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Shania Twain is loving Sabrina Carpenter. Early Thursday, the country superstar took to her Instagram Stories to repost a video in which Carpenter is seen covering Twain’s 1997 hit “That Don’t Impress Me Much” during a Short n’ Sweet tour stop in Toronto, Canada. The cover was performed during the part of the show in […]
As Columbia Nashville prepared for the July 12 release of Megan Moroney’s sophomore album, Am I Okay?, the label held back the title track as it rolled out individual songs in advance of the project.
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The move was purposeful: The title matches the reputation she has built with her fan base, and she wanted to catch listeners off guard the first time they heard it.
“I’ve branded myself as the emo cowgirl, and so I knew everyone was going to think that this is going to be a really sad song,” she says. “If you just see it on paper, you’re like, ‘Oh, no, it’s going to be tough.’ And that’s why we didn’t release ‘Am I Okay,’ the title track, ahead of the album, because I wanted everyone to be surprised once the entire album came out.”
The fans would not be the only ones surprised by “Am I Okay?” Her co-writers, Jessie Jo Dillon (“Messed Up As Me,” “10,000 Hours”) and Luke Laird (“Drink in My Hand,” “Undo It”), hadn’t expected to work on something so optimistic. Moroney, in fact, was a little apologetic when she spoke her mind during an appointment at Laird’s writing cabin on Oct. 2, 2023.
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“When I was explaining how I felt, I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to write a love song,’” she recalls. “Like, ‘I’m tired of writing sad songs. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I met this guy, and he’s being really nice to me, and for once, I don’t want to sabotage it. And I think I could be a girlfriend.’ And they were just like, ‘Oh my God, are you okay?’”
That, of course, became the title. The bright, upbeat topic helped meet her musical goals, too. Moroney knew she would be touring with Kenny Chesney in 2024, and she wanted a song that would feel good in a stadium. Laird called up a chugging track he had created around a floating guitar intro, and he believed it would fit her musically.
“She delivers a song so well with just her and a guitar,” he says. “I thought this one will be easy to do that way, too. There’s only, like, three chords. It’s simple. It’s in her key. And she liked it. And I think that it kind of brought an energy to the room, like more of a live thing.”
They attacked the chorus first, capturing the moment Moroney’s then-new squeeze had appeared in a Nashville bar where she had been hanging with some friends. They threw out some descriptors of a guy that most women would find intriguing — 6 feet 2, funny, smart and “good in…” The songwriter antenna went up at that moment, though it only lasted an instant: Would saying he’s good in bed play at radio? On TV? In family settings?
They had the solution before they even discussed it. “We were just rambling,” Moroney notes. “I was probably like, ‘He’s funny and he’s smart and he’s good in…’ And then Jessie Jo or Luke just echoed me. And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ There wasn’t too much thought behind it.”
“Instead of just saying it,” Dillon adds, “that felt flirtier, in a way, to just repeat it.”
It wound its way to the final hook — “Oh my God, am I okay?” — kicked out in punchy phrases that seemed right for a gang vocal. Which Moroney didn’t entirely accept at first. “I wasn’t exactly sold on the gang vocals yet,” she recalls. “The last seven syllables of the song are the same note. I was like, ‘Is that weird?’”
As they dug in on the verses, they led with the singer checking to make sure she’s really breathing, a recognition of the change in personality that this new guy had inspired. “I’ve been playing less black keys, baby,” they wrote in that first verse, alluding to the sharps and flats on a piano keyboard, which create an alternative musical scale on their own.
“It’s alluding to writing less sad music,” Dillon says. “I feel like that was [about] being less emo and writing [fewer] sad songs because she’s known for some of her sad songs as much as ‘Tennessee Orange.’ ”
One of Moroney’s managers later capitalized Black Keys on a lyric sheet, believing it to be a reference to the Nashville-based rock band. That development surprised all three writers, who had not contemplated that interpretation.
“I’m a huge Black Keys fan, and their s–t can be pretty emo,” Dillon says. “Their lyrics can be pretty sad — and so I guess either way somebody interprets that, it kind of works.”
In verse two, Moroney sang, “And wait” — then literally waited before continuing, “There’s guys that can communicate.” It was clearly sarcastic; if listeners had any doubt that this “fun little bop,” as Dillon calls it, belonged to Moroney, that confirms it’s legitimately her. “She’s definitely a little snarky,” Laird says, “but the delivery gives it a lightness. I thought it was good.”
