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Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.
Kristofferson died at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday (Sept. 28), spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.
McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family. No cause was given. He was 88.
Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas, native wrote such classics as “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “For the Good Times” and “Me and Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”
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He also starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 A Star Is Born and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s Blade in 1998.
Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.
“There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson said during a November 2009 award ceremony for Kristofferson held by BMI. “Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”
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As an actor, he played the leading man opposite Barbara Streisand and Ellen Burstyn, but also had a fondness for shoot-out Westerns and cowboy dramas.
He was a Golden Gloves boxer and football player in college, received a master’s degree in English from Merton College at the University of Oxford in England and turned down an appointment to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal Blonde on Blonde double album.
At times, the legend of Kristofferson was larger than real life. Cash liked to tell a mostly exaggerated story of how Kristofferson, a former U.S. Army pilot, landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to give him a tape of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” with a beer in one hand. Over the years in interviews, Kristofferson said that with all respect to Cash, while he did land a helicopter at Cash’s house, the Man in Black wasn’t even home at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one ever actually cut — and he certainly couldn’t fly a helicopter holding a beer.
In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said he might not have had a career without Cash.
“Shaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I’d decided I’d come back,” Kristofferson said. “It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first time.”
One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” was written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in his head called “Me and Bobby McKee,” named after a female secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview in the magazine, Performing Songwriter that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man and woman on the road together after watching the Frederico Fellini film La Strada.
Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.
Hits that Kristofferson recorded include “Why Me,” “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do),” “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “A Song I’d Like to Sing” and “Jesus Was a Capricorn.”
In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy awards. They divorced in 1980.
He retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional guest appearances on stage.
Jelly Roll brought a pair of new tracks during his musical guest debut on the season 50 premiere of Saturday Night Live. The 39-year-old country singer and rapper brought positive energy to Studio 8H on Sept. 28, performing new songs “Liar” and “Winning Streak,” both of which will appear on his upcoming album, Beautifully Broken, […]
On Sept. 28, 2002, Diamond Rio’s “Beautiful Mess” began a two-week run at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, marking the group’s fourth leader.
The song was written by Sonny LeMaire (of Exile), Clay Mills and Shane Minor. It was released as the lead single from Diamond Rio’s album Completely, which also generated the act’s fifth and most recent No. 1 single, “I Believe.”
In April 1990, Diamond Rio (formerly known as The Grizzly River Boys, then The Tennessee River Boys), signed with Arista Records Nashville. The group then was comprised of lead vocalist Marty Roe, Gene Johnson, Jimmy Olander, Brian Prout, Dan Truman and Dana Williams.
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In June 1991, Diamond Rio’s debut Hot Country Songs entry, “Meet in the Middle,” hit No. 1 – making the act the first group to reign with a rookie single. The band has notched 19 career top 10s, including its other leaders “How Your Love Makes Me Feel” in 1997 and “One More Day” in 2001. The group has tallied 29 top 40 entries, through the No. 30 hit “God Only Cries” in 2006.
Said Oleander to Billboard in 2014 of Diamond Rio’s early ‘90s breakthrough, “I see these guys in these fantastic coiffed mullets and I remember the idealism that we had — ‘We’re going to do this. We’re going to reinvent that’ — and all that stuff. I’d do the same all over again.”
In 2022, Diamond Rio underwent its first lineup change in 33 years, as drummer Prout retired and was replaced by Micah Schweinsberg (formerly of gospel act The Crabb Family). Later that year, vocalist/mandolinist Johnson announced his departure from the group to focus his efforts in bluegrass.
Currently on the road, Diamond Rio makes its next stop in Wharton, Texas, on Sept. 29.
Here’s how nostalgic Brad Paisley is: “I find myself before an amazing event is even finished thinking, ‘Oh man, this is really gonna be a bummer when it’s over!’,” he says.
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So it should come as no surprise that the country star decided to look back at a historic chapter in his life and career when creating “Truck Still Works,” his new single that drops today on EMI Music. The song serves as a companion of sorts to 1994’s charming, uplifting “Mud on the Tires,” which became one of his biggest hits.
The catchy, mid-tempo tune, which Paisley premiered on the People’s Choice Country Awards Thursday night (Sept. 26) as a medley with “Mud on the Tires,” questions if he and his female companion can turn a truck that’s been sitting dormant for years into a wayback machine that can transport them back to an earlier, care-free time. As the lyrics ask, they can “see if them miles of corn still got that shade of green” or “find out if that dogwood limb is still there to hang our shirts.” “It’s no more complicated than the nostalgia of it,” Paisley says of the song. “We all want to recapture certain aspects of life.”
