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Kelsea Ballerini is sharing what it’s like navigating a post-divorce relationship in the public eye. The superstar, ahead of dropping her newest album, Patterns, dropped by Sunday Today With Willie Geist, and in a preview clip shared exclusively with Billboard, Ballerini says that dating actor Chase Stokes as a celebrity comes with a lot of […]
Mickey Guyton is more than a decade into her career, but she keeps forging new milestones. Just weeks ago, she launched her inaugural headlining tour, CMT on Tour Presents Mickey Guyton, which finds her performing in clubs and theaters spanning the country. She also just released her sophomore full-length album, House on Fire, on Capitol Records Nashville.
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In those performance rooms, as on House on Fire, Guyton is celebrating hard-earned joy, especially in a season that has been dotted with struggle, loss, heartbreak and change.
“I’ve worked so hard for it, and it’s been awesome getting to sing for my fans, not somebody else’s fans. Hearing them sing the words has been amazing,” she tells Billboard, noting that the first night of the tour, “I was a mess. It was just tears and love. All of the audiences have been so diverse and loving and it’s been a dream come true.”
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Over the past four years, Guyton has piled up accolades, including performing the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 2022 and earning four Grammy nominations, including nominations for best country album (Remember Her Name) and best country solo performance (“Black Like Me,” “Remember Her Name”). She co-hosted the 2021 Academy of Country Music Awards alongside Keith Urban, becoming the first Black woman to co-host the ceremony.
Her 2021 debut full-length album, Remember Her Name, featured soaring ballads and country constructions, pulling from her Texas childhood and her decade spent determinedly pursuing a career in Nashville, and included songs aimed at her experiences with racism (“Black Like Me”) and sexism (“What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”).
From the first songs on House on Fire, it’s clear that Guyton is no less truthful this time around, but her blend of pop, country, soul and gospel is decidedly upbeat, on songs like “My Side of the Country” and “Here With You.” Much of the album focuses on love in various forms — romantic love, self-love and the love she feels as a mother toward her son. Guyton wed California native Grant Savoy in 2017; they welcomed Grayson in 2021.
“It takes work,” she says of her seven-year marriage. “You have to choose that person every single day. You go on TikTok and all that and see people portraying love in a happily-ever-after way, but in my opinion the real ‘happily ever after’ is going through something hard and coming out stronger. We have fought through different things and have gotten stronger. I love him more than I could ever love a person.”
Some songs from the album skew older, such as “Little Man” and “I Still Do,” which Guyton wrote in 2018, early in her marriage when the couple went through therapy.
“We had a therapist, and we had a forgiveness session and any of our issues with each other, we haven’t brought them up again and we’ve been able to come out stronger on the other side,” she says.
She adds of those relationship-fortifying sessions, “I thought I was going to walk into these sessions, and he was going to be doing all the apologizing, and I was the one doing all the apologizing. I was able to see a lot of ways that I was wrong, and seeing this person that I love so much, we had just missed each other in communication that we loved each other so much, but we didn’t know how to communicate it.”
Guyton says their relationship journey has taken “a lot of understanding each other. I bring him structure. He’s a California wild child and growing up, he basically took care of himself, and I grew up in a very Bible Belt household, so he definitely opened my eyes, helping me be a bit more free in showing who I am. I think it’s helped shape my songwriting to be more open with who I am as a person.”
They are a few years shy of their 10th wedding anniversary, but Guyton says they don’t wait for anniversaries to celebrate each other.
“We’ll do cool things together and it not even be our anniversary. My husband grew up extremely poor. He didn’t really do birthdays. He lived in motels and stuff like that, so he’ll just randomly give me a gift or do something on just a regular day.”
At the same time, the title track was inspired by mental health, particularly on the lines such as “Can you love me when things are really bad/ When I’m in flames?” In February 2023, Guyton lost three people she was close to, including her grandmother.
“My grandmother passed away, which was really hard. And Twitch [Stephen “tWitch” Boss]—I sang at his funeral. I didn’t make it a public thing, and then another of my husband’s friends who I loved [passed away],” she says.
Guyton is open about the remedies that have aided her in her own journey for positive mental health, including using Zoloft. “I was grappling with intrusive thoughts and this kind of stuff I couldn’t get a grip on and once I started taking Zoloft, it changed everything for me. I didn’t even know I was operating in such a state of angst for a long time,” she says.