Laird finished the demo with the pulsing guitars creating a new wave feel, and all three of them did the gang vocals at the end of the chorus. It provided a solid template for the full recording, produced by Sugarland’s Kristian Bush at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio in January. The musicians bumped up the tempo a few beats per minute, but mostly followed Laird’s demo as a guide. With real musicians replacing some of the programmed elements, it took on more of a Tom Petty pulse, while Jordan Schipper’s steel guitar upped the country quotient. The steel, Brandon Bush’s keyboards and some of Benji Shanks’ guitar tones leaned hazy or fuzzy.
“I’m totally into ambient pedals right now,” Kristian says. “You don’t really know what you’re getting. You put a tone into it, like you’ll play your steel into it, or you play the guitar into it and it’s a very Brian Eno-y thing, where it starts to sort of randomize at certain frequencies the sound that’s coming out of it. You can control it with your hands, like on these knobs, but it’s all kind of voodoo. It becomes dreamy very quickly.”
Bush heightened the dynamic range; the track goes quiet when Moroney sings “Wait…,” and it nearly does it again at the bridge. At the finale, the instruments drop out as she delivers the last line, “I think I’m still breathing.” She could have followed it with a sigh, but it never quite appears.
“At the end of this song, when it cuts off, I wanted you to be waiting for the next song to happen,” Kristian says. “When you’re playing live, at the end of that first song, you want people to be like, ‘Is it over? What’s happening? Oh my God.’ And then all of a sudden, you’re into your next song.” The vocals challenged Moroney. Ironically, the week she sang about her boyfriend, they broke up.
“I’m in the studio having to sing this song about a guy being really nice to me, when actually it was just like three months and he showed me who he actually was,” she says. “And now I have to sing this forever.”
She just might. Columbia Nashville released it to country radio via PlayMPE on Aug. 5. It’s at No. 20 and rising on the Hot Country Songs chart dated Sept. 28. Even if it’s uncharacteristically buoyant for Moroney, the sarcasm still comes through.
“If I’m writing a love song, I must be ill,” she says. “That’s the whole premise of the song.”
For the sixth consecutive month, Zach Bryan has one of the 10 biggest tours in the world. For the second of the last three, he’s at No. 1. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Bryan grossed $93.2 million and sold 467,000 tickets from 13 shows around the U.S., returning to the top of Billboard’s monthly Top Tours chart.
When Bryan topped the list in June, Billboard noted that he was only the second country act to rule the tally since it launched in early 2019, following Morgan Wallen. Now, he’s the only artist in his genre to claim multiple months at No. 1. Bad Bunny and Elton John lead overall, each having topped seven monthly charts.
Bryan kicked off The Quittin’ Time Tour in March at a string of North American arenas. By the end of May and into June, he began sprinkling in stadium plays, multiplying his potential nightly audience by three or four and prompting his first monthly win. In August, stadiums made up the majority of his calendar — for 10 of his 13 shows. Those were spread across major markets such as Atlanta, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, leaving only Kansas City and Grand Forks, N.D., in arenas.
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This transition from indoor basketball courts to outdoor football fields joins Bryan with fellow country superstars such as Luke Combs and Wallen as well as the biggest of the big beyond genre, like The Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift.
A double-header at Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field earned the biggest gross of Bryan’s career. The Aug. 6-7 stay earned $20.7 million and sold 103,000 tickets, followed immediately by another six-digit attendance total at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Aug. 10-11 ($17.8 million; 100,000 tickets).
Since beginning in Chicago on March 5, The Quittin’ Time Tour has grossed $318.1 million and sold 1.6 million tickets. Bryan will resume the trek with 18 shows in November and December. Most of his remaining 2024 dates bring him back to arenas, which means he could add another $60 million by year’s end, approaching the $400 million mark.
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Bryan’s summer on top was briefly interrupted by Coldplay’s July victory. This month, Chris Martin & Co. dip to No. 2, with a gross of $86.4 million from 626,000 tickets sold. Though the band misses Bryan’s high mark by about 7%, its attendance total is tops for August.
As has been customary amid the Music of the Spheres World Tour, Coldplay’s August schedule was compact, including three shows in Munich, four in Vienna and two in Dublin. The extended run at Vienna’s Ernst Happen Stadion on Aug. 21-22 and 24-25 is both the highest grossing ($33 million) and bestselling engagement of the month (251,000 tickets).