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When “Truck Still Works” co-writers Rodney Clawson, Will Bundy and Hunter Phelps first approached Paisley and DuBois, who co-wrote “Mud on the Tires,” about revisiting that song in some manner, the trio expressed apprehension about stepping on the Paisley/DuBois classic. However, Paisley says, “Chris and I were like, ‘Oh no! Lean in!’ This is truly a sequel.”
Brad Paisley ‘Truck Still Works’
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It felt right and good to revisit that time again, Paisley says. “I look back on the Mud on the Tires era as an album and a time period where everything did sort of launch in a bigger way for me. ‘Mud on the Tires’ was a call to action, a metaphor, it felt like a lifestyle.” For Paisley, the title track became his fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and the album’s fourth Top 5 hit and further catapulted his career. To this day, Paisley ends his shows with “Mud on the Tires.” “If I don’t do it, people want their money back,” he says. “I can’t imagine my identity as an artist without that, so it’s really fun to kind of lean into this.”
Once they “leaned in,” the five co-writers had a blast planting Easter eggs in “Truck Still Works” that hark back to “Mud on the Tires, ” while still creating a song that felt “entirely new,” Paisley says. In addition to the lyrical references, Paisley even threw in musical reminders, such as using similar guitar patterns and chord inversions.
Those musical cues were enough for ardent fans, including Jelly Roll and Post Malone, to guess the song was a “Mud on the Tires” sequel based on a small snippet Paisley posted on Instagram and X earlier this week. “It’s fun to think back when Jelly was a young’un, he might have even bought ‘Mud on the Tires,’” Paisley says.
The throwbacks extend to the single artwork, which features the truck that Paisley had when “Mud on the Tires” came out and serves as his farm truck now.
The song intentionally doesn’t answer if the truck does, indeed, still work, leaving it up to the listener’s imagination. “That wouldn’t be cool,” he says, to bring the song back to reality. “It’s still the metaphor of it, the idea of can you recapture that thing when everything’s [now] different,” he says.
The song shifts sonic gears for Paisley who last September released Son of the Mountains: The First Four Tracks, an EP of a quartet of songs in part inspired by his growing up in West Virginia. The album tackled such serious subjects as the opioid crisis, which has hit his home state particularly hard, on “The Medicine Will.” It also looked at the ways we are all alike no matter where we’re from with “Same Here,” which featured a spoken word passage by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
That album is now on hold. “I ended up getting really excited about a few of these things that I started to write, and we came up with an entirely new project,” he says.
Given the weightiness of some of the topics on Son of the Mountains, Paisley wanted to take a break. “There’s a lot of it that’s very heavy. A lot of [the album] exists to deal with things and I don’t know if anybody really wants to deal with things right now. I don’t. And if I’m going to put the rest of that album out, I have to be willing to sort of discuss some very heavy things. I don’t know that I would even want to do that right now.”
Instead, he says the lighter fare on Truck Still Works is what “I think people really want to hear right now.”
The new album, which will likely come out in early 2025, will be his first full-length album since 2017 and his first since moving from Sony Nashville’s Arista imprint to Universal Music Group Nashville’s EMI Records. Paisley says “Truck” is a good indicator of the album’s direction.
“The project has some deeper things on it but, like the song itself, is really about creativity and nostalgia and you know the themes that you want to hear right now,” he says. “Sometimes, like in these times, it’s great to give people something they just want to turn up and takes them to a place where they feel good.”
Luke Combs claims a second week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Oct. 5) with “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma.” The song increased by 2% to 30.7 million audience impressions Sept. 20-26, according to Luminate.
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Co-authored by Combs, the hit from the soundtrack Twisters: The Album is the 13th of his 18 Country Airplay leaders to dominate for multiple weeks – and marks another notable career achievement: Combining all his No. 1s, he has now spent more than a year – 53 weeks – at the summit. Kenny Chesney has logged the most weeks at No. 1 (83), dating to the chart’s 1990 start, followed by Tim McGraw (80), George Strait (66), Alan Jackson (60), Blake Shelton (57), Toby Keith and Combs (53 each).
“I’m really blown away,” Combs tells Billboard. “The support from country radio for my music and fans has always been more than I ever could have imagined. I’ve always known they were huge supporters of my music but this proves it in more ways than one.