She’s also taken other steps to protect her joy and mental health. “I don’t Google myself. I don’t read comments, I don’t even go on my social media. I have someone doing that for me, to be honest. I just really needed to stay off of it. I have a Finsta, a fake Instagram, but it’s my real Insta and I just share things with my friends and family. I used to love crime shows, but I don’t watch those anymore. I’m trying to keep myself positive. I just need joyful things–cute animals, nail tutorials, makeup tutorials.”
The past year also brought shifts in her professional life. She left her longtime management home at Borman Entertainment and is now working with music executive Cameo Carlson (who previously worked at Borman).
“I love [Borman Entertainment’s] Gary [Borman] and [her former co-manager] Steve Moir,” Guyton says. “They were amazing managers and have the ability to do so many amazing things in artists’ careers. I just needed a little change. I felt I needed a woman to continue my career with and Cam was just right. We’ve known each other for a long time and it’s been amazing…she’s a hustler and that’s what I need.”
Guyton brought all of those experiences, struggles and life shifts into the writing rooms for the album, teaming again with several key writers from her previous album, including her “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” co-writers Emma Lee, Karen Kosowski and Victoria Banks and Tyler Hubbard, who worked on her Kane Brown collaboration “Nothing Compares to You,” as well as “My Side of the Country” and “Make It Me.”
“Nashville has the best songwriters in the world, without question — and I try to make every writer, new or familiar, feel like ‘Hey, if we don’t get it today, we can come back to it,’” she says. “ I intentionally want them to feel safe and not discounted as a songwriter, because sometimes you just don’t get it the first time. People are relaxed, they don’t feel the stress. In creating that environment, I will say that the songs come out so much better.”
Lately, Guyton has also been taking inspiration from pop newcomers, such as Teddy Swims, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.
“I feel like they are very literal in what they are saying. They talk about anxiety; they talk about all this stuff that we haven’t always talked about, and it’s motivated me to be more open and honest with my life.”
Another artist she admires is her fellow country artist and reigning CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson, whom she’s championing to take home a second entertainer of the year honor at the CMA Awards on Nov. 20 (“I hope she wins. It would be nice to see a woman win again. That’s who I’m voting for,” Guyton says).
That openness extends beyond simply her music and into her career and performance choices. In August, Guyton performed at the Democratic National Convention, playing her song “All American.”
“If you felt joy watching it [at home], it was a hundred times more joyful in person — the excitement, the sea of people,” she says of being at the DNC. “There was every race, nationality. It was patriotic. There were flags and just people proud to be an American. I will never forget that moment. That was one of my most favorite moments that I have been a part of.”
This year’s DNC featured an elevated number of country and Americana artists, also including The Chicks, Maren Morris and Jason Isbell, while artists including Jason Aldean, Lee Greenwood and Brian Kelley took part in the Republican National Convention — an evolution in a genre whose artists have often been discouraged from voicing their political opinions for fear of alienating portions of their fanbases.
“It’s been this whole taboo thing, but at the end of the day we’re still citizens,” Guyton says. “I’m not telling you who you should vote for — I’m telling you who I’m voting for. But I don’t think it should be a crime, that you can’t support who you think is the best Presidential candidate. And especially as a Black American, my ancestors fought for me to even be able to vote. It is my duty.”
One of the reasons her song “All American” was chosen for the DNC was the joyous, positive aura the song embodies, and she names that same uplifting spirit as the centerpiece of her new album.
“I’m a fun, joyous person, and I wanted people to feel that,” she says. “I feel like people need to feel joy. I think so much has been going on in the world. I’m tired of the fear. I’m tired of the strife. I just want joy.”
A key part of CMA Award-winning Jelly Roll‘s story has been his rise from incarceration to becoming one of the most sought-after headlining artists out there today. Alongside his ascendant career, the Tennessee native has been dedicated to giving back to communities and encouraging those who are in jails and detention facilities.
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During Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken tour stop in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO paid a visit to the local Pulaski County Detention Center, visiting the female inmates in the CSI Reentry program just prior to Jelly Roll’s concert at Simmons Bank Arena on Oct. 22. On Instagram, Bunnie XO posted a video from the trip, calling the visit “chicken soup for the soul.”
“I went to jail today, willingly,” Bunnie XO said over a video clip of moments from the couple’s visit to the jail, where they met with the women, offered encouragement and Jelly Roll even performed, leading the crowd in a version of his Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper “Save Me.”
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“I was so honored today to be able to tag along with my husband … look how sweet these babies are,” as the video showed Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO walking in to visit with the inmates, who greeted them with cheers and smiles. “Today was chicken soup for the soul, man. To be able to bring smiles to their faces in probably one of the lowest times of their lives means everything to me. They all had the best personalities.”