As Billboard reported, The Music of the Spheres World Tour is already the highest grossing and bestselling rock tour in Boxscore history, with $1.06 billion and 9.6 million tickets sold through Sept. 2. Next on its record-breaking schedule is the 10 million ticket threshold, which will certainly clear during the Australia and New Zealand leg in October and November.
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Metallica follows at No. 3 on August’s Top Tours chart with $74 million and 621,000 tickets. The latter figure barely misses Coldplay’s ticket sales, separated by just 5,000 tickets, or less than 1%. The hard-rock legends sport two appearances in the top 10 of Top Boxscores, at Nos. 8-9 with stints at Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium and Chicago’s Soldier Field, respectively.
At No. 4, P!nk is the lone woman in August’s top 10 at $55.6 million and 329,000 tickets, next followed by Jhene Aiko’s $16.3 million and 150,000 tickets. While gender representation can be marked by the whims of monthly schedules – there were five women on the charts for June and July, and September marks the launches of major treks by Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Billie Eilish – it’s startling to see women make up less than 7% of August’s top-30 pie.
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Interrupting Coldplay’s sweep of Top Boxscores, Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is No. 2. The San Francisco festival grossed $29.5 million and sold 184,000 tickets across its Aug. 9-11 run.
Outside Lands is joined by Montreal’s Osheaga Music & Arts Festival, which rounds out the chart’s top 10 with $14.7 million and 137,000 tickets sold. It’s one of a string of festivals, along with Ilesoniq and Lasso Montreal, that pushed Evenko to No. 5 on the month’s Top Promoters ranking.
On the venue rankings, it’s the fourth consecutive win for Sphere among rooms with a capacity of 15,001 or more (excluding stadiums). Again, Dead & Company ushered the immersive arena to its victory, which closed out its summer-long residency on Aug. 10.
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As the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual IBMA Week launches in Raleigh, North Carolina, Jerry Douglas is among the storied honorees: The 30-time IBMA Award recipient will be inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame on Thursday (Sept. 26) by fellow bluegrass luminary and 2023 honoree Sam Bush.
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Over the course of nearly five decades, Douglas’s contributions and influence on genres including bluegrass, country and Americana have been indelible, thanks to his masterful, pioneering musicianship on the dobro, as well as his work as a producer (on more than 100 albums), bandleader, and songwriter.
“It’s not something you expect,” Douglas, 67, tells Billboard of the induction. “I was shocked, surprised, and humbled, all those things. It’s the acceptance that’s really cool about it, being accepted in a place along with Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs [both members of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1991]. You don’t think about your name being mentioned in the same paragraph as those guys, but sometimes it happens.”
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The Bluegrass Hall of Fame honor isn’t the only award he could take home Thursday evening: he’s nominated in other three IBMA categories, including album of the year (for co-producing Tuttle’s City of Gold), resophonic guitar player of the year and collaborative recording of the year (for Authentic Unlimited with Jerry Douglas’ Fall in Tennessee).
The induction comes a week after his Sept. 20-released new album The Set (out on Nolivian Records), marking the 16-time Grammy winner’s first album in seven years.
Together with his Jerry Douglas Band cohorts — Mike Seal (guitar), Christian Sedelmyer (fiddle) and Daniel Kimbro (bass) — Douglas offers up reimaginations of six beloved older songs alongside five new compositions. The album takes its name from Douglas’ intent to capture more of the essence of the group’s live shows.
The songs on The Set span decades and styles, such as “From Ankara to Izmir,” which Douglas had previously included on his 1987 album Changing Channels.
“When I cut the song, I envisioned it as a different thing,” he says. “When you write a song and record it soon after, you don’t really know that song. It takes on different features and becomes something different than it started as. I originally cut it with lap steel and made it tougher sounding. Later on, I started playing it on dobro instead. Now, it’s a combination of electric guitar, bass, dobro, upright bass, and fiddle. It covers all the bases, but we have space in there, too.”
The lead single from The Set is a rendition of The Beatles’ 1968 song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Songs written by each bandmember are also featured including Sedelmyer’s “Deacon Waltz,” Kimbro’s “Loyston,” and Seal’s “Renee.”
“This is a band record. Everybody had a hand in it,” Douglas says. “I may have picked the songs and produced it, but everybody’s personality and music are on the record.”
