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These days, Morgan Wallen typically plays for crowds that number in the tens of thousands – but on Tuesday (Sept. 17) night in New York City, the country juggernaut performed a pared-down set alongside HARDY and ERNEST for an audience that measured in the hundreds at the 2024 T.J. Martell Foundation gala fundraiser.
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The trio of Big Loud artists delivered a performance that felt like a casual writers’ round – the kind of thing you’re more likely to see at Nashville’s Bluebird Café than the Midtown Manhattan Cipriani. Carrying their own gear up to the stage, Wallen, HARDY and ERNEST perched atop stools and strummed their signature songs on acoustic guitars, occasionally leaning into the microphone to add backing vocals to each other’s songs when moved by the music.
The genre-melding HARDY kicked things off with a stripped-down version of his fist-pumping Country Airplay topper “Truck Bed”; ERNEST and Wallen blended voices effortlessly on their collab “Flower Shops”; and Wallen even trotted out his unreleased song “Love Somebody,” marking the live debut of the tune on American soil. (Yes, he also played the crowd-pleasing Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Last Night,” which had everyone’s phone up in the air and recording.)
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Few people could pull together a night of this caliber, but Seth England is not like most. The Big Loud partner/CEO was honored Tuesday night by the T.J. Martell Foundation – which funds trailblazing research in the fight to end cancer — with the lifetime music industry award. And the crowd that turned out to help raise money and honor England was packed with artists (such as Miranda Lambert), songwriters (including Craig Wiseman, England’s partner at Big Loud), producers and music industry executives from Nashville to New York to Los Angeles and beyond.
“When I asked Seth England to be this year’s honoree, he didn’t hesitate, he didn’t need to check his schedule, he just said ‘yes,’” said Steve Gawley, the foundation’s chairman-elect of the board of trustees. “Seth’s only question was, ‘How do we make the most impact?’ Because Seth always thinks big.” England’s ability to bring his country music Rat Pack together for the gala certainly paid off for the good cause – the T.J. Martell Foundation reports it raised a record-breaking $2.6 million for 2024.
“This year, I’ve had a massive learning curve about all that this organization means to folks — learning about the people it’s helped save and the money raised that continues to go to cancer research,” England said in his speech. “The work that the T.J. Martell Foundation has done has touched countless lives, and being a part of that legacy is beyond humbling. I’m honored to be able to contribute to this mission in tonight’s small way.”
John Esposito, Lynn-Anne Huck, Seth England, and Steve Gawley attend the T.J. Martell Foundation 49th annual New York Honors Gala on Sept. 17, 2024 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for The T.J. Martell Foundation
Plenty of listeners likely did a double take when Parker McCollum’s new single premiered on radio stations and streaming playlists on Sept. 13.
It was McCollum’s voice all right, but the Dylan-style harmonica, rough-cut Flying Burrito Brothers arrangement and Hawaiian steel-like slide guitar challenge all the norms of modern commercial country. Even for McCollum, who openly tries to live at the margins of mainstream country, “What Kinda Man” is boldly different.
“I’m a little nervous about this song,” he confesses. “I think it’s going to stick out on country radio like a sore thumb.”
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Standing out from the crowd is, of course, an asset for recording artists, even if it’s sometimes uncomfortable. Willie Nelson, Chris Stapleton, Waylon Jennings and Dolly Parton all earned their place in the genre’s strata by owning a unique sonic personality. McCollum, clearly aware that there are no guarantees about the length of a recording career, seems intent on enhancing his public identity while he has the opportunity.
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“I’ve only got two records left on my first-ever record deal, and I just didn’t want to go put out a record that sounded like the last two,” he says. “I always wanted to be John Mayer and George Strait, you know, and their records are sonically perfect. And I kind of came to the realization over the last year [that] maybe that’s just not me.”