She also noted how Jelly Roll cracked jokes and kept the crowd laughing, as she said, “I have to say, man, the most attractive thing about my husband is his heart.”
As the video concluded with footage of Bunnie XO hugging the women, Bunnie XO said the visit inspired her as much as she hoped it had for the inmates. “I hope they know how much of an impact they had on me and how much they lifted my spirit also,” she said in the video clip. “I realize more and more lately that God has given us these platforms to give back, not to receive. And that’s what I plan on doing alongside my husband.”
According to the official Instagram page for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, Jelly Roll also took the oath of office to be an honorary deputy.
Up next, Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken Tour will visit St. Louis on Oct. 23 and Knoxville, Tenn. on Oct. 25. Jelly Roll also just added a new hometown show to the tour, when it visits Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 26.
When people think about love, they frequently focus on expensive weddings, flowery poetry or heavy kissing sessions. But the ultimate act of love is arguably less romantic: paperwork.
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Making out a will, filling out the beneficiary lines on insurance forms or assigning someone for that “Payable on Death” section of a checking account are boring details that require uncomfortable thoughts about dying. But those actions smooth the passage of assets and can simplify life for survivors at a time when they’re torn by grief. Few things say “I love you” more than demonstrating it when the recipient can’t show appreciation.
“My wife says to me all the time, ‘If something ever happens to me, please be sure the boys know how much their mom loved them,’” Chris Lane says. “I’m like, ‘Honey, please do not ever say that to me again.’ I can’t even bear the thought of that.”
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Lane’s newest release — “If I Die Before You,” which Red Street issued to digital service providers on Oct. 11 — re-creates that kind of conversation with the singer contemplating his own passage. It’s similar to the approach in two high-impact predecessors, Garth Brooks’ “If Tomorrow Never Comes” and The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young,” but leans even closer to those awkward discussions about estates and advance directives. And it manages to transform a difficult moment into an ascendant one.
“I’ve never heard this topic talked about in a song before,” Lane says. “It felt like a really fresh and really cool idea, and they did it in a very emotional way.”
“They” are songwriters Emily Weisband (“Looking for You,” “Dance Like No One’s Watching”), James McNair (“Guy for That,” “Lovin’ On You”) and Seth Mosley (“Make You Mine,” “Build a Boat”). The three met at a second-floor office Mosley was renting at the Starstruck building on Nashville’s Music Row in 2022.
McNair brought up the title, “If I Die Before You,” which he had recently logged into his phone, most likely after hearing the phrase on a TV show. He didn’t know what kind of story it might create, but it led them to acknowledge that they’ve all had conversations with their spouses about how to handle an unexpected passing. “It’s the worst conversation in the world,” Weisband says.
But it had some powerful possibilities, too, if they could find the right balance, even with the word “die” in the hook. “You have to write it just completely bare and honest,” McNair says. “You can’t be cheesy, and it can’t be too morbid. It’s definitely delicate when you have that word in the title.”
They launched with the title in the opening line — “If I die before you/I hope you buy that Mustang” — with Weisband, who had a pop recording deal, leading the melodic charge. They toggled between the verses and chorus as they proceeded, Mosley girding the top line with more minor chords and sevenths than typically emerge in Nashville writing rooms.
“It’s not like a jazz record or anything,” Mosley says. “There are far more complicated songs and chord progressions out there, but I think as Nashville writers often forget, there are other options. And so if I can be a small part of helping just create stuff that’s slightly different, that’s something I like to do.”
The chorus lived primarily in unresolved chordal territory, creating a sweet tension as it recognized that “all our names end up on a rock.” Near the end, it almost came to a halt, imagining that God takes the singer first. “Baby, forgive Him,” the text read, “and keep living if I die before you.”
Imagining Weisband’s future family, verse two referenced “our hypothetical kids” as the weighty conversation continued. By the time they reached the bridge, the song eased into conversational syncopation, the story’s couple refocusing on the current moment. And on a bottle.
“We tried to lighten it up, in that sense of where it was kind of like a couch conversation over wine,” McNair says, “which I think helps it, you know. They weren’t in the lawyer’s office or something like that.”They wrote it in a scant two hours, prioritizing the song itself rather than how it might be received in the marketplace. Mosley produced a demo with an airy tone, Weisband singing lead.
“It was very low pressure,” she says. “It was not the typical Nashville grind it out till every word is perfect and every melody’s a smash-sounding melody. It’s just like, ‘Let’s let the song write itself, and we’re just kind of here to help birth it,’ if you will. We were the song’s midwives.”