Ohio native Douglas moved to Music City in 1978, initially to play for the country vocal group The Whites. He released his first solo album, Fluxology, a year later. His first Grammy nomination came in 1982 for his work on The Whites’ album You Put the Blue in Me.
“I moved to Nashville at a good time,” he recalls. “It was right after what we called ‘The Urban Cowboy Scare,’ when everyone had a mechanical bull and bruises. But when I got to Nashville, Ricky [Skaggs] broke out and Emmylou [Harris] and Randy Travis and all these traditional artists and I was playing so many of those records and dobro was on radio.”
His musical dexterity made Douglas an in-demand session musician; he’s played on over 1,500 albums including projects for George Jones, Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, Emmylou Harris, Sierra Ferrell, Dierks Bentley and James Taylor. He’s earned the Country Music Association Awards’ musician of the year honor three times.
He’s also seen the ebbs and flows of music emanating from Nashville — for better and for worse. “The music is cyclical and here in Nashville I’ve seen it turn over three or four times. The last one was the bro-country movement, which is finally dead, thank God. It resides along with disco in hell somewhere. Now we’ve entered a totally new [time] where so many people are coming from different genres to country music.”
Over the decades, in addition to serving as band leader for his own group and the Grammy-winning The Earls of Leicester, he played as part of The Country Gentlemen while still a teen and has been part of bands including Boone Creek and J.D. Crowe and The New South (his work with the group earned Douglas his first Grammy win). He’s been a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station since 1998 and earned a wellspring of attention thanks to his work on the RIAA-certified eight-time multi-platinum soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
Along the way, Douglas says he’s gleaned wisdom in the finer points of pulling together a group that heightens the musicians’ individual strengths.
“It’s all in the cocktail. How does this person support this other person? And that’s what it’s all about in a band — support. You can’t be practicing your next solo while someone else is soloing. I’ve seen that happen onstage. The cardinal rule is to listen to who’s playing before you. Listen to everything that’s going on around you, because you can pull all those things together and go in different directions. Just things you pick up along the way, like J.D. Crowe, when he would sing, he did not play, and then he would play coming out of that [singing] and that was like he’d just signed his name.”
Elsewhere on The Set, with “Something You Got” Douglas revisits his collaboration with Eric Clapton from Douglas’ 2012 Traveler album, with Douglas offering up lead vocals this time around.
Douglas says of Clapton, “He’s very, very philanthropic. It’s great meeting these fellows late [in life] like this. With James Taylor and Eric Clapton, those guys at one point, you wouldn’t have been able to get close to ’em, just because of the way they were. But through all of that, they are very well-read, intelligent people, and it’s wonderful to be around them. There’s so much history whenever you talk with those guys because they’ve been there and done everything you can do in the music business. I just happened to be lucky enough to hang around them once in a while. And icons like [guitarist, Country Music Hall of Fame inductee and “Nashville Sound” architect] Chet Atkins, I loved being around Chet. You’d just hang on every word he said because everything he said had like three meanings and they were all good. But he had done everything, too. How many people produced the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton?”
The new version of “Something You Got” is notable, as Douglas is known as a performer who often sings lead vocals.
“I sang when I was a kid, until I started playing dobro and it just took over. I can find parts pretty easy, baritone and low tenor and things like that, but I wasn’t as comfortable in the lead role until I had a band and somebody needed to sing, so I was going to try it first. It’s funny how it surprises people when they do hear me sing, but I’ve been listening to the best singers on earth for 50 years and I know what not to do. I’m not a singer like Alison [Krauss] or Vince Gill. I’ll have them sing and I’ll play, because what I’m most comfortable doing is backing a singer.”
As he has looked up to his musical forebears, Douglas has also been a mentor and champion for artists including Tuttle and Billy Strings, as the sound of bluegrass continues to broaden and evolve.
“Historically, [bluegrass and jazz] come from the same place, but with jazz it’s more complicated while bluegrass is more rooted in the rudimentary chords, not a lot of diminished minors. Bluegrass music is more about social context in a way, but the social context that it was based on was a long time ago, and things have changed. That’s why now women are so well represented in the music. Growing up, as a kid, I didn’t see that many women [playing bluegrass], and if they did play, they were delegated to play the bass, which is a very important part of the music, but usually, it doesn’t really present you as the star on stage. I mean, some people can pull that off.