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“I never thought I would get one week at No. 1, but when I did, I felt like I had won the lottery,” Combs marvels. “So, for my songs to have spent a full year at No. 1 with guys I grew up listening to and admiring is more than I could have ever dreamed of. Thank you, country radio, for letting this young man from North Carolina, who most had never heard of when y’all started playing my music, live out his dreams and do what he loves.”
Combs’ longest-leading Country Airplay No. 1 is “Beautiful Crazy,” which posted a seven-week command beginning in March 2019, followed by “Forever After All” (six weeks, starting in June 2021) and “Fast Car” and “Even Though I’m Leaving” (five each, beginning in July 2023 and November 2019, respectively).
Says Tom Oakes, SummitMedia operations manager and program director of Country Airplay reporter KTTS in Springfield, Mo., Combs’ success “is a testament to his ability to relate to the audience. He comes across as an everyday guy working hard to make his mark, raise a family and overcome the challenges life serves up. It comes through his songs, which speak to listeners on a level which they experience and live every day, whether it’s a serious or more dramatic theme, or just flat-out fun.
“At the core of his staying power is his ability to consistently appeal to listeners, as seen through long-term positive research on his music and his success on the concert circuit,” Oakes adds. “‘Oklahoma’ is different production-wise, as it is a straight-out rocker. Whatever he comes with next will likely be different in style and fresh-sounding.”
While accepting best crossover song at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards Thursday (Sept. 26), MGK (formerly Machine Gun Kelly) gave the biggest thank you to someone he used to have bad blood with: Jelly Roll.
Now, the two are both friends and collaborators, with their July duet “Lonely Road” taking home the crossover award at the ceremony, which the “Son of a Sinner” star didn’t attend. “Dude, Jelly Roll. Bubba!” MGK cheered on the stage on behalf of his song partner. “Jelly, I love you. We went from 10 years ago, hating each other, to elevating each other.”
“Comparison is the thief of joy,” the rapper-turned-rocker added, holding up his trophy. “There’s enough room on this couch for everybody. We found camaraderie in the chaos.”
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Jelly and the “My Ex’s Best Friend” singer previously addressed their decade-old feud in a Sept. 13 vodcast episode, helping Spotify launch its musician-focused Countdown To series. “It is so funny how much I love you now,” MGK said during their conversation, sitting face to face with the country star. “God, I hated you so much back then.”
“You gotta understand there was only like seven white rappers on Earth at this time, so it was so competitive when you was in that pool, that we were kind of automatically forced against each other anyways,” Jelly added with a laugh at the time. “You were just like, just skinny and handsome. So I was like, I was just a hater. I was just a hater, dude! It’s hard to grow up in front of the whole world.”
In addition to dropping “Lonely Road” in July, Jelly and MGK also shot a music video costarring their respective partners, Bunnie XO and Megan Fox. The visual finds the musicians struggling to provide for their families, so they organize a heist that ends with MGK behind bars, leaving the Jennifer’s Body actress to raise their fictional newborn baby without him.
Watch MGK thank Jelly Roll at the People’s Choice Country Awards below.
Austin City Limits (ACL) will celebrate its 50th season with an assist from Texas native and Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves. The season will launch Saturday, Sept. 28, with an hour’s worth of music from Musgraves. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In the previously taped appearance, she […]
Since earning his first Billboard Country Airplay top 5 hit with “All My Friends Say” in 2007, Luke Bryan has amassed 26 Country Airplay No. 1s — representing a mix of somber heartbreak tunes such as “Do I,” and a string of celebratory anthems revolving around rural settings and young love. As such, Bryan quickly ascended to headlining stadiums on the strength of his hitmaking (and yes, onstage hip-shaking), collecting five entertainer of the year trophies (two from the CMA and a trio of trophies from the ACM).
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To be sure, on Bryan’s eighth studio album, Mind of A Country Boy (out Friday, Sept. 27 on UMG Nashville), there are hook-filled, rowdy party sparkers such as “But I Got a Beer in My Hand” and “Country On,” but embedded in the album are also songs that accelerate the country quotient, and songs that convey the perspective of an artist nearly two decades into his career, speaking from maturity as a husband, father and seasoned musician.
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“I think it reflects where I’m at in life. I’ve had the party songs throughout my life and when I look at my career, I’ve put out the music I’ve always wanted to and this is the music I want out now,” Bryan tells Billboard.
That family aspect touches many songs on his new album, such as “Pair of Boots.”
