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Tyler Hubbard is putting his own spin on a modern pop classic. The two-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper recently recorded a batch of songs as part of the Apple Music Nashville Sessions, and alongside some of his own hits, he reimagined The Weeknd‘s 2020 four-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Blinding Lights.” Hubbard’s performance […]
Some spur-of-the-moment decisions — and some industry champions — have led singer-songwriter Ella Langley to her breakthrough song, and her newly released debut album.
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“It’s not even my birthday, but it feels like the best birthday I’ve ever had,” Langley told Billboard on Aug. 2, the release day for her 14-song debut album Hungover, out on SAWGOD/Columbia Records.
Langley’s Alabama twang has been all over social media lately, thanks to “You Look Like You Love Me,” a pedal steel-soaked, flirty song about a woman making the first move. The Hope Hull, Alabama native teamed with fellow country hitmaker Riley Green for the largely spoken, retro-sounding collaboration, which sits at No. 15 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The track previously reached No. 5 on Billboard’s TikTok Top 50 chart, and peaked at No. 36 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
“You Look Like You Love Me” was gaining steam even before the song became a duet. In May, Langley posted a clip to TikTok of singing the song’s verse and hook solo; that clip earned 10.5 million views. Langley was opening shows on Green’s Ain’t My Last Rodeo Tour earlier this year, when the two performed the song together in a spontaneous moment during the final show of the tour.
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“We had no idea we were going to do the song that night onstage, but we did,” Langley says. “He’s from Alabama too, and I remember a long time ago playing for a line of people waiting to get into a Riley Green show. I didn’t have a ticket, I just watched his show through the gate. So getting on his tour was good. I really just sent it to him so we could sing it together on tour. We had been doing another song together, but then we just ripped into this song and it’s been a whirlwind ever since,” Langley says.
In June, a video was posted to TikTok of Langley and Green performing the song together during a soundcheck at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Their voices wrapped around the song’s amorous verses resonated; that 30-second TikTok clip now has over 12 million views.
”It kind of blew up that way,” Langley says.
With the song riding high, she follows with Hungover, an album that seems poised to showcase Langley as an intrepid artist with a fully developed perspective and a fine-tuned sound, thanks to songs like the sashaying “Cowboy Friends,” the tender “People Change” and honky-tonk heater “Better Be Tough.”
In addition to potent songs, Langley has been a road warrior. She will launch her 14-date headlining North American tour later this month, interspersing those dates between opening for Morgan Wallen’s One Night a Time Tour, as well as opening shows for Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley. She just opened for Wallen at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, marking her first stadium shows.
“It was insane,” she recalls of playing the stadium. “I was talking to Lainey [Wilson] the other day about when I used to watch concerts as a kid and how I just had the toughest time going to watch concerts. I wanted to be up there so bad — just like, I could throw up. So, getting up in that stadium yesterday felt like that little girl’s dream just came true, and just letting her enjoy the hard work that’s been put into this.”
Below, Billboard’s Country Rookie of the Month for August opens up about her new album, country music’s current communal spirit, and the journey of “You Look Like You Love Me” from creation to hit song.
How did “You Look Like You Love Me” come about?
“You Look Like You Love Me” was written two years ago, inspired by a conversation with one of the song’s co-writers, Aaron Raitiere. His ideas are nuts and I love writing with him. We were in a write and he was like, “So how’s your relationship life going?” and I said, “Honestly, I’m at the point where if they look like they love me, I just got to get out of there.” And he was like, “That’s a great song title.”
Six months later, we had another writing session. I wanted a funny song that I could play around a bonfire. We literally just hit record and wrote probably 16 verses and then picked our favorite ones and put it together. Then Riley added a verse, and it’s just this sweet love song.
You never meant for this song to be released as a single. How did that happen?
