Country Music

Country Music Hits

Uncategorized

Robert Plant just announced “Up The Sharp End” — a 16-date fall U.S. tour with Saving Grace and vocalist Suzi Dian. September 18 through October 15, from St. Louis to Chicago. This is the third American leg in under a year. The first two sold out completely. But Plant isn’t doing what you’d expect from a 77-year-old rock legend. No arenas. No “Stairway to Heaven.” He’s playing intimate theaters — The Santa Fe Opera, Humphreys by the Bay — performing folk, blues, and Appalachian roots music with a cellist and a banjo player beside him. The man Rolling Stone named the greatest lead singer of all time could fill stadiums tomorrow. Instead, he’s choosing small rooms, quiet songs, and a sound closer to Raising Sand than anything in the Zeppelin catalog. Special guest Rosie Flores joins all dates. General sale starts June 12.

No Comments

Robert Plant Announces “Up The Sharp End” and Chooses Intimacy Over Spectacle Robert Plant has announced a new 16-date U.S.…

Uncategorized

Bill Maher didn’t have to say yes. A documentary crew asked him to appear in an upcoming film about Charlie Kirk — the Turning Point USA founder who was shot and killed at Utah Valley University last September while speaking to 3,000 students. Maher and Kirk disagreed on almost everything politically. But here’s what most people don’t know about them. In April 2025, Kirk sat down with Maher on Club Random. They talked about faith, politics, culture — and somehow, two guys on completely opposite sides walked away respecting each other. Maher later called it one of his most memorable conversations. So when filmmakers reached out, Maher said yes — but with a condition. He told them not to expect praise. He’d give them five minutes after his Friday night taping, nothing more. He still disagrees with much of what Kirk believed. He read the full statements. He pushed back. But he also said something that quietly stayed with a lot of people: “I do not think he was a monster.”

No Comments

Bill Maher, Charlie Kirk, and the Strange Power of a Respectful Disagreement Bill Maher did not have to say yes.…

Uncategorized

Jack Schlossberg walked into Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM studio this week wearing a tie that most museums would keep behind glass. It belonged to his grandfather — President John F. Kennedy. When Cohen asked about it, Schlossberg didn’t give some rehearsed answer. He just said it was his favorite tie. That he wears it for good luck. And here’s the part that stopped me — he only owns five ties. Total. This one from JFK is one of them. Five ties for a guy running for Congress in New York’s 12th District. Cohen then asked about his uncle, JFK Jr. Schlossberg went quiet for a second. He said he only has a broken watch. That JFK Jr. was given plenty of Kennedy heirlooms over the years — but apparently lost most of them. So now the grandson carries what’s left. Not in a display case. Around his neck, on a Tuesday afternoon, sitting across from Andy Cohen like it was nothing.

No Comments

Jack Schlossberg’s Kennedy Tie Moment on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM Show Sometimes a small detail tells a much bigger story. This…

Uncategorized

8 FLUENT CHEROKEE SPEAKERS DIE EVERY MONTH. THEN ONE SPOKE THEIR LANGUAGE IN FRONT OF 26 MILLION VIEWERS. At the 90th Academy Awards, Wes Studi walked out as the first Native American presenter in Oscar history. He talked about serving 12 months in Vietnam with Alpha Company. Then he looked at the Hollywood crowd and asked, “Anyone else?” Dead silence. But what happened next is what no one was ready for. Out of 376,000 Cherokee people, only around 2,100 still speak the language. For generations, Native children were beaten in boarding schools for saying a single word in their mother tongue. The government wanted those languages to disappear completely. And right there, on that stage, Wes Studi spoke Cherokee. No hesitation. No permission. He thanked veterans and Cherokee people who served — in the exact language they tried to erase. A year later, the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes declared a state of emergency for the language. Eight fluent speakers still die every month. But that night, millions of people heard Cherokee — and it sounded like something that refuses to die.

No Comments

When Wes Studi Spoke Cherokee at the Oscars, the Language Refused to Disappear At the 90th Academy Awards, the room…

Uncategorized

“A 21-YEAR-OLD WATCHED POLICE ARREST HIS FRIENDS ON SUNSET STRIP. HE DROVE HOME AND WROTE ONE OF THE GREATEST PROTEST SONGS IN HISTORY — IN 15 MINUTES.” November 12, 1966. Stephen Stills was 21. His band Buffalo Springfield was nobody yet — playing a residency at the Whisky a Go Go with Neil Young. That night, he headed to Sunset Strip for live music. What he found was a thousand teenagers outside Pandora’s Box — a little rock and roll club the city had voted to demolish. LA had imposed a 10 p.m. curfew for anyone under 18. The kids carried signs: “We’re Your Children. Don’t Destroy Us.” Three busloads of LAPD showed up in riot gear. Peter Fonda got handcuffed. But here’s what nobody expected — Stills didn’t stay. He drove home and wrote a song in 15 minutes. It didn’t even have a title. Just a first line: There’s something happening here. They recorded it December 5 in a single session. On Christmas Day, Pandora’s Box reopened one last night — and Stills performed the song inside a building already marked for destruction. When he played it for his label, he shrugged: “I have this song, for what it’s worth.” That became the title. It appears nowhere in the lyrics. It hit Number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Grammy Hall of Fame, 2000. Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs, Number 63. Pandora’s Box was demolished in August 1967. That corner is now just another intersection. No plaque. Nothing left but the song.