Lane heard “If I Die Before You” when a publisher sent him a batch of songs. He was particularly curious about the title and made it one of the first he played from that group. He took the opening “mustang” reference to mean a horse, which fit his wife’s interests, and the rest of the song worked, too. He wanted it.
“I’m not a super-emotional guy at all, nor do I really love slow songs,” he says. “But when I heard this song, it struck an emotional chord in me — probably because I’m married and have kids now, so I look at life differently.”
He responded to the publisher, who apologized: Another artist — Jordan Davis, it turned out — had the song, and Lane shouldn’t have heard it. While Davis debated whether to release it, McNair played it for Luke Combs, who pressured Davis to put it out or let it go. Combs toyed with it, too, but decided it didn’t fit the project he was recording and passed. “We just kept laughing that for how pop-girl of a demo this was, all these guys were wanting to cut it,” Weisband says.
Ultimately, Lane checked in every few months about it, and his persistence won the day. He so revered it that he insisted on using two of the song’s writers — he got Mosley to produce it and asked Weisband to sing harmonies. And Lane was present for almost all the work as Mosley cut new parts — played primarily by multi-instrumentalist Jonny Fung and drummer Phil Lawson — over pieces of the original demo, shifting it to a country production.
Lane made one lyrical change: “Our hypothetical kids” became “our crazy, beautiful kids,” acknowledging his two boys. He worked tirelessly on his lead vocal, singing perhaps 20 or 30 takes to get every part right.
Mosley called on Gideon Klein and Carl Larson to overdub a string section. “I make string arrangements that are just me singing into a mic,” Mosley says, “and I’ll do 10, 15 tracks of me just humming parts, like, ‘This is a cello, part one,’ ‘Cello, part two,’ and then I’ll pass it off to Gideon. He’ll put it on sheet music so it actually makes sense. But then we go in and just stack it a bunch of times.”
Red Street continues to work Lane’s current single, “Find Another Bar,” currently at No. 28 on Country Airplay after 51 weeks. But “If I Die Before You” is the likely follow-up, assuming it generates the reaction they expect.
“Everything in my gut tells me that this is a career song,” Lane says. “I’m praying and hoping that people react to it in the same way that I did, and if they do, then it feels like the next one up.”
Kelsea Ballerini announced the dates for a 2025 U.S. tour in support of her Patterns album on Wednesday (Oct. 23), a 30-city aren trek that is slated to kick off on Jan. 21 in Grand Rapids, MI at the Van Andel Arena.
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The “Cowboys Cry Too” singer revealed the dates for her first all-arena headlining outing in an Instagram post, writing, “this ain’t my first rodeo (but it IS my first arena tour!!!!!!) i genuinely can’t wait to be back on the road with you in 2025 and sing our lil hearts out together.”
Fans can sign up now for early access to tickets here, with pre-sales starting on Oct. 29 at 10 a.m. local time, followed by a general on-sale on Nov. 1 beginning at 10 a.m. local time. Ballerini is gearing up for a sold-out gig at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Oct. 29 to celebrate the upcoming (Oct. 25) release date of Patterns, the follow-up to her 2022 LP Subject to Change. There will also be an artist pre-sale on Oct. 29 beginning at 12 p.m. local time; fans can register for access to the artist pre-sale here.
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“PATTERNS is an album about taking inventory of self and life as it is, moving through the things that need changing, and celebrating the wins along the way,” said Ballerini in a statement. “Writing this record really was just one big beautiful conversation with myself, Alysa (Vanderheym), Karen (Fairchild), Hillary (Lindsey) and Jessie Jo (Dillon). THAT is what I want to bring into my show…a night (well, a lot of nights) where we come together and have the greatest night dancing while unpacking all of it. With confetti and costume changes, of course.”
The 30-city Kelsea Ballerini Live on Tour trek featuring support from MaRynn Taylor and Maisie Peters will take the singer to Chicago, Milwaukee, Nashville, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston, Tampa, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Las Vegas before wrapping up on March 30 at the Ball Arena in Denver. In keeping with her commitment to support mental health charities, the singer is donating $1 from every ticket sold to her Feel Your Way Through Foundation, which aims to lessen the stigma around conversations about mental health.