Mya Hansen, who was my publisher at the time but is now on my label side, always loved the song. I was like, “Mya, this song is just a joke.” She tried to get me to put it on the EP [2023’s Excuse the Mess] and I didn’t let her. So, she put it in the Dropbox link on her own for this album, and that’s how the label heard it — it was the last one of all of the demos. Everyone loved it, and I was like, “If y’all believe in this song, then let’s cut it.” It was right after we cut it that Riley asked us on tour.
How did you first get interested in music?
My whole family is musically inclined. I was three years old the first time I got up to sing in church. My mom tells a story where my grandpa sits down at the piano and we’re going to do “Amazing Grace,” and my mom’s trying to help me with the microphone and I’m three years old, and I’m like, “I got it. I know how to do it,” and everyone in church is laughing. So this is what I’ve always wanted to do. When I was a teenager, I picked up guitar.
Did you play in a band in high school?
I played a lot of wedding ceremonies. Then I played bars and restaurants and everywhere that would let me play. I went to Auburn for two years and that got me into the cover gigs, the bar scene and the [Southeastern Conference] schools. That was a massive education, because you learn so much playing covers for four hours, multiple nights a week, trying to make people give a s–t. But I reached the point where I was like, “Nothing’s going to happen if I stay here,” so I moved to Nashville and I’m glad I did.
There are some very personal songs on Hungover, like “Closest to Heaven,” which is based on the story of your grandparents. What does that song mean to you?
My grandma had a stroke when I was 10 or 11. My grandpa lived with us and she was in a nursing home. We’d bring her home to stay the night. My grandpa passed away and a lot of times when someone is at the end of their life, they bring a pastor into kind of talk with and it’s kind of like a quiet moment. He came over and my grandmother was there and they wheeled her into my grandpa’s room and shut the door. I’ll never know what was said in that room, so this is my song about what I think was said.
You have this collaboration with Riley. Who else is on your bucket list of collaborators?
Eric Church, Chris Stapleton, Miranda Lambert. Miley Cyrus has also been at the top of my list—I would love to even just sit in a room and ask her questions. And Ashley McBryde’s songwriting is so incredible and just very real-life and honest. I think me and Megan Moroney could come up with something awesome.
There have been several artists, such as Megan, who have brought your name up as an artist to watch. How do you react to that?
It’s hard to comprehend because you spend so much time wishing for something to happen and when it does start to happen, it’s nuts. Just to hear people you respect say that. [Megan and I’ve] known each other since before we moved to Nashville. I was at Auburn and she was at Georgia and my manager Bradley Jordan is part of a sunglasses company that’s partnered with Luke Combs, Blue Otter Polarized. Megan was doing a lot of influencer stuff back in the day and Bradley connected us. We wrote together once right when she moved to Nashville. It’s just awesome to see how many women are crushing it right now and we’re all just friends. It’s fun, it’s supportive and everyone has worked so hard to get here, so it’s great to be excited for everyone.
What was the first concert you saw?
The only concerts I saw growing up were at the Montgomery County Fair. The first person I remember seeing was Justin Moore. I remember Luke Combs came through right when “When It Rains It Pours” blew up, and I got sick that night and couldn’t go. I had the worst FOMO ever, not going to that concert.
What’s the best advice you have heard along the way?
I heard Chris Stapleton on a podcast when I moved to town, and this has been stuck in my brain ever since I heard it. Joe Rogan asked him about advice for young artists, and he said, “When you’re putting out songs, you never know the song that’s going to change your life — and then you could be stuck singing that song for the rest of your life, so really pay attention to the songs you release.”
Machine Gun Kelly has a year of sobriety under his belt and he has girlfriend Megan Fox to thank for helping him stay “completely sober from everything” since he quietly entered a rehab facility last year. “I’m completely sober from everything. I don’t drink anymore. I haven’t drank since last August,” MGK, 34, told Bunnie XO on her Dumb Blonde podcast on Monday (August 5).
Kelly said he went to rehab after wrapping up his European tour in July 2023. “I didn’t tell anybody outside of the [people] closest to me. That was my first time I ever went to rehab,” he told Bunnie, the model/influencer/podcaster and wife of country star Jelly Roll. “They just gave me so many ways to operate the body, show where this anger is coming from, and methods to quell it.”