“What Kinda Man” is decidedly McCollum. He started writing it at home alone several years ago after turkey hunting in Kansas, “banging around on my guitar trying to find a melody” and freestyling phrases. He landed on an apologetic line about pulling an all-nighter — “which,” he says, “I used to do all of the time” — and he played it forward from there, each melodic line and lyrical phrase arriving sequentially. The verse segued seamlessly into the chorus, and he worked his way to the payoff phrase: “Forget the man I am/ What kinda man do you need?”
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He knew that hook was worth pursuing, so he saved it for another day. That day arrived on April 26, 2022, when songwriters Natalie Hemby (“Heartache Medication,” “Pontoon”) and Jeremy Spillman (“Hell on the Heart,” “Arlington”) arrived at his house to work on songs. He played the verse and chorus of “What Kinda Man,” and it was already so far down the road, his co-writers felt strongly that they should try to finish it.
“Parker just gifted this to us like our Christmas presents,” Hemby says. “So very grateful to him. Maybe we changed a couple of lines, but that was about it on the first verse and chorus. He came in with a mapped-out idea.”
Like McCollum, they recognized the hook — “Forget the man I am/ What kinda man do you need?” — was strong. “I just don’t know what girl across the universe doesn’t want to hear that,” Hemby deadpans, “because we love to change people.”
McCollum had one specific demand for the second verse. He wanted to include a specific line, “Swore that I would never step foot back in the Union Valley Church again,” which he had written as a reference to a spot in Oklahoma he stumbled on during his drive home from the turkey hunt.
“We’d actually pulled over right there to smoke a joint, which is a little sacrilegious,” he allows. “But I took the picture on my phone.”
The church became a symbol for the singer’s determination to change his life around; he was willing to return to a place he despised and try to find salvation in an effort to win over a woman. “I think that’s a theme that’s true for a lot of guys,” Spillman says. “You can listen to that song and identify with that character. We are kind of hell-raisers till we find the one who gives us a reason not to be that way.”
They recorded a guitar/vocal work tape with a light swing feel to it, Hemby creating a template for a harmony part. McCollum considered recording it for his 2023 album, Never Enough, but never quite got to it. After cutting about seven tracks for his next album, he switched producers, looking to change his sound. He called on Frank Liddell (Miranda Lambert, David Nail) and Eric Masse (Charlie Worsham, Waylon Payne) and recorded a few songs at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio in mid-summer with a handpicked, five-piece studio band: drummer Nir Z, bassist Eli Beard and three guitarists — Adam Wright, Harrison Whitford and Cage the Elephant’s Nick Bockrath.
The night before the session, McCollum decided the phrasing in the back half of verse two could be tighter, and he rewrote that section of “What Kinda Man.”
At the session, Liddell had the band cut an instrumental first to develop some cohesiveness as a unit. Sitting in the control room before they tackled “What Kinda Man,” McCollum determined they should record it as a shuffle, but outside of that, they mostly let the band play the song repeatedly, finding their groove along the way. They played without a click track, giving the performance a looser feel, and the ultimate single was built on one specific pass. McCollum sang full-throated with every take.
“He brought it almost like an athlete,” Liddell says. “It’s really important because, especially when you’re doing something live like that, [the voice is] the most important instrument in the room, and if they can’t hear it, or if the person can’t sing, or they’re just mailing it in, then it affects everything else.”
Liddell thought McCollum’s vocal from the studio floor was strong enough to be the final performance, but McCollum insisted that he was a bit worn down from the road and could improve upon it, so he held an overdub session later, completing his vocal work and throwing in the harmonica piece, too. Wright sang a harmony part, and they called in Madi Diaz, who had worked with Liddell on Lambert’s “Vice,” to lend an atmospheric countermelody in the background.
“We were kind of feeling like there should be a female and just trying to find something interesting,” Liddell says. “It kind of solves the whole element of having a woman in there. The song’s about, you know, talking to a woman.”
The resulting track is at once swaggering and apologetic. “It sounded like a jam when we heard it,” Spillman says.