“But Missy Raines [the first woman musician to win the IBMA bass player of the year honor in 1998] turned it into a completely different thing. She has such a vocabulary with her bass [playing] that is different. And she’s a strong person who stuck it out when she was just kind of looked over when she shouldn’t have been [looked over]. The same with Molly [Tuttle] and [banjo virtuoso] Alison Brown. I like that it’s becoming more inclusive for everybody because back in Bill Monroe’s early days, it wouldn’t have been.”
Part of that evolution is being led by a new generation of bluegrass artists, including Strings, Tray Wellington, Wyatt Ellis and more.
“If it didn’t evolve, it would fade,” Douglas says. “The kids coming up who are playing are just incredible, and I know the internet has a lot to do with it. I had to sit there and listen to a record player, and I couldn’t slow my record player down either. So I had to put an ear on what was happening and try to figure it out. I didn’t have anything to see to give me an idea of what to do next. I didn’t even know if I had the thing tuned right at first. Now, you can study your favorite player online and pick up little things from that.”
As the countdown continues to the 58th annual CMA Awards, set to air live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 20, country music fans will be anxious to see who takes home the evening’s top prize — entertainer of the year. This year, the nominees are Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson.
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Luke Bryan, a two-time CMA entertainer of the year winner himself, is offering his thoughts to Billboard on who could potentially take home this year’s EOY accolade.
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“I look back at when I won CMA entertainer of the year and in my opinion, that’s always been about who has sold the most tickets and has been kind of the most impressive thing out there in the touring world,” Bryan says.
Each of the nominees has been selling out headlining shows in venues ranging from amphitheaters and arenas to stadiums: Wallen on his One Night at a Time Tour, Combs on his Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour, Stapleton with his All-American Road Show Tour, Jelly Roll with his Beautifully Broken Tour and Wilson with her Country’s Cool Again Tour.
“When I look at what Morgan Wallen’s doing out there, selling out multiple [stadiums], and I know Luke Combs is doing that too, and obviously, they’re just both great entertainers,” Bryan says. “I don’t know who to sit there and put my endorsement on, but I have just been in awe watching Morgan Wallen go from being on some of my stadium tours and hanging on the bus with me, to watching him just really put up Garth Brooks-like stadium shows, has been pretty incredible. So, I think certainly it’d be something really, really great if Morgan might get him one or two, or three or four the next couple of years. But I think they’re all worthy of it. Lainey won last year, and that’ll probably put her in the front-runner spot, too, but it is a hot seat kind of thing. They all got my vote.”
Wallen, who scored his third CMA entertainer of the year nomination this year, leads this year’s overall CMA nominees with seven nods. Meanwhile, Stapleton earned his eighth nomination in the entertainer of the year category (he has yet to win the prize), while Combs earned his fifth nomination in the category (he has previously won twice), Wilson picked up her second EOY nomination (she is the reigning CMA EOY winner) and Jelly Roll nabbed his first nomination in the category this year.
Bryan is gearing up for the release of his new album, Mind of a Country Boy, on Friday (Sept. 27). The 14-song album features his current single, “Love You, Miss You, Mean It,” which currently resides at No. 8 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart.
Bunnie XO continues to be Jelly Roll’s muse! The Dumb Blonde podcast host took to TikTok to share a snippet of one of her husband’s unreleased love songs. “He wrote me a new song,” she captioned the video, which features scenes of the couple having fun and spending time together. “Woman, without you on my lips/ […]
While many people are firmly focused on the tight presidential contest between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, Willie Nelson and Margo Price got together to remind fans that there are other races people should keep their eyes on as well.
Sitting on Nelson’s legendary tour bus, the country singers and Farm Aid board members highlighted a pair of congressional races they said are equally important in an Instagram video. “I know we’re all talking about the presidential race, and that’s important, but Margo and I want to talk about our Texas and Tennessee voters,” said Nelson, 91.
“There are 33 U.S. Senate seats up for grabs this November. We have a chance to vote out Marsha Blackburn,” added Nashville native Price in the short clip she said was filmed during a break from a “very important” game of Nelson’s second-favorite past time: dominoes.
In 2018, Taylor Swift made her first-ever political endorsement when she spoke out against Republican Blackburn, whom the singer described as “Trump in a wig” in her 2020 Miss Americana documentary. Swift’s pick, Democrat Phil Bredesen, ended up losing that 2018 midterm election to Blackburn, whose voting record Swift said at the time “appalls and terrifies me.”