He said he met with a number of therapists and psychiatrists, some of whom “gave up on me,” before he came to peace with his condition. “It’s a constant tightrope walk,” he said of sobriety after admitting he “went the f–k off” with drugs in his 20s.
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“I continue to embrace that this journey is gonna be hard for me, but I accept it and forgive myself. I’m also really hard on myself, very self-deprecating,” he said, while also thanking longtime partner actress Fox for standing by him. “Megan has for sure been extremely helpful in dealing with the kind of psychological withdrawals that come with [sobriety]. I love that I’m clear when I look at the person I love. I’m really happy that I’m clear when my daughter [Casie] and I are having our conversations and I’m coming from a place of being centered and holding space for what a child needs from their parent, which is patience and advice.”
The one thing MGK joked “kills” him is that at one point Bunnie asked the singer if he was up for a drinking contest with his “Lonely Road” collaborator Jelly Roll, and a sober Kelly had to politely decline. “It just kills me because I just know I would have f–king drank that man under the table!” MGK laughed during what was otherwise a very measured, intense pod.
The conversation also touched on the rapper/rocker-turned country crooner’s difficult childhood, including a mea culpa for the anger he’s previously expressed in interviews about his parents, especially his late father. “They deserve forgiveness,” he said of some of the comments earlier in his career he made about his traumatic upbringing. “He [MGK’s father] was so tormented from some of the most insane s–t I could imagine a kid could go through that he had to figure it out with almost every possible bad circumstance going against him.”
The singer, born Colson Baker, grew up the son of Christian missionaries and he described the trauma of his father being implicated in the murder of his own father when he was nine-years-old. “The story that was always told me was that their dad dropped the gun and his head essentially blew off,” MGK said haltingly about the horrifying accident and the generational “curse” he’s been told about by mediums in reference to the men in his family. “That all happened in the room with my dad at nine-years-old. So him and my grandmother were tried for the murder. They were both acquitted.”
He recalled his dad’s “gnarly” freak outs whenever a young Colson would make loud noises, a reaction that made the rapper “hate him,” though he know realizes that what he was reacting to was his father’s childhood trauma. Though he didn’t go into details, MGK said he discussed the incident with his father when he was on his death bed, which made the musician realize he’s “projected myself to be somebody who has the stamina to endure… all these things that come with fame and criticism and hate because I fought back with all those traumas by becoming what I always wanted my dad to be, which is like tough, and shake everything off and fight anyone that comes at you.”
The nearly two-hour, wide-ranging chat also touched on MGK’s troubled relationship with his mother, whom he also admitted to “misrepresent[ing] her a lot early in my career.”
Listen to MGK talk his rehab stint on Dumb Blonde below (sobriety talk begins at 1:46:45 mark).
As a country artist, Cody Johnson has topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart twice, has won CMA Awards, and has been headlining shows for years. He’s also a longtime cowboy, who recently won a top spot in the World Series of Team Roping Qualifier. But could Johnson have his sights set on the big screen?
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With his riding and roping skills, it would seem that Texas native Johnson would be a natural on Taylor Sheridan’s hit television series Yellowstone — in fact, Johnson had to turn down a role on the show due to scheduling conflicts. But he told Audacy‘s Rob + Holly that he’s been in discussions with Sheridan and his team about some future acting possibilities.
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“We’ve tried a couple of times [to appear on Yellowstone] and my schedule is too busy to put aside the time,” Johnson said. “We’re looking ahead to the future. There’s a few movie things were I’m like, ‘Look, if you guys give me the notice I can make this happen.”
Meanwhile the “Dirt Cheap” hitmaker recently extended his headlining Leather Tour, adding 10 shows to the trek, including a show at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on Nov. 9. Whether he’s on stage or (presumably at some point) on the big screen, Johnson knows the impact he’s having on younger generations and it’s a role he takes seriously.