Check out the dates for Ballerini’s 2025 North American tour below:
Jan. 21 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
Jan. 23 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
Jan. 24 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
Jan. 25 — Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
Jan. 29 — Duluth, GA @ Gas South Arena
Jan. 31 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Feb. 1 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
Feb. 4 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
Feb. 6 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
Feb. 7 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
Feb. 8 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
Feb. 10 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
Feb. 13 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
Feb. 14 — Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Feb. 15 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
Feb. 18 — Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
Feb. 20 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
Feb. 22 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
Feb. 23 — Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Fla
Feb. 26 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena
March 13 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
March 14 — Spokane, WA @ Spokane Arena
March 15 — Portland, OR @ Moda Center
March 18 — Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
March 21 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
March 22 — San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena San Diego
March 25 — Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
March 28 — Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
March 29 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Delta Center
March 30 — Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
As introspective, detailed singer-songwriters such as Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Tyler Childers have topped Billboard charts and sold out amphitheaters and stadiums recently, Stillwater, Oklahoma native Wyatt Flores is primed to ascend to their ranks with his full-fledged debut album Welcome to the Plains, which came out last Friday (Oct. 18) via Island Records.
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The album follows a trio of EPs: 2022’s The Hutson Sessions, 2023’s Life Lessons, and this year’s Half Life that have led to Flores’ rise in the public consciousness thanks to a blend of his unrefined, folksy sound and unflinchingly honest lyricism. It’s made him the latest in a strong lineage of musicians such as Cross Canadian Ragweed, Stoney LaRue, Turnpike Troubadours and other architects of the Red Dirt sound that has risen from Oklahoma since the 1970s.
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Flores, 23, began releasing songs in 2021, but it was “Please Don’t Go,” a raw-throated, emotional plea for a loved one to refrain from taking their own life, gained traction just over a year ago, ultimately earning over 154 million streams on Spotify alone. He’s followed such resonant songs as “Break My Bones” and “Losing Sleep.”
The songs’ success threw Flores into an ascendant surge, along with it a grind of being on the road, playing shows with 49 Winchester and headlining his own rapidly growing shows.
“We just played a 3,300-capacity venue in Oklahoma City,” he notes to Billboard. “The last time we played OKC, it was like a 500-capacity room. It’s crazy.”
He made his Grand Ole Opry debut seven months ago and played Stagecoach and the revered venue Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the first time this year. He also earned a nomination for emerging act of the year at this year’s Americana Music Honors & Awards. But when it came time to record Welcome to the Plains, Flores tells Billboard he was “so scared, honestly.”
“I sat there in Asheville and just went over the lyrics,” he recalls of recording at Echo Mountain Studios there, as well as in Los Angeles and Nashville. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m good enough for an album yet.’ But it came to a point where I was like, ‘Just let the songs be what they are and capture the moments of where I’ve been without overthinking it.’”
Welcome to the Plains was born during what Flores calls “a really dark spot in my life,” as he was meeting the demands of his skyrocketing career while battling anxiety and imposter syndrome, and also struggling to process and grieve the loss of a few people close to him, including Flores’s maternal grandfather, who took his own life in 2023.
In song and in conversation, Flores makes no secret that his utmost motivation lies not in massive sold-out shows, but in helping listeners through hard times. In releasing songs such as “Please Don’t Go,” Flores has also had to navigate the emotional weight of realizing that while his songs can be a balm and healing agent for some, music can’t always be a life-saving force. He delves into that feeling the new album’s “Oh Susannah,” particularly on lyrics such as “Why did I believe that I could save you, darling/ Without killing me?”
He had previously included a version of The Fray’s “How to Save a Life” on his Half Life EP, but in February, Flores had his own emotional moment onstage, breaking down during a performance in Kansas City, Missouri. “This is the only thing I ever cared about and for some reason I can’t figure out, I don’t feel a thing,” he told fans during a vulnerable moment in that show. “I’m struggling with it. I’m sorry, guys. I’ve gotta tell my truth. I don’t know why… I’m sorry that I can’t give y’all what y’all deserve. And I love y’all and I’m very grateful for y’all being here.”
Flores took a four-week break from recording and touring, cancelling a slate of shows and seeking help at mental-health counseling facility Onsite near Nashville.
“I’ve learned so much because, truthfully, people don’t go through this phase in their life until they are maybe 30,” Flores says. “I went to Onsite when I quit the tour, and I looked around the room and there were maybe three other people my age and the rest were mostly in their 60s. I felt like the last thing I want to do in this life is be that age and look back and go, ‘How have I been unhappy this entire time?’ I started doing a lot of personal work and I’m still working on myself.
“I knew I had to be a better leader than what I was,” he continues. “I wasn’t taking the time to process things that I needed to, and I wasn’t putting up boundaries in my own life between me and the fans. It just crippled me to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore. I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I like the music’—and that’s the only thing I ever loved.”