No Comments

The Night Stephen Stills Turned a Sunset Strip Arrest into a Song for a Generation A protest, a curfew, and…

Uncategorized

HE LAID 8 FLOWERS ON THE “8” PAINTED ON THE CHARLOTTE GRASS — 3 DAYS AFTER HIS BROTHER DIED, AND STILL SAID NOTHING. For 18 days after Kyle Busch passed away at 41, Kurt Busch stayed completely silent. Not a word when NASCAR announced Kyle’s death from sepsis caused by severe pneumonia. Not when Richard Childress Racing retired the No. 8 car. Not even at the Coca-Cola 600, where he quietly placed those flowers on the Charlotte infield — and walked away. But what he finally wrote wasn’t about the 234 wins, the most in NASCAR history. Wasn’t about the 2 Cup championships. Kurt talked about big wheels. Two kids from Las Vegas racing anything they could get their hands on, long before the trophies and the fame. “No trophy, championship, or accomplishment could ever measure the impact you had on my life.” And then, five words that hit harder than anything: “Rest easy, little brother.”

No Comments

He Laid 8 Flowers on the “8” Painted on the Charlotte Grass For 18 days after Kyle Busch died at…

Uncategorized

“RUSH JUST PLAYED THEIR FIRST SHOW IN 11 YEARS — AND A WOMAN NO ONE SAW COMING STOLE THE STAGE.” Sunday night at the Kia Forum, Rush played their first full show in 11 years. Same stage where Neil Peart took his final bow in 2015 before cancer quietly took him in 2020. Behind the kit now — Anika Nilles, a 43-year-old German drummer who once toured with Jeff Beck. During opener “Xanadu,” she fumbled a stick mid-fill. Caught it. Kept playing. The whole arena erupted. But that wasn’t even the moment people will remember most. Over three hours and 22 songs, Nilles didn’t just play Peart’s parts — she made them breathe again. “Tom Sawyer,” every fill locked. “YYZ,” every odd time signature clean. She wasn’t copying Neil. She was channeling something no one expected, grinning through all of it. And when Aimee Mann walked out to sing “Time Stand Still” — 40 years after recording it — the entire Forum went silent in a way that said more than any standing ovation ever could.

No Comments

Rush Returns to the Stage at the Kia Forum With Anika Nilles Stealing the Night Sunday night at the Kia…

Uncategorized

HE WAS SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS, SURVIVED 2 HEART ATTACKS, AND STILL MADE AN ALBUM FROM TOTAL ISOLATION. Ibrahim Alfa Jr. dropped his first techno record at 18. By his twenties, he was touring Europe with Move D and Cristian Vogel, deep in the underground scene. Then he disappeared. A drug conviction — sentenced to 5 years, served 2 and a half. The day he walked out, pitch dark, £47 in his pocket. He spent 40 of it on a beat-up G4 Mac from a second-hand shop window. That machine became everything. But what came next was worse than prison. In 2022, back in Brighton and sober, his left lung filled with blood — a pulmonary embolism, the same condition that killed Andrew Weatherall. He survived. Then two heart attacks followed. His immune system shut down. Months of total isolation. And in that silence, every waking hour, he made music. The result is “Infinite Black Inside,” released May 2026 on FO — 12 tracks of techno, dub, jazz, and ambient. Thirty years after his first record, built while his body was falling apart around him.

No Comments

Ibrahim Alfa Jr. and the Album Born in Isolation At 18, Ibrahim Alfa Jr. released his first techno record and…

Uncategorized

25 YEARS AGO, SHE SANG “LADY MARMALADE” WITH CHRISTINA, LIL’ KIM AND MYA. LAST NIGHT, SHE BROUGHT IT BACK — WITH 170 BROADWAY STARS. P!nk opened the 79th Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall not standing on stage — but flying above it. Dressed as Peter Pan, spinning in the air while singing “I’m Flying.” Then Neil Patrick Harris walked out and asked what everyone was thinking: “Why is P!nk hosting the Tonys?” What she did next is the part nobody saw coming. She flipped upside down, belted lines from Phantom, Les Mis, and Wicked — then launched into “Leading Lady Marmalade,” a Broadway reimagining of the hit she made iconic 25 years ago. Megan Thee Stallion appeared in her Zidler costume from Moulin Rouge. Lea Michele hit Christina Aguilera’s legendary high note. And 101-year-old June Squibb — the oldest acting nominee in Tony history — grabbed the mic and sang along. 170 performers. One stage. And a woman who’s never stepped on Broadway leading every single one of them.

