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This year’s Academy of Country Music Honors will air on Dr. Phil’s new Merit Street Media in the first step of a new broader partnership between the two entities.
Airing Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, the annual ACM Honors will recognize previously announced honorees including ACM Lifting Lives Award recipient Luke Bryan, ACM Poet’s Award recipient Alan Jackson, ACM Triple Crown recipient Lainey Wilson and ACM Icon Award recipient Trisha Yearwood, as well as executives Walt Aldridge, Tony Brown and Shannon Sanders.
Hosted by multiple ACM Award winner Carly Pearce and reigning ACM song of the year winner Jordan Davis, the ceremony will take place Aug. 21 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and feature performances from Eric Church, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Tyler Hubbard, Jamey Johnson, Ashley McBryde and Keith Urban, among others. Hubbard will also present the ACM studio recording and industry awards.
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“We’re excited to partner with Merit Street Media to bring one of my favorite nights of the year, ACM Honors, to households across North America through this growing network,” said Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music, in a statement. “With so many great performances honoring some of country music’s biggest stars, we can’t wait for fans to tune in to this event on Merit Street, and in the months ahead, we plan to bring even more content focused on Country Music to the Merit Street viewers.”
Though Whiteside declined to provide specifics, according to a press release, the two entities will explore programming opportunities around country music performances, behind-the-scenes and lifestyle moments, documentaries and more.
“For our first step into music programming, we can’t imagine a better marriage than Merit Street with ACM,” said Merit’s EVP/COO, Joel Cheatwood. “To kick this off with such an amazing celebration as ACM Honors is exactly what we aspired to deliver to viewers, and we look forward to creating additional original country music content for fans everywhere.”
Merit Street Media, which launched in April, dubs itself as a “destination for news and entertainment that respects your intelligence,” and is a partnership with Trinity Broadcasting Network. According to Merit Street Media, its programming reach extends to more than 80 million television homes through cable, satellite, streaming and free over-the-air platforms, including DirecTV, Dish, U-Verse and Samsung TV Plus, as well as Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, and Roku. Also among its programming are Professional Bull Riders events, which air live.
The previous two years, the ACM Honors — which are in their 17th year — aired on Fox.
Limited tickets for ACM Honors are available through AXS, including VIP packages which include a ticket in the VIP artist section of the Ryman, a ticket to the VIP pre-party reception, a commemorative Hatch Show Print poster, parking and drink tickets.
Elle King is opening up about her controversial performance on the Grand Ole Opry stage in January.
The star sat down with Kaitlyn Bristowe for her Off the Vine podcast, where she opened up about the difficulties that she was going through, and noted that she “went to a different type of therapeutic program” after the incident.
“I was very sad, and nobody really knows what I was what I was going through behind closed doors,” King explained. “And I just took that as, if it wasn’t this, it’s gonna be something else.”
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During the Grand Ole Opry’s tribute concert for Dolly Parton’s 78th earlier this year, King appeared on stage, where she declared that she was “f–king hammered” while trying to cover Parton’s song “Marry Me.” When she struggled to remember the lyrics, King sang, “I don’t give a s–t” and “I don’t know they lyrics to these things in this f–king town… Don’t tell Dolly ’cause it’s her birthday.”
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She continued that she’s a “different person” now. “I’ve had to heal and deal and go through things and, someone said to me, I think you might find a silver lining or something good that comes out of your experience with that,” she shared. “Ultimately, I couldn’t go on living my life or even staying in the situation that I had been going through. I couldn’t continue to be existing in that high level of pain that I was going through at the time.”
Following King’s performance, the Grand Ole Opry issued an apology via X, responding to one disgruntled attendee’s comment, and saying, “We deeply regret and apologize for the language that was used during last night’s second Opry performance.”
Parton quickly forgave King and offered empathy. In an interview with Extra, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee shared. “Elle is a really great artist. She’s a great girl. She’s been going through a lot of hard things lately, and she just had a little too much to drink.”
The Oak Ridge Boys’ enduring, lovable classic, “Elvira” came out in 1981 and quickly became the legendary quartet’s fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart — as well as its biggest pop hit, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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But the song came out two years before the launch of The Nashville Network, the first country music cable television network — and, unbelievably, it never had an accompanying video. Until now.
The joyous video clip, which premieres below, features the band surrounded by some famous friends (including Trace Adkins, Kid Rock, Lorrie Morgan, The Gatlin Brothers, Ray Stevens and Big & Rich) performing the song. Filmed in October at John Rich’s Redneck Riviera bar on Nashville’s Lower Broadway, it was 50-year Oaks member Joe Bonsall’s last video before his July 9 death at age 76.
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But before fans see the band and the familiar faces, the video opens on a number of burgeoning artists, including Chase Matthew and Danni Stefenetti, singing along to the song they have heard since birth. Featuring a new generation of artists served as an intentional passing of the torch, the video’s director Brandon Wood says: “My goal since working with the Oak Ridge Boys has been to help them expand their reach to younger demographics through creative means of promoting their new albums and releases. It just made sense that our group of unsuspecting karaoke singers would be a group of influencers, with respectable audiences of their own.”