MCA Nashville surprised McCollum by picking “What Kinda Man” as his next single, since he thought the production might be too rough for country radio. But the storyline fits his own conversion from a rabble-rouser to a married man, and the song overall meets his standards.
“The only thing I ever think about when I write songs,” McCollum says, “is, you know, would Rodney Crowell think this is good? Would Steve Earle think this is good? Would James McMurtry or Robert Earl Keen think this is good for country music? And I think they would think this song was good for country music.”
Randy Goodman, who has been chairman and CEO of Sony Music Nashville since 2015, will retire at the end of 2024.
“Thank you to Randy for leading our Nashville company through the last nine years and providing some of the biggest new superstars in the genre of country music,” Sony Music Group Chairman Rob Stringer said in a statement announcing the news. “These artists are part of his legacy, and he should be proud of that. We look forward to building on the strong base he and his team have set up for the future.”
“Thank you to Rob for his leadership and support throughout my entire time at the company,” said Goodman, who has also overseen Sony Music’s Christian music enterprise, Provident Entertainment, during that period. “The Sony Music Nashville and Provident Entertainment teams are some of the finest executives I’ve had the privilege of working with over my many years in this business.
“There are too many people to thank specifically who helped and supported me along the way: my family foremost for their support and grace in letting me stay with it all these years,” he continued. “Looking back over my career’s arc, I am humbled and honored to have had the privilege to work with the artist legends I have; and as importantly, the teams I’ve been privileged to work with and lead. As excited as I am for what’s next no doubt it is bittersweet. It’s all been a gift.”
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At Sony Music, Goodman and his team have shepherd the careers of stars Luke Combs, Kane Brown, Maren Morris, Megan Moroney and Nate Smith, as well as key breaking artists including Mitchell Tenpenny, Kameron Marlowe, Corey Kent and Morgan Wade among others.
Goodman, a perennial on Billboard’s Country Power Players list, spent more than 35 years as a pillar in the Nashville music community.
Goodman’s extensive career includes 16 years at RCA Records, where he spent five years as senior vp, global marketing for RCA in New York prior to returning to Nashville. He also served as executive vp and GM of the RCA Label Group in Nashville, which would later become known as Sony Music Nashville. While at RCA, he worked with such artists as Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride, Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Dave Matthews Band, Wu-Tang Clan, Dolly Parton, Clint Black, Keith Whitley and The Judds.
In 1997, Goodman opened Lyric Street Records for the Walt Disney Co., where he stayed until 2010, working with Rascal Flatts, Aaron Tippin and American Idol finalist Josh Gracin.
Goodman is a former president and chairman of the CMA Board and a current member. He also co-chaired the Music City Music Council with former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and is a board member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In 2019, he was named the Presidential Award recipient for outstanding executive achievement by Music Biz.
No word yet on a succession plan.
The upcoming ABC series Doctor Odyssey has some country music cred, judging from the series’ new trailer. The teaser, which arrived Tuesday (Sept. 17) features both Kelsea Ballerini and Shania Twain, who will have guest-starring roles, though details on those roles have not been revealed.
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The trailer features a scene with Ballerini being checked out by Dr. Max, while another moment features Twain dancing in the ship’s ballroom with Don Johnson, whose role has also not yet been detailed.
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Doctor Odyssey stars actor Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek, Dr. Death), who portrays Dr. Max, an on-board doctor for a luxury cruise ship. He and the rest of the ship’s medical team work to navigate medical crises. Other stars in the series include Johnson (Miami Vice, Nash Bridges), Phillipa Soo and Sean Teale.
Ballerini expressed excitement for her work on the series after the teaser arrived. “Spent the last few weeks literally screaming crying and throwing up in the dramatic, fabulous world of #doctorodyssey and crossing guest star off the bucket list,” Ballerini wrote on Instagram Tuesday, accenting her caption with a heart emoji. “This incredible show premiers [sic] september 26th on @abc and streams on @hulu. (more soon on my episode and obsession with the utterly lovely kind and brilliant cast).”