“I have boys that were raised seeing their boots and cowboy boots everywhere,” says Bryan — who, with his wife Caroline, are parents to two teenage sons. “I think a pair of boots on a young boy teaches them about growing into manhood and I think it’s a tip of the cap to dads that start their kids off wearing boots. And certainly, if you’re a dad with boys, you get it.”
One of the standout songs on the album is “For the Kids,” which Bryan wrote with Justin Ebach and Old Dominion’s Brad Tursi. The song depicts a couple whose flame has fizzled out, but who are holding their marriage together simply for the sake of the kids. Though Bryan says the song’s story arc does not reflect his own nearly 18-year marriage to wife Caroline, he does feel it “might be one of the best songs I’ve written.”
Bryan says he and Caroline, who have been married since 2006, have been intentional about putting family first.
“I think we keep it all real,” he says. “There’s a time for me to go be a celebrity and there’s a time for me to go be a husband and a dad. It’s about communication and having a support group around you, a group of friends you enjoy being around and making sure you have positive people in your life. I think as you talk to people who have been married 30, 40 years, there’s always times in the marriage where there are bumps in the road, times that the kids might have been the thing that really held the whole unit together, and then there’s times when you’re an empty nester. I think this song touches on the journeys of marriage and what it takes to see it through forever.”
As a father to two teenage boys, 16-year-old Thomas (“Bo”), and 14-year-old Tatum (“Tate”), Bryan realizes his sons’ college years are not too far in the future.
“We’ve created a household where everybody hopefully wants to converge on [it when they can]. When they’re in college, you’re kind of empty-nesting, but when the fall breaks and Christmases and hunting seasons… when hunting season comes in, they start migrating back to the farm, where we can all hunt together. We take it year by year. The main thing is just to enjoy the time together, and get them through school and just raise them to be good boys and we know they’ll come back around.”
Another song on the album, “Jesus About My Kids,” written by Jeff Hyde, Tucker Beathard, Ben Stennis and Brad Rempel, delves even deeper into the role of fatherhood, contemplating how the approach to spirituality shifts as his kids grow older.
“I think a lot of parents can relate to the sentiment of praying for their kids,” Bryan says. “When they’re young, you try to lay the groundwork. We’re a Christian household and we’ve raised them that way to have those morals, and we try to set the tone at an early age of teaching them to be respectful and kind and polite. Then you hope that they can take that into the later years of their lives and be respectful, humble, with good manners. They’re doing good right now — we’re not having to bail ‘em out of any jails.”
Though Bryan has had a hand in writing many of his own songs, including “Someone Else Calling You Baby” and “We Rode in Trucks,” this time around, of the new album’s 14 songs, a dozen of them are outside cuts from many of Nashville’s top-shelf writers including Rhett Akins, Chase McGill, Hillary Lindsey, Ben Hayslip and Dallas Davidson.
“It’d be scary to know how many we went through, but I think we probably recorded a total of 18 songs, three of the ones that didn’t make it, I think I had a hand in writing,” Bryan says. “I always overcut [songs for an album] and then if mine make the cut, then they do. But this time I leaned on a lot of writers around Nashville and I always loved the opportunity of doing that.
“I’m a fan of the Nashville songwriting community, and I feel like that whole songwriting machine is one of the most amazing things in entertainment,” he continues. “I just get the songs to listen to and rarely know who writes them. I just like to try to use the mindset that the best song typically wins. And when those writers get cuts on the album, they always walk up to me and they’re appreciative and it’s endearing, and I’m always happy to be able to get the town fired up about one of my albums.”
A close listen to the album also finds Bryan and his longtime producers Jeff and Jody Stevens employing subtle ways of upping the ante, such as Bryan’s use of falsetto on the song “Closing Time in California.”
“I knew it was an opportunity to show that I had that in my bag, in my arsenal,” Bryan says. “We’ve heard the story [in this song] a million times—a small-town girl moves to Hollywood and there’s always that love interest that gets left behind. But you can feel the pain of all of that in the song, and the first time I heard it, I knew it was special.”
Over the course of his career, Bryan has performed for over 14 million fans, and is steadily adding to that count on his current headlining Mind of a Country Boy Tour, which runs through October, while his annual Farm Tour wraps this weekend (Bryan’s Farm Tour aids farming communities and since its 2009 inception, has awarded over 80 scholarships to students from farming families who attend local colleges and universities). He also keeps pushing himself in terms of his work on television. On Nov. 15, Bryan will host the new Hulu series It’s All Country, which finds Bryan exploring the stories and inspirations behind a slate of classic hit country songs. Next year, he will return as a judge on ABC’s American Idol, alongside Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood.