No Comments

P!nk’s Tony Awards Opening Turned a Pop Classic Into a Broadway Celebration At the 79th Tony Awards at Radio City…

Uncategorized

152 YEARS. NOT A SINGLE WOMAN EVER WON THE KENTUCKY DERBY — UNTIL CHERIE DEVAUX. Five weeks ago, her horse Golden Tempo was dead last in a field of 18 at Churchill Downs. A 23-to-1 long shot nobody believed in. Then he moved — from the very back, through the pack, all the way to the front. That gave DeVaux something no woman had ever held. But then she did something nobody expected. She skipped the Preakness. Walked away from a Triple Crown chance. The racing world couldn’t understand. Her answer was simple: “The horse comes first.” Saturday, at Saratoga — the town where she was born, where she once worked walking horses for other trainers — Golden Tempo ran the Belmont Stakes. Dead last again. Came from behind again. Won again. Cherie DeVaux is now the first woman in history to win both the Derby and the Belmont. When they asked about regret, she smiled: “We made our decision. He won today.”

No Comments

Cherie DeVaux Makes History as Golden Tempo Delivers Another Saratoga Comeback A Derby breakthrough that changed everything Five weeks ago,…

You Missed

Uncategorized

Paul Stanley wrote “Detroit Rock City” as a thank-you to the city that loved Kiss first — Detroit gave them headlining gigs while they were still opening acts everywhere else.But producer Bob Ezrin heard the demo and told him to throw the whole lyric away.Because on a tour stop in Charlotte, North Carolina, something had happened that Stanley kept turning over in his mind. A fan was killed in a car accident right outside the arena — someone on their way to a Kiss show, a night that was supposed to be about being alive, who never made it through the doors.Ezrin pushed Stanley to rebuild the entire song around that moment. He reshaped the sound too — the bassline came from Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddie’s Dead,” and the Spanish-flavored twin guitar solo was entirely his idea.The single never charted in America. But “Detroit Rock City” became the one song Kiss never took off their setlist — and 50 years later, it still opens with a fake radio report about a fan who didn’t make it.

Uncategorized

“I REALLY FELT CLIVE… DOES LOVE ARTISTS.” — PATTI SMITH SAID THAT ABOUT THE MAN WHO CONTROLLED EVERYTHING IN MUSIC FOR 50 YEARS. BUT WITH HER, HE DID THE ONE THING HE ALMOST NEVER DID. Clive Davis was the kind of executive who picked your songs, shaped your sound, told you what your next album should be. For 50 years, he controlled nearly everything — Whitney Houston, Springsteen, you name it. But in 1975, he walked into CBGB and saw Patti Smith on a tiny stage. He signed her to Arista Records the very next day. And then he did something no one expected. Nothing. No song suggestions. No production notes. No shaping her into something more “commercial.” He just let her be Patti Smith. What came from that silence was Horses — the album that blew the doors off punk rock. She stayed with him for 9 albums. She inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. And when Davis passed away yesterday at 94, she was among the first voices heard in mourning. Funny how sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is just get out of the way.

Uncategorized

HE NEVER NEEDED A MICROPHONE TO CHANGE MUSIC FOREVER. CLIVE DAVIS ONLY NEEDED TO LISTEN. Clive Davis has died at 94, and with him goes one of the rare men who didn’t just run record labels — he heard futures before the rest of the world did. From Columbia to Arista to J Records, he stood behind desks, inside studios, and beside nervous young artists who had no idea their lives were about to change. Janis Joplin. Santana. Bruce Springsteen. Barry Manilow. Whitney Houston. Alicia Keys. Different voices, different eras, but somehow the same hand was there — guiding, believing, refusing to let greatness pass unnoticed. He was called an executive, a producer, a mogul. But maybe the truer word is witness. He witnessed talent before it became history. Clive Davis didn’t leave behind one song. He left behind a soundtrack millions of people lived their lives to.

Uncategorized

HE WAS 31. HE LEFT BEHIND A 3-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER AND A 1-YEAR-OLD SON. THIS FATHER’S DAY, ERIKA KIRK STILL WROTE HIM A LETTER. On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University. He was 31. Nine months later, Erika sat down and wrote her husband a Father’s Day letter — the same way she always did. But this time, no one would open it. She left it by his coffee mug. Their little girl, “GG,” placed it there. Their son just turned 2 last month — he’ll never remember his dad’s voice. But Erika said she’ll save every letter for him, so one day he’ll know exactly who his father was. “Thank you for making me a wife and a mother,” she wrote. “Thank you for our two precious babies that carry pieces of you with them.” Nearly 100,000 people came to his memorial in Arizona. But on this quiet Sunday morning, it was just Erika, two little kids, and a coffee mug no one picks up anymore.