Price told voters that they have an opportunity to vote in “Tennessee Three” member Gloria Johnson, who in 2023 became a hero to Volunteer State Democrats when she and her colleagues reclaimed their legislative seats after being expelled for a gun control protest on the State House floor following a mass shooting at the Covenant school in Nashville that took the lives of three children and three adults.
Texas-native Nelson promoted Colin Allred over Republican Ted Cruz, who has been a junior senator from the Lone Star State since 2013 and who was repeatedly insulted by Trump during his unsuccessful 2016 White House bid. “I know firsthand that Colin will represent all Texans, no matter their race, who they worship or who they love,” said Nelson, reading from a sheet of notes.
“And I know Gloria will do something about the gun problem this country faces,” Price added. “Our children don’t have to live like this.”
Nelson made sure to note that the voter registration deadline for both Texas and Tennessee is Oct. 7, while Price encouraged viewers to vote early to make sure they don’t miss a chance to have their voices heard, pointing out that her home state has the lowest voter turnout in the nation.
“So make a voting plan and bring three friends to the polls and vote for Colin Allred,” Nelson said of the former Tennessee Titans linebacker and House member who is running against climate change denier Cruz, whose platform includes a vow to shut down the IRS and who called the abolition of the abortion protections in Roe v. Wade a “massive victory” for life.
“So what I tell my friends is, ‘Friends don’t sleep with people that don’t vote,’” Price added with a smile. “So we can do better.”
Watch the video below.
When artists perform in a music-centric city such as Nashville, the chances are always high that they will welcome a special guest or two. Machine Gun Kelly did just that, bringing some country-music star power to his acoustic set on Tuesday night (Sept. 24) as part of the 107.5 River on the Rooftop concert series […]
Keith Urban proved he’s a man of many talents on Tuesday night’s (Sept. 24) Tonight Show, when host Jimmy Fallon asked him to do an impromptu cover of any pop song that came to mind. After recalling how he got a ukulele as a kid from his parents before switching to guitar at 6, Urban recounted his youthful talent show adventures — including a very embarrassing picture of one of his award-winning performances — as well as a short teenage stint in the metal band Fractured Mirror. Given his eclectic musical background and his penchant for reimagining chart-topping hits during shows, Fallon questioned how Urban chooses which pop songs to cover during his concerts.
“Just [a] well-written song,” Urban said of how he chose his live takes on songs by Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. “Taylor songs are well-written, the bones are good, they’re well written, so you can do them in any form. You can do any well-written song in almost any style,” he added. When Fallon asked if any song was stuck in Urban’d head that moment, the singer suggested Sabrina Carpenter’s summer smash “Espresso,” but do it on banjo.
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So, of course, despite seemingly not having tried that combo before, Fallon surprised Urban by pulling a beautiful six-string banjo out from behind his desk, which Urban proceeded to expertly pick as he sang the song’s indelible chorus while the studio audience clapped along in time.
Urban also had a chuckle with Fallon over a prank they pulled on the singer’s wife, actress Nicole Kidman, at the Met Gala in May.
“I was sitting next to Nic, and she had her hand on mine, and she was talking to somebody,” Urban explained. “And Jimmy came over and talked to me, and I say, ‘Jump in the seat, Jimmy, and just, like, slide your hand in under mine, so she’s holding your hand. She won’t know.’” So Fallon — who will never forget that time Kidman revealed in 2015 that she used to have a crush on him and that he missed his shot at a date with her — slid into Urban’s spot for the switcheroo that totally caught The Perfect Couple star off her game.
“So Jimmy slides in, so Nic’s got his hand like this,” Urban said as the host put his hand over the singer’s hand. “This is Nic and him.” Urban then described walking around to the other side of the table and waving at his surprised wife. “And she was like, ‘What’s going on?!’” Fallon said in his best shocked Kidman voice. “She’s like ‘What?! Jimmy, don’t do that!’”
During the chat, Urban also talked about his new record, High, and said he made a completely different LP called 615 that he had ready to go last year before scrapping it entirely because it didn’t feel quite right before returning later in the show to play the High single “Chuck Taylors.”
Watch Urban on the Tonight Show below.
The Nashville Songwriters Association International celebrated the songwriters in Nashville’s music community at the Nashville Songwriter Awards, held at the Ryman Auditorium, on Tuesday (Sept. 24).
