. “And then maybe for some time afterwards too.”

Entertainment

Savannah Chrisley pictured showing off growing bump during Chick-fil-A run

Savannah Chrisley was spotted showing off her growing baby bump during a Chick-fil-A run in Nashville.
In exclusive photos obtained by Page Six, the “Chrisley Knows Best” personality wore a cropped black long-sleeved shirt and athletic pants as she stepped out for a quick lunch on Tuesday.
She pulled her hair into a simple ponytail and carried what appeared to be keys, a cardholder and a cellphone for the outing. She finished the look with crystal-encrusted sneakers and sparkling earrings, and left both her shoelaces and drawstring untied.
Savannah toted a bag from the fast-food restaurant and sipped from a cup as she made her way to a vehicle.
In another snapshot, she flashed her massive diamond ring from husband Jason Galanis while grappling with her items.
Other pics obtained by Page Six showed Galanis grabbing coffee with the mom-to-be’s father, Todd Chrisley.
The father-to-be and Todd appeared to chat happily while stepping out together ahead of the baby’s arrival.
Both wore casual slacks and tops for the outing, with Galanis accessorizing with a black-and-white ball cap and both carried beverages.
At one point, the Chrisley patriarch, 57, appeared to check his phone while walking alongside his son-in-law.
The sighting comes a day after Savannah, 29, announced she and Galanis, 56, are expecting a baby boy.
In an Instagram reel, the reality TV star cut a slice in a heart-shaped cake to reveal blue frosting inside, kissed Galanis and showed off blue infant outfits and accessories alongside parents Todd and Julie Chrisley.
In the caption, she called her impending arrival her “sweet miracle boy.”
“You are everything we prayed for and more,” Savannah gushed. “The most beautiful reminder that God’s plans are always greater than our own.”
She added, “The past few days have reminded me just how cruel this world can be. But no amount of hate could ever overshadow the joy of loving you. You are a MIRACLE.”
Savannah concluded the caption by gushing that the baby is their “greatest blessing, our answered prayer, and the sweetest chapter of our lives.”
The mom-to-be revealed on Oct. 27 that she was engaged and expecting her and Galanis’ first child.
In short order, details emerged — including the fact that her fiancé is a convicted fraudster who spent time in prison with Todd, and that the couple had already secretly married at a Baptist church in the Cayman Islands on July 14.
“I wondered if I would ever find my forever… if I would ever feel safe enough to truly breathe again. And then God sent me J. 🤍,” she wrote via Instagram last month, adding photos of the unsliced gender reveal cake and sonogram images alongside tiny infant shoes.
She also called her then-mystery fiancé her “safe place” and “the one who makes me laugh even on my hardest days.”
“From heartbreak to healing. From surviving to living. From praying for my forever to building a family with him,” she wrote in part.
Savannah dropped additional details — including the fact that she met her fiance in the “world of politics” and that he’s “much older” than she is — during a subsequent episode of the “Unlocked” podcast.
She also divulged that he proposed in December 2025 in the Cayman Islands.
“And when he gave me the ring, he was like, ‘Before I open this, I just want you to know that this is just an expression of love to you. This can be whatever you want it to be. This can be an engagement ring, a promise ring, a cocktail ring for all I care. I just want you to know how much I love you,’” she recalled.

Entertainment

Eric Dane’s Final Days in Hospital Revealed by Wife Rebecca Gayheart

Rebecca Gayheart is opening up about Eric Dane‘s final days timed to the release of the Grey’s Anatomy star’s posthumous memoir, My Book of Days.
Dane died in February, less than a year after announcing his ALS diagnosis.
The actress, who married Dane in 2004 before embarking upon a divorce in 2018 and having that dismissed in 2025, said it didn’t initially dawn on her that the Euphoria actor’s last trip to the hospital would mark the beginning of the end.
“He had gone to the hospital so many times before, and they would patch him up, so to speak, and he would come home,” Gayheart said in an interview with Maria Shriver, portions of which aired on Tuesday’s episode of NBC’s Today, with additional material posting on Today.com. “And he’d be OK. And we’d go back to the normal routine, which did change week by week.”
And that’s how she initially approached his last hospital trip.
“I said, ‘Listen, I’ll be back. I have a dinner. I’m going to this event.’ I had no idea that that was it, that that week was going to be our last week,” Gayheart said. “And nor did my daughters. It really took a few days for us to understand the gravity of what that last trip to the hospital meant.”
But after a few days at the hospital, things started to turn serious.
“I think it was like day three in the hospital where it shifted,” Gayheart said. “Everything shifted. Just the tone of when the doctors were talking to us, and some of the information we were given.”
Though Dane knew he was dying, Gayheart was surprised by how fast it happened.
“A lot of people will say, ‘Well, at least you knew, and you could have those last conversations,’” she said. “But we didn’t know, because there is no road map. No one can tell you what the journey looks like because it’s so different for every patient.
“He was becoming more alive mentally, but losing all of his physical abilities. And for the girls, that was really hard to watch as well. But overall, it’s a blur, because it was just so overwhelming.”
Still, the family went ahead with their sleepovers in Dane’s hospital room.
“The girls and I just camped out there with him, and we had our family sleepovers,” she said. “And we brought in those little candles that aren’t real candles. They have batteries. And we played his favorite music, and we tried to make it as nice as you can be in the hospital room.”
Watch more of Gayheart’s interview with Shriver in the videos below.