“It’s not lost on me that these kids, these young men will come to the shows… eight- and nine-year-old kids and say ‘Mr. Cody, when I grow up I want to be just like you’ and I’m like, ‘Alright, Johnson, you better make sure you’re putting forth a good example… don’t screw this up, because then you’re letting that kid down.’”
Johnson says he wants to be a good role model not only due to his influence on younger generations, but because he’s thankful for the career he’s forged and the family he’s been blessed with.
“In my younger years I was pretty wild,” he added. “I’ve been blessed with an opportunity to have a career that I never thought was possible, to have a marriage that I never thought was possible, and to have two little kids that I couldn’t have dreamed of in my wildest dreams. I think you either screw it up or you man up.”
Of course, Johnson wouldn’t be the first singer to appear on one of Sheridan’s projects. Reigning CMA and ACM entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson has had a recurring role on Yellowstone, while Ryan Bingham has portrayed the role of Walker. And don’t forget, actor-musician Luke Grimes was already a Yellowstone star when he decided to make his foray into country music.
Morgan Wallen took over Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., on Friday (Aug. 2) as part of his One Night at a Time tour — and he had a special surprise guests at his side.
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In videos posted to social media, the “Last Night” singer was seen stepping out into the stadium with Kansas City Chiefs superstars Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones. In the video portrayed on the stadium’s big screen, the group dap each other up and walk together through the backstage corridor to the tune of “WHISKEY WHISKEY” by Moneybagg Yo, featuring Wallen.
Wallen is seen rocking a Chiefs jersey of his own in the video, with his last name written on the back alongside the number seven, which also happened to be the country superstar’s own high school football jersey number.
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Later in the evening, a man was charged after threatening on social media to shoot “two individuals, who were members of the Kansas City Chiefs organization” and who were present at the event, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in Missouri. The statement, which referred to the felony as a “terroristic threat,” was released Saturday by Michael Mansur, director of communication, on behalf of Jackson County’s prosecutor, Jean Peters Bak.
As a result, the show was delayed 40 minutes. In court documents, the defendant was quoted as saying, “It was a stupid, stupid, stupid mistake.” He claimed he had never made threats in the past on social media and stated again that “it was stupid.” His girlfriend told investigators that the alleged threat was posted, and then deleted, on a “burner” account where he’d “tweet stupid stuff.”
“The defendant was charged earlier today and a $15,000 bond was set. Prosecutors requested a $250,000 cash bond,” according to the prosecutor’s office.
When it comes to finding success through American Idol, Carrie Underwood needs no advice. She was the winner of the music talent competiton’s fourth season in 2005, and since then, has gone on to become a three-time Academy of Country Music entertainer of the year winner and an eight-time Grammy winner who has notched 16 […]
Late folk-country icon John Denver returns to the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart (dated Aug. 10) as a writer via MGK — who formerly went by Machine Gun Kelly — and Jelly Roll’s new single, “Lonely Road.”
The track, released July 26, launches at No. 33 on the Hot 100 with 10.5 million official streams, 646,000 in radio airplay audience and 12,000 sold in the United States in the week ending Aug. 1, according to Luminate.
Referring to himself and Jelly Roll as KellyRoll, MGK revealed that they worked on “Lonely Road” for “2 years [in] 8 different studios [and] 4 different countries [and] changed the key 4 times.”
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The song, MGK’s fourth top 40 Hot 100 hit and Jelly Roll’s seventh, reimagines Denver’s breakthrough anthem “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” which journeyed to No. 2 on the Hot 100 in 1971. The singer-songwriter tallied 14 top 40 hits through 1982, when “Shanghai Breezes” reached No. 31. He logged four No. 1s, among seven top 10s.