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Ashley Gorley was named songwriter of the year, while Jelly Roll was named songwriter-artist of the year. Meanwhile, the Cody Johnson-recorded “The Painter” — written by Benjy Davis, Kat Higgins and Ryan Larkins — was named song of the year.
The evening also included two special honorees, as Alan Jackson was celebrated with the Kris Kristofferson lifetime achievement award, which recognizes a songwriter whose works have made a significant contribution to the American songbook and who has inspired the careers of others. In addition to contributing writing to the bulk of his 26 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits, Jackson has also written songs recorded by artists including Randy Travis and Faith Hill.
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Meanwhile, songwriter-producer Buddy Cannon was feted with the NSAI president’s keystone award, which acknowledges the significant contributions for the betterment of all songwriters. The recipient is chosen by the current NSAI president. Cannon has produced chart-topping hits for Kenny Chesney and Reba McEntire, and has helmed several albums recorded by Willie Nelson. As a songwriter, Cannon credits include Vern Gosin’s “Set ‘Em Up Joe,” “Dream of Me” and “I’m Still Crazy,” George Strait’s “I’ve Come to Expect It From You” and “Give It Away,” which earned song of the year honors at the 2007 ACM Awards.
The inaugural Legendary Song Award, which is voted on by NSAI’s professional songwriting members, with the eligible criteria being songs from 1967-1983, was awarded to “Always on My Mind,” written by Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher and Mark James and recorded by artists including Brenda Lee, Elvis Presley, Nelson and Pet Shop Boys.
Several songwriters and artist-writers, including Jamey Johnson, Chris Young, Amanda Shires and Nate Smith, were on hand to honor this year’s winners. Josh Turner feted Jackson by lending his commanding rumble of a voice to Jackson’s “Midnight in Montgomery,” which Jackson wrote with Don Sampson. Hailey Whitters performed a sterling version of Jackson’s “Livin’ on Love,” while Lee Ann Womack performed Jackson’s “Here in the Real World.”
Each year, the Nashville Songwriter Awards also present the “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written,” which are voted on by the professional songwriter members of NSAI. The songs eligible for the honor must have at least one Nashville-based writer and have charted in the top 20 of a Billboard Airplay chart in the genres of country, christian, mainstream top 40 and/or rock between May 1, 2023 and April 30, 2024. The highest vote-getter is named NSAI’s song of the year.
Austin Nivarel, Joe Ragosta and Rob Ragosta performed “Need a Favor,” which they co-wrote with Jelly Roll. Ryan Beaver and Jared Keim performed “Pretty Little Poison,” which they wrote with Warren Zeiders. Meanwhile, Jordan Dozzi, Larry Fleet and Brett Tyler performed the Morgan Wallen-Eric Church hit “Man Made a Bar.” Davis, Higgins and Larkins performed their song “The Painter.”
See this year’s “10 Songs I Wish I’d Written” winners below:
“Handle On You”
Written by Monty Criswell, Parker McCollum (recorded by: Parker McCollum)
“I’m Not Pretty”
Written by Mackenzie Carpenter, Micah Carpenter, Megan Moroney, Ben Williams (recorded by: Megan Moroney)
“Last Night”
Written by John Byron, Ashley Gorley, Charlie Handsome, Jacob Kasher Hindlin (recorded by: Morgan Wallen)
“Man Made a Bar”
Written by Rocky Block, Jordan Dozzi, Larry Fleet, Brett Tyler (recorded by: Eric Church and Morgan Wallen)
“Need a Favor”
Written by Jelly Roll, Austin Nivarel, Joe Ragosta, Rob Ragosta (recorded by: Jelly Roll)
“Next Thing You Know”
Written by Jordan Davis, Greylan James, Chase McGill, Josh Osborne (recorded by: Jordan Davis)
“Pretty Little Poison”
Written by Ryan Beaver, Jared Keim, Warren Zeiders (recorded by: Warren Zeiders)
“Standing Room Only”
Written by Tommy Cecil, Patrick Murphy, Craig Wiseman (recorded by: Tim McGraw)
“Try That In a Small Town”
Written by Kurt Allison, Tully Kennedy, Kelley Lovelace, Neil Thrasher (recorded by: Jason Aldean)
“Where the Wild Things Are”
Written by Randy Montana, Dave Turnbull (recorded by: Luke Combs)
“White Horse”
Written by Chris Stapleton, Dan Wilson (recorded by: Chris Stapleton)