Entertainment

Country singer Nicole Taylor of Taylor Red dead at 35

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Nicole Taylor, a singer in the country trio Taylor Red, has died. She was 35.
On Monday, Nika and Natalie Taylor, the other members of the group and Nicole’s sisters, announced her death in a TikTok post.
“We’re heartbroken to announce the passing of our sister, Nicole Taylor,” Nika said. “We honestly thought she’d be healed here on earth, but now she’s healed in heaven.”
STARS WE’VE LOST IN 2026
Nicole, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2022, died Sept. 28 at her home in Nashville, according to a memorial page created by her family.
GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERE
“It was an aggressive type [of cancer]. In her words, when she first found out, were, ‘God’s gonna use this for his glory,’” Natalie said. “She fought it fearlessly, and she said, ‘We’re not going to live in dread during all of this.’ And she even did CrossFit while she was doing her chemo treatments. She responded well to treatments, and she was declared evidence without disease.”
‘BAYWATCH’ STAR NICOLE EGGERT EXPOSES FINANCIAL TOLL OF CANCER BATTLE: ‘THE BILLS DON’T STOP’
They shared that Nicole was told “nine months later” that the cancer had returned as Stage 4, and she had “around three months” to live.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
“[The doctor said] if the treatments worked, they didn’t know how long [she’d have] after that,” Nika said.
“We’re still processing everything,” Natalie said while fighting back tears. “This, honestly, feels really hard to talk about, but we’re going to do our best to share her story.”
PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE
The sisters said Nicole “lived around a year after that prognosis.”
“During the time of the more extreme diagnosis, we felt led to not live in fear and claim healing,” Nika said.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“She said she had so much peace, and we’re really thankful for that,” Natalie said. “We are still shocked and didn’t think this would happen, but we know she’s not suffering anymore.”

Entertainment

Model Sahara Ray’s Death Certificate Reveals Cremation Plans

Model and influencer Sahara Ray is set to be cremated following her shocking death at 34 … TMZ has learned.
According to her death certificate, obtained by TMZ, Sahara’s remains are set to be cremated November 10 … with her mother’s Los Angeles home listed as the place of final disposition.
The certificate also confirms Sahara died October 18 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles … though her official cause of death remains deferred.
As TMZ previously reported … Sahara’s autopsy was completed last month, but the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s Office was still awaiting toxicology results to determine how she died.
We broke the story … Sahara died surrounded by loved ones at the hospital, with her family telling us, “She passed away last night surrounded by family at the hospital. She was so loved.”
Her death came just months after she welcomed her daughter, Snow, in January … with her final Instagram grid post in July featuring sweet photos of her baby girl.
Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.
In 2024, Sahara opened up about her battle with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that left her partially paralyzed following a serious car accident. No connection between the condition and her death has been established.

Entertainment

Reclusive Hollywood legend Bridget Fonda, 62, flaunts trim figure during LA outing

Reclusive Bridget Fonda stepped out in Los Angeles over the weekend.
The retired actress was photographed running errands on Sunday, displaying her trim figure in black pants and a taupe top.
The 62-year-old, who has reportedly lost 100 pounds in recent years, completed the look with an unbuttoned yellow long-sleeve and white sneakers, her hair pulled back from her face.
The Hollywood legend, best known for roles in “Single White Female” and more, has largely remained out of the public eye since her final project, “The Snow Queen,” in 2002.
She wed husband Danny Elfman the following year, and the pair welcomed their son, Oliver, in 2005.
Fonda made a rare comment on her private life in 2023, declaring in a video obtained by the Daily Mail that it was “too nice being a civilian” to return to the spotlight.
Want more celebrity and pop culture news?
Start your day with Page Six Daily.
Thanks for signing up!
Enter your email address
Please provide a valid email.
By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Want celebrity news as it breaks?
When asked whether she’d make a comeback, the Golden Globe nominee replied, “I don’t think so.”
Fonda, notably, was born into an acting dynasty.
Her famous family includes her dad, Peter Fonda, the “Easy Rider” star, and aunt Jane Fonda, a two-time Academy Award winner.
Additionally, Bridget’s grandfather Henry Fonda won an Oscar for his role in “On Golden Pond” in 1982.
Bridget has continued making headlines despite her private life, with her partner accused of sexual harassment in 2017.
Elfman, 73, denied his fellow composer Nomi Abadi’s claims — but settled with her for $830,000.
Six years later, Elfman was hit with more accusations by a woman claiming he repeatedly got naked in front of her and touched himself while she slept next to him decades prior.
His spokesperson dismissed the 2023 allegations as “baseless and absurd.”
Elfman and Bridget put on a united front in 2025 when the duo was pictured together for the first time in 16 years.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
Image gallery