He says whether he’s in the studio or onstage, he’s still always aiming at setting the creative bar higher.
“No matter how many years I’ve been kind of in the mix, and as long as I can find songs that push me to new boundaries, we’re always trying a new musician here and there, always trying new sound engineers and mixing people, just always trying to stay on top of my game,” Bryan says. “I’m always trying to go above and beyond, try to just outdo myself a little bit every time.”
Country superstar Luke Bryan has officially dropped his eighth studio album Mind of a Country Boy, available everywhere today, Sept. 27.
The new release marks Bryan’s return to the album circuit after four years, and fans can expect a collection of 14 tracks that dive deep into the themes of family, music, and the simple country life Bryan embodies.
Reuniting with longtime producers Jeff and Jody Stevens, Mind of a Country Boy offers a mix of reflective ballads and feel-good anthems.
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Fans have already gotten a taste of the project with the single “Closing Time in California,” which dropped last month.
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“I’ve been able to take my time and really compile songs for this album,” Bryan previously said in a statement.
“If it’s a song that I cut two or three years ago, and I still love it, and it still sounds fresh, then I feel like it’ll stand the test of time.
“I think this album, as I’ve tried to do with all my albums, just has a little bit of everything,” he continued. “I do some things different vocally on this one that I’ve not done before. It’s about each song having its place and having its meaning. It’s trying not to be overly redundant with songs. I think that’s why I’ve been blessed to have a long career and what I feel like this album’s going to do.”
In addition to his headlining shows and his Farm Tour, Bryan is set to continue his role as an American Idol judge (alongside incoming judge, fellow country artist Carrie Underwood), while his Crash My Playa destination concert in Mexico will celebrate its 10th year in 2025 with performances from Jason Aldean, Kane Brown and more.
Stream Mind Of A Country Boy below.
Morgan Wallen was the top winner at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards (PCCAs), which aired live on Thursday (Sept. 26) across NBC and Peacock from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville.
Wallen won a total of four awards. He was named The People’s Artist for the second year in a row and he also took The Concert Tour for the second year in a row with his long-running One Night at a Time tour. He also won the Social Country Star of 2024 and The Song of 2024 for his featured role on Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help.”
For Wallen, this makes up for last year when he was unexpectedly nosed out as the night’s top winner on the inaugural PCCAs. He won three awards then to Jelly Roll’s four. (That was one of the first indications of the extent of Jelly Roll’s popularity.)
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Beyoncé, who was one of this year’s leading nominees, was shut out. Bey was also shut out in the recently announced Country Music Association nominations. Country awards shows seem to prefer to reward artists who are in it for the long haul, rather than giving their prizes to artists, however talented and versatile, who are seen as just visiting the genre.
Luke Combs took three awards – The Album of 2024 for Fathers & Son and the Male Artist of 2024 and The Male Song of 2024 for “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma,” his hit from Twisters: The Album. (At the rate it’s going, the song, which he co-wrote with Jessi Alexander and Jonathan Singleton, could be an Oscar contender for best original song.)
Shaboozey and MGK each won two awards.
Shaboozey won The New Artist of 2024. Jelly Roll won in that category last year. He went on to win the CMA Award for new artist of the year and to land a Grammy nomination for best new artist. Shaboozey has a good chance to equal those feats.
Shaboozey also won The New Artist Song of 2024 for his megahit “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which is now in its 11th week at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. (Here it must be said that the PCCA has too many categories, and too many similar-sounding categories. It’s confusing. They should consider streamlining their awards structure.)
Among the artists Shaboozey beat in both new artist categories was Dasha, who later won The Female Song award for “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’).” The song was a big crossover hit – it reached No. 3 on Hot Country Songs and No. 18 on the Hot 100. Still, it beat heavy competition to win that award, including songs by Wilson, Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves and two songs by Beyoncé (which may have split Bey’s vote).
“Lonely Road” by MGK featuring Jelly Roll won the crossover song award. The hit interpolates John Denver’s 1971 classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” MGK’s “Sun to Me,” written by Zach Bryan, won as The Cover Song of 2024.
Lainey Wilson took the award for The Female Artist for the second year in a row. Dan + Shay won The Group/Duo award, also for the second year in a row. But Old Dominion’s “Different About You” won the Group/Duo Song award, beating Dan + Shay’s “For the Both of Us.” (See what we mean about too many similar-sounding categories?)
Shania Twain hosted the show. The crossover star was nominated for The Concert Tour of 2024 for Shania Twain: Come on Over – The Las Vegas Residency – All the Hits!, but lost to Wallen.