Ballerini previously appeared on the television series Nashville in 2016, but is known for her cinematic music videos, such as those from her 2023 project Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, and the clip for her song “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Two).” Twain has made appearances in television series including Monarch, Broad City and A Man in Full.
Doctor Odyssey is written and executive produced by Jon Robin Baitz, Joe Baken and Ryan Murphy, with Paris Barclay directing and executive producing.
Doctor Odyssey will premiere Sept. 26 on ABC, and will also stream on Hulu.
Watch the series’ trailer below:
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Dolly Parton has nothing but fondness for the world’s biggest country-dabbling pop stars: Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
In a new interview with Variety published Tuesday (Sept. 17), the 78-year-old country legend gushed about both superstars as well as weighed in on the CMA Awards snubbing Bey’s Cowboy Carter this season. “Taylor Swift is amazing what she has done with her career,” she said of the “Anti-Hero” singer, who started out as a country artist before transitioning to pop in 2014. “I just admire her very much and how she’s handled her business, her personal life and what all she has meant to so many young people. [She’s] been a great inspiration.”
As for the “Texas Hold ‘Em” musician, Parton thinks Cowboy Carter — which featured a voice recording from the “9 to 5” artist as well as Bey’s cover of “Jolene” — is a “great album” that she was “fortunate” to be a part of. “[Beyoncé’s] a country girl in Texas and Louisiana, so she grew up with that base,” Parton said. “It wasn’t like she just appeared out of nowhere.”
Even so, Parton thinks that the CMAs — which angered fans Sept. 9 by failing to acknowledge Cowboy Carter in any of its 2024 categories — didn’t necessarily shut out the Destiny’s Child alum “on purpose.” “There’s so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, ‘Well, we can’t really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that,’” Parton told the outlet. “I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like, doing that on purpose. I think it was just more of what the country charts and the country artists were doing, that do that all the time, not just a specialty album.”
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“But it was a wonderful album,” Parton added. “She can be very, very proud … I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good.”
The 10-time Grammy winner also added that she’s “open to anything” when it comes to performing “Jolene” with Beyoncé at some point in the future. And whether it’s the “Break My Soul” singer or Swift — or any of the newer female singers finding success, such as Chappell Roan or Sabrina Carpenter — Parton says she’s “proud of all the gals.”
“I’m old enough to feel like their aunt or somebody that’s kind of looking down and saying, ‘Yay, you go!’” she added. “I think they’re all great in their own way.”
A decade ago, Midland’s Mark Wystrach, Jess Carson and Cameron Duddy holed up at the iconic Sonic Ranch studios in Tornillo, Texas, and made their initial recordings as a trio. They refined their simultaneously modern and retro sound, fused by their contrapuntal harmonies, in a process that was later highlighted with the release of their 2021 project The Sonic Ranch (and its corresponding documentary). That same year, Sturgill Simpson released his seminal, Dave Cobb-produced album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.
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“We were referencing a lot of stuff from the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Midland’s lead singer/guitarist Wystrach tells Billboard. “When we heard [Simpson’s] album, we felt like it was exactly, in so many ways, like what we were trying to capture to pay homage to the music we love, but in a modern and contemporary way.”
From that point, Cobb, also known for his work with Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell, became an aspirational producer for the trio. They realize that ambition with their new, eight-song project Barely Blue, out Sept. 20 on Big Machine Records.
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Though the two projects were recorded approximately 1,600 miles apart (Barely Blue was recorded Cobb’s Georgia Mae Studios in Savannah, Ga.) and are separated by 10 years of touring and recording, two top 5 Billboard Country Airplay chart hits in “Drinkin’ Problem” and “Burn Out,” and an ACM Award win for new vocal duo/group of the year, there are distinct similarities between the two projects.
“It completes a full circle back to our first album, where it was a fully immersive, experiential recording process, as opposed to going in with a set list of songs that we had to cut,” Wystrach says, adding, “I think he was probably the most fun we’ve ever had in the studio. Getting to work with Dave was one of the best musical experiences, I think collectively, of our lives.”