Unlike the primarily acoustic-driven songs on his previous releases, Welcome to the Plains is a harder-edged, full band project. The songs on the new album that flowed from that time away from the spotlight are often anything but somber, such as the driving heartland rock and nod to Red Dirt in the album’s title track, which he wrote with Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor. Elsewhere, in the pulsing “Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight,” he longs for his last minutes with a lover to linger before they have to part ways.
“You would’ve thought that I would have written some of the most depressing songs, but I had this weird way of daydreaming about a better time, I guess. That’s where it was all coming from, just wanting to get out of that dark place,” he says. However, multiple songs, such as “The Good Ones” and “Angels Over You,” do touch on mortality, as does “When I Die,” a song Flores calls “the weirdest love song I’ve ever written.” The song brings levity on lines such as “When I’m in the ground, if I hear you talking s—t/ I hope I get the chance to be a ghost and scare your kids,” while also weaving in heartfelt sentiments.
“I get that humor from my dad,” he says. “I’ve written so many songs about living and dying because I’ve lost a lot of people in my life, so that’s where my head space was. I’m sure people are going to be listening to it around the time they’re grieving over someone and I hope it gives them a bit of a smile instead of just sobbing.”
Flores’s father is a retired welder and former drummer, while Flores’s family also runs cattle. Growing up in Oklahoma, Flores credits his family’s hard-working lifestyle with instilling the discipline that has benefited him on the road.
“Without that life, I don’t know that I’d be responsible enough to do this,” he says. “You’re up at 5:30 in the morning when you’re 12 years old, going out to the barn, working in the freezing cold, then doing your homework then going to school. Hard work and dedication is where it’s at.”
Flores grew up in a household filled with a mix of country and blues. He briefly attended Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, before realizing the time he spent sneaking into local clubs to play music held more value for him. He eventually moved to Nashville, and immersed himself in folk and Americana music, including the works of Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.
“I became obsessed with that music. It’s a huge influence,” he says. His new album offers a sampling of sounds, with deep emotional excavations sitting alongside flashes of sharp wit. (“I’m still figuring out what my [own] sound is,” he explains.)
“I also want to be a motivational speaker,” he adds. “I’ve always wanted to do speeches. I want to be good enough to where I can do that as a part-time thing. I’m also working on a bucket list of starting my own cattle company, branching off from what my parents have. We’re just waiting on buying land right now. We used to have 80 head back in the day. I want to get into the show cattle world again, to give kids a chance to show cattle, for those who don’t really have the money to do it, to let them learn from it.”
Eight months removed from that pivotal onstage moment in Missouri, Flores says he’s learning how to just be himself amid rising acclaim but knows he can always find refuge in Stillwater.
“It’s an odd feeling. I truly feel like I can just come back here and be myself, though I’m taking pictures [with fans] every single time I go to town. It’s an odd feeling because I went from being a nobody to everyone knowing who I am. It’s a feeling of being able to hide in plain sight, and then can’t hide anywhere. I don’t like hiding myself from people. I just keep going out and about and showing people I’m just a normal human.”
Ever wondered what Dolly Parton‘s songs would sound like backed by a full orchestra? Fans can find out next year when the country icon’s new multimedia symphonic story-telling experience, Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony, makes it debut with the Nashville Symphony on March 20, 2025.
The world premiere of the show that features Parton’s songs and the stories behind them will feature images of the singer on screen, “leading audiences in a visual-musical journey of her songs, her life and her stories,” according to a release announcing the event. With the help of guest vocalists and musicians, the show will debut new and innovative orchestral versions of Parton’s songs “woven together into a full-evening multimedia symphonic story-telling experience.”
“The threads of my life are woven together through my songs. That’s why this project, Threads: My Songs In Symphony, is so special to me,” Parton said in a statement. “It’s all about sharing my music and my musical journey with audiences in a new way. I’m really excited for fans to experience it for the first time with the Nashville Symphony!”
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The show will feature such beloved hits as “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” as well as some of Parton’s personal favorites. The March premiere with the Grammy-winning Nashville Symphony, led by Principal Pops conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez, will feature a special appearance by Dolly.
“We are honored to help launch this extraordinary production with Dolly Parton in Nashville at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center,” said Nashville Symphony president/CEO Alan D. Valentine in the statement about the show that is being produced by Parton along with Schirmer Theatrical and Sony Music Publishing. “Enhanced by the stories and images that make up the threads of her extraordinary life and career, her legendary and timeless catalog – combined with the power and majesty of our Nashville Symphony orchestra – will create an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone.”
Check out the dates for the 2025-2026 performances of Threads: My Songs in Symphony below.