Winners are chosen entirely by the fans, leading the show to bill itself as “an award show for the people and by the people.” The eligibility period for this year’s show was Aug. 12, 2023, to Aug. 9, 2024.
The People’s Choice Country Awards were produced by Den of Thieves. Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager and Barb Bialkowski executive produced, along with RAC Clark as executive producer and showrunner.
Here are the nominees for the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards, with winners marked.
The People’s Artist of 2024
Beyoncé
Jelly Roll
Kacey Musgraves
Kane Brown
Lainey Wilson
Luke Combs
WINNER: Morgan Wallen
Zach Bryan
The Female Artist of 2024
Beyoncé
Carly Pearce
Dolly Parton
Kacey Musgraves
Kelsea Ballerini
WINNER: Lainey Wilson
Megan Moroney
Miranda Lambert
The Male Artist of 2024
Bailey Zimmerman
Chris Stapleton
Cody Johnson
Jelly Roll
Kane Brown
WINNER: Luke Combs
Morgan Wallen
Zach Bryan
The Group/Duo of 2024
Brothers Osborne
WINNER: Dan + Shay
Old Dominion
Ole 60
The Red Clay Strays
The War and Treaty
Tigirlily Gold
Zac Brown Band
The New Artist of 2024
Chase Matthew
Chayce Beckham
Dasha
Koe Wetzel
Nate Smith
WINNER: Shaboozey
Tucker Wetmore
Warren Zeiders
The Social Country Star of 2024
Bailey Zimmerman
Beyoncé
Dolly Parton
Jelly Roll
Kelsea Ballerini
Luke Combs
WINNER: Morgan Wallen
Reba McEntire
The Album of 2024
Cowboy Carter – Beyoncé
Deeper Well – Kacey Musgraves
WINNER: Fathers & Sons – Luke Combs
Higher – Chris Stapleton
Highway Desperado – Jason Aldean
Leather – Cody Johnson
Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going – Shaboozey
Zach Bryan – Zach Bryan
The Song of 2024
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey (Songwriters: Collins Obinna Chibueze, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Mark Williams, Nevin Sastry, Sean Cook)
“Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” – Dasha (Songwriters: Adam Wendler, Anna Dasha Novotny, Cheyenne Rose Arnspiger, Kenneth Travis Heidelman)
WINNER: “I Had Some Help” – Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen (Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Austin Post, Chandler Paul Walters, Ernest Smith, Hoskins, Louis Bell, Morgan Wallen, Ryan Vojtesak)
“I Remember Everything” – Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves (Songwriters: Kacey Musgraves, Zach Bryan)
“Miles on It” – Marshmello & Kane Brown (Songwriters: CASTLE, Connor McDonough, Earwulf, Jake Torrey, Kane Brown, Marshmello, Nick Gale, Riley McDonough)
“Pink Skies” – Zach Bryan (Songwriter: Zach Bryan)
“Texas Hold ‘Em” – Beyoncé (Songwriters: Beyoncé, Brian Bates, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nate Ferraro, Raphael Saadiq)
“Wild Ones” – Jessie Murph feat. Jelly Roll (Songwriters: Feli Ferraro, Gregory Aldae Hein, Jason Deford, Jeff Gitelman, Jessie Murph)
The Female Song of 2024
“16 Carriages” – Beyoncé (Songwriters: Atia Boggs, Beyoncé, Dave Hamelin, Ink, Raphael Saadiq)
WINNER: “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” – Dasha (Songwriters: Adam Wendler, Anna Dasha Novotny, Cheyenne Rose Arnspiger, Kenneth Travis Heidelman)
“Deeper Well” – Kacey Musgraves (Songwriters: Daniel Tashian, Ian Fitchuk, Kacey Musgraves)
“Hang Tight Honey” – Lainey Wilson (Songwriters: Driver Williams, Jason Nix, Lainey Wilson, Paul Sikes)
“hummingbird” – Carly Pearce (Songwriters: Carly Pearce, Jordan Reynolds, Nicolle Galyon, Shane McAnally)
“No Caller ID” – Megan Moroney (Songwriters: Connie Harrington, Jessi Alexander, Jessie Jo Dillon, Megan Moroney)
“Texas Hold ‘Em” – Beyoncé (Songwriters: Beyoncé, Brian Bates, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Nathan Ferraro, Raphael Saadiq)