As much as Midland’s top-flight musicianship itself, the aura of Savannah is baked into the grooves of Barely Blue.
“It’s important for Dave to get you into the spirit and set the table,” bassist/vocalist Duddy says. “Because we were in his hometown, the first thing he did was we got in the car, and he drove us around the neighborhood. He’s very proud of Savannah and the culture. He was a great tour guide and historian for the city, so you feel like you’re part of the surroundings.”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Johnny Mercer grew up right there and wrote [the lyrics to] ‘Moon River’ about that area,” adds lead guitarist/vocalist Carson. “It’s so storybook and picturesque, I think it comes through on the album, too.”
Far removed from the daily workhorse vibe of Nashville, the trio found a free-flowing creative spirit at Cobb’s studio. There, a process marked by recording time, followed by dinner, wine, relaxed conversations and more recording late into the evening, sparked what Duddy describes as “freedom to experiment, because there’s no ticking clock.”
The trio entered the studio with nearly 20 songs they were considering for the project, eventually trimming the slate to Barely Blue’s succinct set, constructing and deconstructing each song until it fit with the album’s overall vibe.
“It’s a way we’ve always wanted to record because when we read stories of how some of our favorite albums were made, like the Rolling Stones in France making Exile [on Main St.], they’re in this sort of live-in space and they have time on their hands to tinker with things. ‘Lucky Sometimes’ is a song that we recorded, listened back to, and went back and tore down to the studs. The original version of it had drums and it was just a very different-sounding song.”
“Dave was pretty opinionated when it came to the songs that he felt worked together,” Duddy recalls. “There’s a dark art to picking songs that work together, and sometimes you’re too close to the material to know what’s best for it. Dave was very instrumental in finding and threading those songs together.”
The members of the group contributed writing to seven of the album’s eight songs, including the slow-rolling romance of “Baby It’s You,” the tumbling harmonies of “Old Fashioned Feeling,” the languid swagger of “Lucky Sometimes” and the Carson solo write “Halfway to Heaven.”
The lone outside cut is “Vegas,” written by Ryan Beaver, Jeff Hyde, Jeremy Spillman and Ryan Tyndell. The song is the first the trio has recorded from outside writers, other than recording occasional cover songs.
“The work tape we had [for “Vegas,”] we really blew that up and made it something that felt like it fit into this puzzle we were constructing,” Wystrach says of the song that hinges on revamping the long-standing phrase “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” “You can almost smell the heartbreak on that song, and the longing and nostalgia to it. It does really sound like a firsthand experience, and I think all of us have collectively kind of lived the story of that song — and it’s such a classic turn of a phrase that’s been part of the pop culture vernacular for so long.”
Wystrach, Duddy and Carson were joined in the studio by Cobb, keyboardist Philip Towns, percussionist Chris Powell, and multi-instrumentalist Leroy Powell for a recorded effort they feel captures the energy of their live shows for the first time in a long time, while still sounding radio ready.
“I think the three of us collectively feel the last three albums didn’t really reflect what we sound like live. I think all of our favorite albums sound kind of like the live show, and that’s something we wanted to pursue and incorporate in this album,” Wystrach said. “What people are hearing is a live-tracked album that is imperfect, human, it’s got a rawness to it.”
The UTA-booked group will take the new songs on the road when their The Get Lucky Tour launches Sept. 19 including stops at Red Rocks Amphitheater and at ACL Live. They’ll also return to Indio, California’s Stagecoach Festival in 2025.
In a world that is filled with over-saturation in so many facets, Midland adheres to the ethos of “keep people wanting more.”
“We certainly did that when it came to building our live show,” Duddy says. “We never tried to jump ahead and play into a venue that might’ve been bigger. We specifically tailored our live show to where it’s going to sell out. Not everybody can just walk up at the door and there might be some empty seats.
“That’s kind of way this album is — we wanted to really be able to spotlight each of those songs because we believed in them,” he continues. “We do feel like those eight songs are able to tell such a story and have such a landscape both through us and Dave.”