March 20, 2025 — Nashville Symphony Orchestra
May 17, 2025 — Fort Wayne Philharmonic
June 17, 2025 — Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
June 29, 2025 — San Diego Symphony Orchestra
Sept. 7, 2025 — The Cleveland Orchestra
Sept. 18-20, 2025 — Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Oct. 10, 2025 — The Alabama Symphony Orchestra (Birmingham)
Jan. 23-25, 2026 — Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
Feb. 14-15, 2026 — Oregon Symphony (Portland)
March 28, 2026 — Phoenix Symphony Orchestra
May 1, 2026 — Eugene Symphony Orchestra
Brianna LaPaglia, known online as Brianna Chickenfry, is asking fans to let her heal her heartbreak following her breakup from country star Zach Bryan.
The Barstool Sports personality shared a nearly four-minute video to YouTube on Tuesday (Oct. 22) titled “Love you guys, be back soon,” in which she’s seen teary-eyed on her bathroom floor. “I just woke up to Zach posting on his Instagram that we broke up,” she tells the camera. “I had no idea that post was going up. He didn’t text me, he didn’t call me. I just woke up to a bunch of texts being like, ‘Are you OK?’ I’m like, ‘Did my f—ing dad die?’ I’m completely blindsided by that.”
Earlier in the day, the “Something in the Orange” singer took to his Instagram Stories to reveal that the couple, who had been dating since last summer, have parted ways. “Brianna and me have broken up with each other and I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart,” he wrote. “She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that I’ll always thank her. I have had an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things. I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways. I am not perfect and I never will be.”
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He continued, “Please respect Brianna’s privacy and space in this and if you have it in your heart, mine too. With everything I am and to anyone I let down, I am sorry. I try my best in everything. I failed people that love me and mostly myself.”
In her video, LaPaglia shared that she wasn’t expecting such a public announcement just a day after their breakup. “I’m at the point where it’s like, how can you give someone everything and love them so unconditionally, like, through stuff that you shouldn’t because you just love them and you see the good in them? How can you give every ounce of yourself to someone and then be discarded of in a few days?” she shared. “It’s really heartbreaking and I don’t want to talk about details right now. I don’t want to talk about it yet. I will, obviously, but right now, I wanted to heal privately.”
She continued, “I wasn’t ready to do anything publicly and now I’m just getting a bajillion freakin’ texts and s—. I just wanted to handle this as a human first and now it’s not that. I’m just asking if you could please respect my privacy right now and when I’m ready to talk about everything that happened, I will.”
LaPaglia concluded by thanking fans for their support, adding, “I’m going to be OK, I’m going to be fine. I’m just obviously really, really hurt right now. I just wanted to be hurt for a week and lay in bed.”
Speculation that the two had broken up swirled online after LaPaglia posted a cryptic note on her Instagram Stories on Oct. 21 that said, “And eventually you’ll find that life goes on, even if you don’t want it to. The days will pass and the world will move while you ask it to stop. You’ll believe life is cruel for continuing on while your feet are stuck.”
See her full video below.
Scott Stapp acknowledges that the 99-year-old Grand Ole Opry, whose storied membership includes Johnny Cash, George Strait and Tanya Tucker, is not the natural setting for “outliers like me.” But as the singer known for bombastic hard-rock Creed hits like “One Last Breath” and “Higher” prepares for his Opry debut Wednesday night (Oct. 23), he suggests he may be more country than people expect. “When I was young and poor, my grandparents were huge fans of country music and bluegrass. They would watch The Opry on TV in Florida. I can remember laying down on the floor with my hands under my chin with my grandparents behind me,” Stapp tells Billboard. “That’s why it’s a tremendous honor, and I want to do my best to bring my A-game.”
In the past six years, the Opry, which began in 1925 with Uncle Jimmy Thompson playing his fiddle at Nashville radio station WSM, has been more aggressive about opening its stage to non-traditional country performers. Post Malone, the pop and hip-hop star who this year released a chart-topping country album, performed in August; retired Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright, a singer-songwriter who put out an album this year titled Hey Y’All, made his debut in March; jam band Leftover Salmon and Andrew Farriss of INXS are scheduled for dates later this year. In 2018, 53 artists made their Opry debuts; last year, that number increased to 131, plus another 101 so far in 2024. For its 100th anniversary in 2025, the Opry is planning 100 debuts, beginning Jan. 18 with Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” this year became the first song in history to reach the Top 10 of the Country, Pop, Adult Pop and Rhythmic Airplay charts.
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“It’s a great thing. It’s important, because it expands what country music is,” says Jared Cotter, Shaboozey’s co-manager, adding that the singer accepted the Opry invitation “in about two seconds.” “It needs to evolve. We’re really excited to be what I think is at the forefront of it.”