“Wranglers” – Miranda Lambert (Songwriters: Audra Mae, Evan McKeever, Ryan Carpenter)
The Male Song of 2024
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey (Songwriters: Collins Obinna Chibueze, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Mark Williams, Nevin Sastry, Sean Cook)
WINNER: “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma (From Twisters: The Album)” – Luke Combs (Songwriters: Jessi Alexander, Jonathan Singleton, Luke Combs)
“Bulletproof” – Nate Smith (Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson, Hunter Phelps)
“Dirt Cheap” – Cody Johnson (Songwriter: Josh Phillips)
“I Can Feel It” – Kane Brown (Songwriters: Gabe Foust, Jaxson Free, Kane Brown, Phil Collins)
“Let Your Boys Be Country” – Jason Aldean (Songwriters: Allison Veltz Cruz, Jaron Boyer, Micah Wilshire)
“Pink Skies” – Zach Bryan (Songwriter: Zach Bryan)
“Take Her Home” – Kenny Chesney (Songwriters: Hunter Phelps, Michael Hardy, Zach Abend)
The Group/Duo Song of 2024
“Break Mine” – Brothers Osborne (Songwriters: John Osborne, Pete Good, Shane McAnally, TJ Osborne)
WINNER: “Different About You” – Old Dominion (Songwriters: Brad Tursi, Matthew Ramsey, Trevor Rosen, Zach Crowell)
“For the Both of Us” – Dan + Shay (Songwriters: Andy Albert, Dan Smyers, Jordan Reynolds)
“I Tried a Ring On” – Tigirlily Gold (Songwriters: Josh Jenkins, Kendra Jo Slaubaugh, Krista Jade Slaubaugh, Pete Good)
“Love You Back” – Lady A (Songwriters: Emily Weisband, James McNair, Lindsay Rimes)
“smoke & a light” – Ole 60 (Songwriters: Jacob Ty Young, Justin Eckerd, Ryan Laslie, Tristan Roby)
“Tie Up” – Zac Brown Band (Songwriters: Ben Simonetti, Chris Gelbuda, Jonathan Singleton, Josh Hoge, Zac Brown)
“Wanna Be Loved” – The Red Clay Strays (Songwriters: Dakota Coleman, Matthew Coleman)
The Collaboration Song of 2024
“Blackbiird” – Beyoncé, Brittney Spencer, Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy & Reyna Roberts (Songwriters: John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
“Can’t Break Up Now” – Old Dominion & Megan Moroney (Songwriters: Emily Weisband, Matthew Ramsey, Tofer Brown, Trevor Rosen)
“Chevrolet” – Dustin Lynch feat. Jelly Roll (Songwriters: Chase McGill, Hunter Phelps, Jessi Alexander, Mentor Williams)
“Hey Driver” – Zach Bryan feat. The War and Treaty (Songwriter: Zach Bryan)
WINNER: “I Remember Everything” – Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves (Songwriters: Kacey Musgraves, Zach Bryan)
“Mamaw’s House” – Thomas Rhett feat. Morgan Wallen (Songwriters: Chase McGill, Matt Dragstrem, Morgan Wallen, Thomas Rhett)
“The One (Pero No Como Yo)” – Carin Leon & Kane Brown (Songwriters: Bibi Marin, Edgar Barrera, Elena Rose, Johan Sotelo, Jonathan Capeci, Julio Ramirez, Kane Brown, Oscar Armando Diaz de Leon)
“you look like you love me” – Ella Langley feat. Riley Green (Songwriters: Aaron Raitiere, Ella Langley, Riley Green)
The Cover Song of 2024
“Blackbiird” – Beyoncé, Brittney Spencer, Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy & Reyna Roberts (Songwriters: John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
“Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other” – Orville Peck & Willie Nelson (Songwriter: Ned Sublette)
“Dancing With Myself” – Maren Morris (Songwriters: Billy Idol, Tony James)
“Jolene” – Beyoncé (Songwriter: Dolly Parton)
“Perfectly Lonely” – Parker McCollum (Songwriter: John Mayer)
WINNER: “Sun to Me” – MGK (Songwriters: Zach Bryan)
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” – Lana Del Rey (Songwriters: Bill Danoff, John Denver, Taffy Nivert)
“Three Little Birds (Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired by the Film)” – Kacey Musgraves (Songwriters: Bob Marley & The Wailers)
The Crossover Song of 2024
“Better Days” – Zach Bryan feat. John Mayer (Songwriter: Zach Bryan)