Over the past decade-plus, Illinois native Brett Eldredge has earned five No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits (including the two-week chart-toppers “Don’t Ya” and “Wanna Be That Song”) and has seen two of his albums rise into the top 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart.
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Thanks to his velvety, timeless vocal delivery, his annual holiday-themed Glow concerts and two albums comprised of primarily classic holiday songs (2016’s Glow and 2021’s Mr. Christmas), he’s also earned a reputation as an essential artist to help usher in the spirit of the holiday season.
On Sept. 27, Eldredge will extend that reputation with his third holiday album, Merry Christmas (Welcome to the Family), an eight-song collection of original holiday songs. Eldredge, who is managed by Q Prime South, is also turning a new page professionally, as the album will be the first released on Eldredge’s own independent label, Warm and Cozy Records. Eldredge previously parted ways with his longtime label home, Warner Music Nashville.
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“The run we had together at Warner was very special and it ended with respect and love,” Eldredge tells Billboard via email. “I am so grateful for the wonderful team of humans at Warner and the work and belief they always had for me. At the end of the day, I missed the feeling of betting on myself. That feeling when you first get to town, knocking on doors and playing anywhere they would let me in the doors with my guitar and an eager voice that wanted to be heard…I have that hunger to bet on myself and starting my own label felt like the perfect way to do that.”According to Q Prime South’s Randi Tolbert, ADA will handle distribution for the label, with Q Prime South and Q Prime New York label services handling duties including marketing, press, radio and digital.
Asked if there are plans to sign additional artists to his Warm and Cozy label, Eldredge notes that at the moment, his sights are set on releasing his own music, and he’s immersed in “making music that I love by cutting out expectations or outside pressures and anything that would influence my creative spirit. I love the freedom of it all so far…I am going to focus on that for now, but who knows what the future holds!”
Among the original songs on the new album is “Sweet December,” a duet with Kelly Clarkson (the two previously collaborated on “Under the Mistletoe,” featured on Clarkson’s 2021 holiday album, When Christmas Comes Around).
“After singing ‘Under the Mistletoe’ together, I knew there was no one else in the world I wanted to sing this song with,” Eldredge says in a statement. “Kelly’s voice has this soulful retro feeling. I’ve never done a Christmas song in this style, and I really love it.”
Clarkson adds in a statement, “I’ve been fortunate enough to record songs with Brett, go see him live, and have him on my show! He has one of my favorite voices and I will sing with him anytime, anywhere! I hope people dig ‘Sweet December’ as much as we do!”
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The vinyl edition of the upcoming album will be released Oct. 25, bolstered by Welcome to the Family: The Game, an exclusive board game printed onto the vinyl edition’s gatefold.
For Eldredge, seeing the growing success of his holiday-centered music is a fulfillment of the dreams and ideas he had as a young vocalist, inspired by the sounds of timeless holiday songs each season.
“I think the success of this Christmas business or any business is to dig into what sparked it before it mattered to anyone else but yourself,” he tells Billboard. “That’s how I feel about this whole Christmas dream that has blown up to a level I only used to dream about as a kid, sitting by the tree singing along to Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. That whole feeling of, ‘What if one day I could make music classic and cool like this, with my own holiday original songs? What if I could make people feel the way I do right now just listening and dreaming?’ When it all gets overwhelming, which indeed any type of success or ‘business’ does, I like to imagine taking a seat next to that 12-year-old me and saying, ‘Can you believe we are doing this?’”
Eldredge also notes to Billboard that fans can likely expect to hear a variety of sounds from him in the future as he explores musical avenues.