Shaboozey
Eric Ryan Anderson
Dan Rogers, the show’s senior vp and executive producer, says his artist-relations team has emphasized “artists you might not normally expect to see at the Opry” — whether that’s African-American stars, like Shaboozey, who have historically been largely absent from the Opry stage, or performers who’ve built their music careers outside country, like Stapp. This is part of the broadcast’s tradition, Rogers adds — James Brown and Stevie Wonder, not known for their country inclinations, performed in 1979, as did rocker Peter Frampton in 2013. Similarly, in a throwback to Hee Haw, Jerry Clower, David “Stringbean” Akeman and others, the Opry inducted comedians Gary Mule Deer and Henry Cho as members last year. Until that point, the Opry had not inducted a comedian since 1973.
“It’s no secret we have opened our doors more broadly since the pandemic,” Rogers adds. “We’re always working to be steadfast in our programming philosophy, which is [to] present the past, present and future of country music every time that big red curtain goes up.” The strategy has worked so far — although he declines to provide attendance numbers, Rogers says “visitation” and “demand for Opry performances” has increased yearly since 2020 in terms of increased numbers of the 4,400-capacity shows.
The Opry’s inclusive definition of “country” in recent years reflects pop music in general, according to Brian Mansfield, a Nashville writer, historian and managing editor of radio-industry trade publication Country Insider. “You don’t really think of Post Malone as a country artist, but if you talk to him, he grew up knowing that stuff,” he says, then cites Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter album, even though the pop superstar has never performed at the Opry. “She wanted to show how the country music she grew up with in Houston, which has this unique blend of country and R&B and everything in its DNA, was part of what she was.”
Stapp, by contrast, did not set out to make a country song when he and his Nashville songwriting collaborators came up with “If These Walls Could Talk,” even though he spent his childhood watching Hee Haw on TV when it was recorded on the Opry stage throughout the ’80s. “The song was just born and created as-is,” says Stapp, who has lived in Nashville since 2016. “I don’t have any intent to try to change it into some kind of more country-leaning song just because I’m playing it at the Opry.” For his debut, Stapp plans to perform the song for the first time with Dorothy, the hard-rock singer who duets with him on the recording.
In emphasizing new and unexpected performers, the Opry is being savvy about expanding its audience. “Our research shows that 50% of the audience in the seats love country music, and that’s why they came to the Grand Ole Opry. And the other 50% are in Nashville, and they know they’re supposed to see the Grand Ole Opry,” Rogers says. “Both of those halves will appreciate when someone they wouldn’t expect shows up at the Opry.”
Post Malone at his Grand Ole Opry debut on Aug. 14, 2024.
Chris Hollo
NBCUniversal and a private-equity firm, Atairos Group, invested $296 million for a 30% stake in the Opry’s parent company, Opry Entertainment Group, in 2022. (The group also owns the Ryman Auditorium, which hosts numerous Opry shows, and Blake Shelton‘s Ole Red brand of country bars.) It makes sense that investors are happy to see the lineup expand as widely as possible — in the first half of this year, Creed’s catalog streamed 263 million times, and its 2024 reunion tour is headlining arenas, including Madison Square Garden next month. Of Stapp, Rogers says, “I’ve read two or three times now, people saying to him, ‘This sounds country, were you influenced by country artists?’ So that made sense. And the fact that he is so passionate about songwriting feels really authentic. It turns out, as it often does, he fits really interestingly with the show.”
Another recent unexpected Opry debut was Katharine McPhee, the former American Idol runner-up who is best known as a pop singer, although she starred on 2021’s Netflix series Country Comfort. In her Oct. 12 debut, McPhee performed two songs, “She Used to Be Mine” and Gretchen Wilson‘s “Redneck Woman,” and dueted with fellow performer Riley Green on “Don’t Mind If I Do.” Unlike Stapp, McPhee didn’t grow up watching country music on TV, although she was a fan of Martina McBride, Shania Twain and Faith Hill.
“I didn’t know [Opry attendees] would be so attentive and friendly. They’re just music lovers. They just want to be there and root for whoever’s up on that stage,” McPhee tells Billboard. “I walked out to an audience full of smiling, warm faces, and that was really delightful.”
The same week Jelly Roll scored his first-ever No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Beautifully Broken, the country star revealed he also hit another impressive milestone: losing 100 pounds. In a video update shared with fans on Instagram Monday (Oct. 21), Jelly pulled back the curtain on his fitness regimen while touring. “Next […]