“Cowboys Cry Too” – Kelsea Ballerini feat. Noah Kahan (Songwriters: Alysa Vanderheym, Kelsea Ballerini, Noah Kahan)
“I Had Some Help” – Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen (Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Austin Post, Chandler Paul Walters, Ernest Smith, Hoskins, Louis Bell, Morgan Wallen, Ryan Vojtesak)
“II Most Wanted” – Beyoncé & Miley Cyrus (Songwriters: Beyoncé, Michael Pollack, Miley Cyrus, Ryan Tedder)
WINNER: “Lonely Road” – MGK feat. Jelly Roll (Songwriters: Bill Danoff, Brandon Allen, Colson Baker, John Denver, Mary Danoff, Nick Long, Steve Basil, Taffy Nivert Danoff, Travis Barker)
“Midnight Ride” – Kylie Minogue, Orville Peck & Diplo (Songwriters: Christopher Stracey, Kylie Minogue, Marta Cikojevic, Orville Peck)
“Miles on It” – Marshmello & Kane Brown (Songwriters: CASTLE, Connor McDonough, Earwulf, Jake Torrey, Kane Brown, Marshmello, Nick Gale, Riley McDonough)
“My Fault” – Shaboozey feat. Noah Cyrus (Songwriters: Bailey Bryan, Collins Obinna Chibueze, Doug Walters, Nevin Sastry, Noah Cyrus, PJ Harding, Sean Cook)
The New Artist Song of 2024
WINNER: “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” – Shaboozey (Songwriters: Collins Obinna Chibueze, Jerrel Jones, Joe Kent, Mark Williams, Nevin Sastry, Sean Cook)
“Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” – Dasha (Songwriters: Adam Wendler, Anna Dasha Novotny, Cheyenne Rose Arnspiger, Kenneth Travis Heidelman)
“Betrayal” – Warren Zeiders (Songwriters: Ali Tamposi, Blake Pendergrass, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Justin Ebach, Warren Zeiders)
“Bulletproof” – Nate Smith (Songwriters: Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson, Hunter Phelps)
“Devil You Know” – Tyler Braden (Songwriters: Graham Barham, Jon Hall, Sam Martinez, Zack Dyer)
“Sweet Dreams” – Koe Wetzel (Songwriters: Amy Allen, Gabe Simon, Josh Serrato, Ropyr Wetzel, Sam Nelson Harris)
“Tennessee Don’t Mind” – Kameron Marlowe (Songwriters: Charles Kelley, Daniel Tashian)
“Wind Up Missin’ You” – Tucker Wetmore (Songwriters: Chris LaCorte, Thomas Archer, Tucker Wetmore)
The Storyteller Song of 2024
“16 Carriages” – Beyoncé (Songwriters: Atia Boggs, Beyoncé, Dave Hamelin, Ink, Raphael Saadiq)
“Deeper Well” – Kacey Musgraves (Songwriters: Daniel Tashian, Ian Fitchuk, Kacey Musgraves)
WINNER: “Dirt Cheap” – Cody Johnson (Songwriter: Josh Phillips)
“Pink Skies” – Zach Bryan (Songwriter: Zach Bryan)
“Sorry Mom” – Kelsea Ballerini (Songwriters: Alysa Vanderheym, Hillary Lindsey, Jessie Jo Dillon, Karen Fairchild, Kelsea Ballerini)
“The Little Things” – George Strait (Songwriters: Bubba Strait, George Strait, Monty Criswell)
“The Man He Sees in Me” – Luke Combs (Songwriters: Josh Phillips, Luke Combs)
“Too Good to be True” – Kacey Musgraves (Songwriters: Daniel Tashian, Ian Fitchuk, Anna Nalick, Kacey Musgraves)
The Music Video of 2024
“Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma (From Twisters: The Album)” – Luke Combs
“Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” – Dasha
“Deeper Well” – Kacey Musgraves
“I Had Some Help” – Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen
“Let It Burn” – Shaboozey
“Lonely Road” – MGK feat. Jelly Roll
WINNER: “Miles on It” – Marshmello & Kane Brown
“Pour Me a Drink” – Post Malone feat. Blake Shelton
The Concert Tour of 2024
Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour – Luke Combs
Highway Desperado Tour – Jason Aldean
WINNER: One Night at a Time 2024 – Morgan Wallen
Shania Twain: Come on Over – The Las Vegas Residency – All the Hits! – Shania Twain
Stadium Tour – George Strait
Standing Room Only Tour ‘24 – Tim McGraw
Sun Goes Down 2024 Tour – Kenny Chesney
The Quittin Time 2024 Tour – Zach Bryan