“I love so many types of music and I am inspired that we now live in an era where there can be a home on different playlists for different styles,” he says. “It honestly makes the live shows more fun and expansive too. I have a lot of different styles and sounds in my bag of magic tricks that I can’t wait to get out to the world!”See the tracklist for Merry Christmas (Welcome to the Family) below:
1 “Merry Christmas (Welcome to the Family)”
2 “It Must Be Christmas”
3 “Sweet December” (featuring Kelly Clarkson)
4 “Warm and Cozy”
5 “The Night St. Nick Got Sick”
6 “Season of Lights and Wonder”
7 “Who Will You Be Kissing on New Year’s Eve?” (featuring Idarose)
8 “Welcome to the Family” (Reprise)
Flavor Flav is seemingly everywhere these days. The Public Enemy hype man who became Team USA’s number one athletic supporter this summer when he opened his heart, and wallet, to help Team U.S.A.’s water polo squad — and other athletes — has made a number of new industry friends during this year of the Flavaissance.
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But few have had as much of an impact was rapper-turned-country superstar Jelly Roll. In an interview with People magazine, Flav, 65, describes what it is about Jelly, 39, that he finds so endearing and inspiring. “I’m proud to say it… that’s my guy,” said Flav, who the magazine said put on a Jelly Roll T-shirt during the interview.
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“Let me tell you something: Jelly Roll is one of the most positive people right now, man. And his music is so positive, so dope and it ways so much,” Flav added of the singer who gearing up to release Beautifully Broken (Oct. 11), the follow-up to his 2023 breakthrough album Whitsitt Chapel. “And not only that, but Jelly Roll’s music helped out a lot of people that have been down, you know what I’m saying? And the whole nine.”
And while they don’t seem to have a lot in common on the surface, Flav said he thinks he and Jelly essentially serve the same purpose in their music. “That’s another role that I play. I play the role like a Jelly Roll, you know what I’m saying? Because there’ll be a lot of people that be down in life and when they see me, I brighten up their day and it takes away that negativity that’s going on inside of them,” said Flav, whose indefatigable energy and positive vibes are always on full display in much the same way Jelly uses his music to speak to others who are struggling in an effort to lift them up. “Jelly Roll has the same effect. So me and Jelly Roll have something in common, man.”
The two men’s bourgeoning relationship has been chronicled on social media over the past year, including their meet cute in Sept. 2023 backstage, in which Jelly told Flav how much he loved him as the PE rapper casually dropped a bunch of Jelly’s song titles to prove his superfandom. “I’m just the son of a sinner man… I’m just one drink away from the devil,” Flav joked. In December, Jelly posted an Instagram video in which Flav brought him a birthday cake before his slot at last year’s Jingle Ball.
They also hung on the red carpet at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles in April and Flav spoke out in support of Jelly later that month when some online trolls were bullying the singer over his weight.
“On a personal note, Jelly Roll is one of the nicest, one of the absolute nicest men on the planet,” Flav said at the time. “A lot of people would love to be like Jelly Roll. All y’all trying to judge my boy Jelly Roll, I think y’all need to take a step back and judge yourself.”
Flav also introduced Jelly Roll at his The Night Before show in Detroit in April and was spotted shouting along to “Somebody Save Me” at one of Jelly’s shows in August.
Thomas Rhett will be kicking up his boots in 2025, when his Better In Boots Tour launches in June.
The Live Nation-produced tour will bring Thomas Rhett’s energy-fueled show and cascade of nearly two dozen No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay chart hits to 30 cities across North America, in states including New York, Virginia, Florida and Georgia. “Wind Up Missin’ You” hitmaker Tucker Wetmore will offer direct support on the tour, while “Austin” singer Dasha and sibling trio The Castellows will perform on select shows.
The tour will follow Thomas Rhett’s seventh album About a Woman, which released in August. The album features “Don’t Wanna Dance,” which interpolates Whitney Houston’s smash hit “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” as well as songs such as “Fool,” “Can’t Love You Anymore” and “Overdrive,” which draw on inspirations from artists ranging from The Oak Ridge Boys, Alan Jackson and The Rolling Stones.
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Five-time Grammy nominee Rhett recently told Billboard about another song from the album, “Church,” which pays homage to both fellow country singer Eric Church’s music, as well as Rhett’s own love story with his wife, Lauren.