That angle helped turn around Oak Ridge Boy singer Duane Allen, a member of the band since 1966. “When they started talking about doing a video of ‘Elvira,’ I wasn’t really on board,” he tells Billboard. “It took a while for me to rally around the idea. Then I [realized] what they were doing was really paying tribute to the song, not us, and how that song affected everybody who heard it. [Then], I was gung-ho — because I really feel like once anybody hears that song, it’s just magic.”
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To be sure, between Richard Sterban’s inimitable bass delivery on the “Um-poppa-um-poppa, mow, mow” chorus, Bonsall’s effervescent vocals and the Oaks’ trademark harmonies, the song has charmed fans of all ages for five decades. (As if any proof were needed, tacked on to the end of the video is footage of a four-year old Wood singing the song.)
Allen knows the song’s appeal. He remembers when he first heard it in 1966, after coming across the original version — recorded by the song’s writer, Dallas Frazier. “I sat up in my bed when I heard it the first time. Fast forward to 1981 and [Oaks producer] Ron Chancey calls. We were about finished with recording [the album], and he says, ‘Ace, I’ve got an idea of a song that I’ve just found. I’d like to show it to you guys. It will be a major hit for you if we do it Oak Ridge Boys-style…’ Within about 30 minutes, everybody gathered at my house and the song he played, I knew it already — because I never forgot that song. I could almost sing it word-for-word, having never heard it again in those 15 years.”
Unlike on the original, Bonsall modulated up on the last pass on the chorus, which, with Sterban’s delivery, made the song truly the Oaks’ own. The new version of “Elvira” will be featured on a forthcoming album by the Oaks that includes remakes of past hits and new songs.
Bonsall was in high spirits the day of the video shoot, Wood says: “Joe was a pro. He always gave 1000 percent and always had fun doing it. This day was no different. The energy he got from being in that room with his peers who love him was magical. We all felt it, but I think he particularly had a blast hugging necks and celebrating this amazing song. At one point when we were on a break, he grabbed my hand across the table and shared some words with me. He ended it with ‘I love you man.’ I’ll always remember that.”
In the video, Bonsall looks radiant as he sings the song and gladhands with friends singing along. Although he had already been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) four years prior, the group shot the video “while he was relaly feeling good,” Allen says. “It was just a great day. It was just like creating another piece of magic. You turn the cameras on and the song starts playing and everybody has fun.”
The final shot of the video features Bonsall smiling, which Wood says was “serendipitous… This was in the first cut from the beginning. The focus was never intentionally more on Joe than any of the other Boys.”
For Allen, performing “Elvira” never gets old. “The song has meant so much to the Oak Ridge Boys’ career,” he says. “It still does every time we perform it. There’s something magical that happens.”
And the band has been performing it a lot — both over the decades and recently. The Oaks started their American Made Farewell Tour celebrating their legacy last September. Bonsall made it through the end of the year.
“He told me, ‘I’m going to do my best to make all the Christmas dates. If I make the Christmas dates, I’m going to try my best to make all the dates you put in the book for [2024],’” Allen recalls. “Well, we got to the last Christmas date, we carried him off stage, we put him in a wheelchair, and he said, ‘I’m done.’ And the next morning, he called Ben James, and said, ‘I’m done. The position is yours. Put your singing britches on.’ [Joe] was a trooper all the way to the very end, he never gave any kind of complaint. He didn’t want anybody pitying him or feeling sorry for him. And his voice was strong, all the way up to the very last note on the very last Christmas song we did. I loved him like a brother and I miss him every day that comes around. I miss him so much.”
It’s been an unspeakably brutal few months for the Oaks personally. In addition to Bonsall’s death, Nora, Allen’s wife of 54 years, died March 31. Then on July 1, eight days before Bonsall’s passing, William Lee Golden’s son, Rusty, died.
Allen says the unbreakable bond between the group and their fans has become more special than ever following the tragedies, and that the road has been a respite from the sorrow. In fact, following his wife’s burial, Allen changed his clothes, got on the tour bus and headed to Florida for a show.
“I needed to feel the love from not only from my singing partners — I needed to feel the love from the people,” he says. He broke down singing the second verse of “Fancy Free,” and the line “Oh Lord, you just don’t know how it hurts to say goodbye/ She did her best to stay I can’t say she did not try.” “When I started singing that second verse, man, I exploded and the crowd knew what I’d been through and they started standing up and cheering and I got what I needed,” he says, tearing up. “And they’ve been there ever since.”
The Farewell tour was originally set to honor Bonsall and his final outing, but Allen says while it is still technically a Farewell tour, there is now no definite end in sight. Plus, Allen adds poignantly, “I don’t have anybody to go home to now.”
He says the tour, which was slated to end this year, will now likely go well into 2025. “I believe the Eagles are on their third farewell tour, so we can at least do our first farewell tour and end it at the end of ’25. I think we’re going to probably try to work as many dates as we can and get to the places we’ve not been able to cover this year,” Allen says. “We need the audience and we need to say thank you to all of them. The date book keeps filling up. I guess that’s God saying, ‘It’s not time yet, so keep singing.’”
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.”