Denver, who died in 1997, appears in the Hot 100’s top 40 as a writer for a second time in the past decade – with both via reworkings of “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” In October 2016, “Forever Country,” by Artists of Then, Now & Forever, hit No. 21. The song, released in celebration of 50 years of the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, is a medley of three favorites: “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” and Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” The all-star track also spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
“Lonely Road” concurrently debuts at No. 13 on Hot Country Songs.
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Denver’s enduring original “Take Me Home, Country Roads” has drawn 931 million official on-demand streams in the U.S. to date. It has also totaled 230 million in radio reach and sold 1.8 million downloads.
Further modernizing its profile, Lana Del Rey’s cover hit No. 23 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs this past December.
Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert (who were then married) co-wrote the song from its start and finished penning it with Denver. Since 2014, it has served as an official state song of West Virginia, while Denver’s version was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023.
Springfield, Mass., native Danoff recalled in 2018 to Billboard that, after he began studying at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he had “one year where I did a lot of road trips. I just was fascinated by the countryside … barns … stuff I had only seen in pictures. I’d suddenly become a real nature fan. That’s where all that ‘country roads’ stuff came from.”
Singer-songwriter and Yellowstone actor Luke Grimes and his wife, Brazilian model Bianca Rodrigues Grimes, are expecting their first child together, she announced on Instagram Sunday (Aug. 4).
Bianca shared a photo of herself, a silhouette which showed off her baby bump, with the caption, “Can’t wait to meet you little one,” accompanied by a heart emoji.
The couple wed in November 2018.
In March, Grimes released his self-titled debut album, which followed his 2023 Dave Cobb-produced EP Pain Pills or Pews. In 2023, he also released his debut country single “No Horse to Ride.” Grimes previously signed with UMG Nashville in association with Range Music.
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The couple have appeared at several television, film and movie events in recent years, including walking the carpet together at the Yellowstone season five premiere, held in New York City, and appearing at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas in 2022.
In a 2023 interview with Billboard, Grimes said that his Yellowstone co-star and fellow singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson gave him the courage to step into the country music world.
“It was inspiring to watch Lainey step into those [acting] shoes,” he said. “As much as I was afraid that people would naturally be like, ‘What is this guy doing here?’ I realized that no one on our set was like, ‘What is she doing here?’ Everyone was like, ‘She’s awesome and we’re glad she wants to do this.’ That took some of the fear away for me.”
Grimes recently appeared in the movie Happiness for Beginners, and according to IMDB, another project, Eddington, is in post-production. The second part of Yellowstone season five will arrive Nov. 10 on Paramount+.
See the pregnancy announcement below:
This week’s batch of new songs features a double-shot of hitmakers with Lainey Wilson teaming with Miranda Lambert for a new collaboration. Elsewhere, Orville Peck joins forces with Allison Russell on a song from Peck’s new album, while Alex Lambert and Gavin Adcock also offer new tunes.
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Check out all these and more in Billboard’s roundup of the best country songs of the week below:
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Lainey Wilson feat. Miranda Lambert, “Good Horses”
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Two of country music’s most illustrious women artists team up for a double-shot of star power, as Wilson’s Louisiana drawl blends wondrously with Lambert’s Texas twang. On this laid-back song, they use the metaphor of a wild horse to acknowledge the wanderlust and draw of freedom and adventure amidst the need for the comforts of home, while offering a tender reminder to those they leave behind that “good horses always come home.” Sonically, this honeyed, hazy song lilts along with the grace, highlighting that not every star-powered song needs a high-voltage vocal performance — sometimes the gentle arc of direct, heartfelt words are made all the stronger for the gentleness.
Orville Peck & Allison Russell, “Chemical Sunset”
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On Orville Peck’s new album Stampede, he teams with Americana music luminary Allison Russell on this stomping, theatrical pairing. Their voices are tremendous, with Russell’s voice sultry and fluttering, and delicately cracking in just the right places with Peck’s vocal rendering a cavernous, steady foil, fusing to convey song’s brooding message of living life with desire and abandon, even as the world burns around them. “Chemical Sunset” marks an illustrious standout on this project.