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“This is Lauren’s favorite on the album, because when we were in high school, I bought [Church’s] Carolina record, which was his second album,” he says. “I had to buy a new copy every three months because I just wore it out. It kept skipping — but he was like our Zach Bryan. He was that dude who kind of got played on the radio but could care less if he was or not, and he was kind of grungy and would say things in songs that most people weren’t saying. I learned the entire album on acoustic guitar, and any time we were at a party, that’s all I played — so this song means a lot to us, because he was the soundtrack to our teenage years.”
Tickets for most of the Better In Boots tour dates will go on sale Friday, Sept. 20, at 10 a.m. local time on Thomas Rhett‘s website, with the remaining shows going on sale in the coming weeks.
See the full list of the Better in Boots 2025 Tour dates below:
This week, Billy Strings and Margo Price link up for a stoned-cold country sound, while Koe Wetzel offers a party-worthy romantic rebuff and Mae Estes sings a gut-punch of a song about the guys who give “good ‘ol boys” a bad name. This week’s crop of new tunes also features songs from Anne Wilson, Parker McCollum and more.
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Check out all of these and more in Billboard‘s roundup of the best country songs of the week below.
Billy Strings/Margo Price, “Too Stoned to Cry”
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Americana mainstay Price welcomes prolific bluegrass artist Strings on guitar and vocals on this lilting heap of honky-tonk heartbreak, produced by Beau Bedford and written by Andrew Combs (and previously released on his 2014 album Worried Man). They sing of coping with touring life’s pressures and long hours through various vices — or as they put it, “Walking the line between hellbent and high.” The two singers’ world-weary voices bring a heft of believability to this sad country track.
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Anne Wilson, “Stand”
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Earlier this year, Wilson made a genre-melding project with the country/contemporary Christian album Rebel, spearheaded by songs such as “Rain in the Rearview” and “Strong.” She continues in that vein with her latest, as she sings of summoning strength to “stand for love when all you see is hate.” Bright production and a balanced country-pop instinct are a shining foil for her powerful, twangy vocal and a message of holding fast to one’s convictions.
Mae Estes, “Good Ol’ Boys”
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Estes lends her bluegrass-tinted lilt to this tale of small-town deception. She boldly sings of a “good ol’ boy” who seems unfailingly polite and picture perfect to the rest of the community. Thus, Estes sings, the members of that tight-knit town likely would never believe how his personality changes in private quarters. But to those his monstrous side has impacted, the concept of a “good ol’ boy” instills more wariness than trust. The writers here are Autumn McEntire, Marti Dodson and SJ McDonald.
Parker McCollum, “What Kinda Man”
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Grungy guitar gives way to a ferocious mashup of harmonica, blazing rock and honky tonk twang on McCollum’s latest. “It’s harder than it looks to walk that line,” he sings, reminiscing about living life on the edge, until he meets the one who has him rethinking his ways. As always, McCollum offers up an exemplary, gritty and undoubtedly country vocal styling.
Angie K, “Stay”
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El Salvador-born Angie K, known for songs including “Happily Ever After,” employs a grainy, soulful rasp that’s enticing on this romantic, bilingual track. Lush background vocals and velvety instrumentation, accented with flashes of Latin guitar, heighten the sultry flavor here. Angie K, David Borys, Tom Pino and Jason Haag are the writers behind the song. “Stay” is featured on Angie K’s self-titled EP, which will be released Oct. 25.
Koe Wetzel, “Casamigos”
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Following the release of his ninth studio album 9 Lives in July, Wetzel finally releases this fan favorite. This laid-back rocker with an ample sing-along-chorus is an anthem of defiance. “Mary Jane took my license/ And Casamigos took my friend,” he sings, before making it clear that while a cascade of less-than-stellar decisions may have cost a few things dear to him, there is one romantic relationship in particular he’s just fine with losing. Wetzel brings a jam-band vibe and a display of bravura to this stinging romantic rebuff.