Alex Lambert, “She Ain’t Texas”
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Texan Lambert issues a bluesy country ballad that evokes trading the draw of home in the pursuit of ambition — in his case, leaving his home in Fort Worth, Texas to move to Nashville. His voice is at once rugged, wistful, soulful, and instantly commanding. Lambert wrote “She Ain’t Texas” with Jordan Lawhead, with production from Drew Allsbrook, Stefan Lit and Dylan Chambers. Lambert may be forlorn over the Lone Star State, but this track makes his Tennessee prospects favorable.
Kameron Marlowe & Marcus King, “High Hopes”
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This song from Marlowe’s 2024 album Keepin’ the Lights On gets a bluesy reimagining, thanks to singer-songwriter-guitarist King. The song is a tightrope of mourning and longing as he moves through disappointment to the first glimmers of hope. On its surface, it’s a curious pairing between the mainstream country singer Marlowe and Americana stalwart King, but their voices blend mightily, while King’s guitar prowess gives the song a darker, moodier patina.
Chase Matthew with Fernando & Sorocaba, “Cold Blooded”
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“Casa Branca” hitmakers Fernando & Sorocaba team with country hitmaker Chase Matthew on their latest outing. Brazilian, EDM rhythms and country constructions weave together, turning heartache into a technicolor dancefloor anthem in this tale of a guy whose trying to earn the affections of someone whose “love is on lockdown,” as he toggles between hope and the knowledge that he’ll never break through her icy heart. Fernando & Sorocaba are set to release the upcoming project NASH, featuring more collabs with country artists including Dustin Lynch, LOCASH and more.
Gavin Adcock, “Run Your Mouth”
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Georgia native and high school sports star-turned-singer Adcock broke through with the angsty ballad “A Cigarette,” but his new song conveys the embedded musical influence of Southern rock, as he growls and seethes his way through this moody, musical warning shot to someone who. “If you live like this, make sure that you don’t miss/ Your opportunity when you gotta go.” Adcock just released his album Actin’ Up Again, via Thrivin Here Records under exclusive license to Warner Music Nashville.
Carly Pearce is headed out on a tour that will see the country star on her largest international outing yet.
Pearce, who is booked by CAA, will start in Windsor, Ontario, on Oct. 3 and wind through North America, Europe and the U.K. before returning to the U.S. to end the tour in Nashville on May 16 more than 40 dates later. Openers on the Conundrum Wines-sponsored tour will be Karley Scott Collins, Matt Lange, Wade Bowen and Carter Faith on selected dates.
Pearce will hit a number of markets in Europe that she has never played before, including Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Munich and the U.K.’s Bristol and Birmingham. Additionally, a number of dates that have already gone on sale are upgrading because of ticket demand. Pearce has added a second night at London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire after the first night sold out, while her shows in both Glasgow and Belfast have been moved to bigger venues to accommodate demand.
Carly Pearce
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“Fans in the U.K. and Europe have always been such big supporters of artists, not just the songs on the radio,” Pearce tells Billboard. “They have a deep appreciation for songwriting and the true special moments that make me ‘me.’ I’m excited to see my fan growth and can’t wait to have what I know will be an unforgettable tour.”
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Pearce will be playing all her hits, as well as dipping into her fourth full-length album, hummingbird, which came out earlier this summer. “I’m just so excited to bring this album to life,” she says. “These songs have been such a big part of my healing process and they deserve to be celebrated.”
The album’s latest single, “Truck on Fire,” debuted at No. 55 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated Aug. 10. The album’s first single, the moving ballad “We Don’t Fight Anymore,” featuring Chris Stapleton, reached No. 9 on Country Airplay, making it her fifth top 10 hit, including her three No. 1s: “Every Little Thing,” “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” featuring Lee Brice, and “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” featuring Ashley McBryde.
Tickets for the North American dates go on sale Aug. 6 through the Official Carly Pearce Fan Club presale, with general tickets available starting Aug. 9.