Country
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This year’s CMA Fest in Nashville launched with music icon Dolly Parton spilling the details on several projects she has in the works — namely, a Broadway musical as well as a hotel.
“It’s true, I’m going to have a hotel right here in Nashville, and a museum too,” Parton told the crowd.
The country icon officially revealed her upcoming Songteller Hotel in Nashville, which will be located on 3rd and Commerce in downtown Nashville. The hotel will also include a Dolly Parton museum that will feature memorabilia from her career and many of her fashionable outfits, including a replica of Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors,” which inspired her signature song of the same name.
The name of the hotel takes its name from Parton’s 2020 book Songteller: My Life in Song, written with author-journalist Robert K. Oermann.
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“When we were looking at the property, you know how sometimes you feel you get a little divine sign,” Parton said during the event, which was hosted by Entertainment Tonight‘s Rachel Smith. “We were walking through and it was an empty room. There was a table and of all things, there was the book Songteller and we thought that must be a sign and we thought that would be a good name.”
Parton, of course, is no stranger to launching hotels — the singer, songwriter and business mogul’s Dollywood theme park includes the Dreammore Resort, which opened in 2015, and the Heartsong Lodge and Resort, which opened in 2023.
Parton also announced her upcoming Broadway musical, Hello, I’m Dolly: An Original Musical, set to open in 2026. Parton says she affectionately calls it “a Grand Ole Opera.”
“I tried for years, how to do my life story and make it make sense. I needed to write some original music. I’m hoping you’re gonna laugh and cry,” Parton said.
The musical will trace Parton’s life story from growing up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee before making her way to Nashville to pursue music. The musical will chronicle her early solo hits, her work with Porter Wagoner and her rise as to becoming an internationally, Country Music Hall of Famer, with 25 No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs hits. as well as a multi-faceted artist through her work in movies and television.
The musical will be produced by Parton, Adam Speers (ATG Productions) and Danny Nozell (CTK Enterprises), and takes its name from Parton’s first studio album, which released in 1967. Hello, I’m Dolly will feature a score by Parton that will include some of her biggest hits as well as new songs she has written especially for the musical, and a book by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter.
In addition, Parton revealed the launch of Dolly Wines (which starts with a Dolly 2023 California chardonnay) and the cookbook Good Lookin’ Cookin’, which she created with her sister Rachel. Good Lookin’ Cookin’ releases Sept. 17.
These business ventures expand on Parton’s recent teaming with Duncan Hines to launch a line of cake and muffin mixes, as well as Parton’s recent partnership with Krispy Kreme for the limited-time Dolly Parton Southern Sweets Doughnut Collection.
Parton also recently revealed her upcoming family-oriented album Smoky Mountain DNA–Family, Faith and Fables, out in November.
In the meantime, Parton told Smith that she has no plans to slow down anytime soon.
“Not today,” Parton quipped. “Maybe someday I may have to. I’ve always said if my husband was in ill health and needed me, I would pull back — and the same with my own health. But I kind of dreamed myself into a corner and I need to be responsible for that. I may pull back a little now and then, but not today.”
Zach Bryan’s “Pink Skies” debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs and Hot Rock Songs charts dated June 8, becoming his third leader on each list. The harmonica-infused single bows with 31.6 million official streams, 166,000 radio airplay audience impressions and 10,000 downloads sold in the United States from its May […]
Jelly Roll is celebrating National Donut Day by revealing where he got his sweet stage name. In a new PSA for Dunkin’ timed with Friday’s (June 7) holiday, the country star born Jason Bradley DeFord answers the question that “everybody always asks me”: How did he get the name Jelly Roll? “Believe it or not, […]
Jelly Roll is hoping to bring his high-energy stage presence overseas, but he’s overcoming some “legal puzzles” first. The “Need a Favor” superstar sat down with Jon Bon Jovi for a wide ranging Interview Magazine discussion, where he shared that he’s hoping to tour internationally. “It’s funny, America has finally agreed to let me leave […]
Welcome to Billboard Pro‘s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
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This week: Eminem’s new single debuts to massive numbers and a big catalog (and sample) bump, a deep cut on Billie Eilish’s latest flies past its lead single, Apple Music brings Miseducation to the masses and more.
Eminem Makes Streaming Magic for “Houdini,” “Abracadabra” & More
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A full 25 years into his superstar career, Eminem still knows how to make an entrance. The rapper has been teasing his upcoming The Death of Slim Shady album since late April, and on Friday (May 31), fans got their first taste of it with comeback single “Houdini.” Em showed with the single that he certainly has not lost his taste for provocation at age 52 – the song proved immediately controversial for its jokes about Tory Lanez’ shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, as well as other borderline-offensive lyrics – nor his more recent affinity for reviving classic rock staples, as the song heavily lifts from Steve Miller Band’s 1982 Hot 100-topper “Abracadabra.”
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The song’s impact has been similarly instantaneous, both in terms of its own consumption and in its lifting of associated cuts. “Houdini” has already racked up over 30 million official on-demand U.S. streams through Wednesday (June 3), according to early reports from Luminate, while also selling over 36,000 copies – both tremendous four-day numbers for any artist in 2024, let alone one twice the age of many contemporary superstars. The song has also elevated the rest of Eminem’s discography, with his non-”Houdini” catalog notching nearly 46 million streams combined over those four days, a 38% rise from the equivalent period the prior week. (A big part of that gain comes from 2002’s “Without Me,” whose iconic “Guess who’s back, back again” intro “Houdini” resurrects, and which is up 56% to over 3.1 million streams for those four days.)
Of course, Steve Miller is eating off the “Houdini” success as well: The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s eponymous band’s biggest Hot 100 hit more than doubled its streams over the same period, up 101% to 613,000. And yes, even that other recent hit of the same title is getting some spillover from the deluge: Dua Lipa’s “Houdini” was up 8% in streams over that period, to just over 2 million. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” Spreads Wings on Streaming
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Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft has been heating up the Billboard 200 with career-best numbers, but lead single “Lunch” – already a top five hit on the Billboard Hot 100 – isn’t the only song listeners are throwing their weight behind.
According to Luminate, “Birds” earned 25 million streams during its parent album’s first week of release (May 17-23), good enough for a No. 13 debut on the Hot 100. The following week (May 24-30), those numbers dipped just 2.7% to 24.3 million streams, helping the song rise one spot to its current Hot 100 peak of No. 12.
Of course, Eilish’s entire new LP has been pulling monster streams, but social media users’ affinity for the song’s lovey-dovey lyrics have helped “Birds” pull ahead of the pack. On TikTok, the official “Birds of a Feather” sound plays in over 170,000 clips, with the most popular videos using the song to showcase their romances and friendships. The live performance video of “Birds” — filmed at Inglewood’s Kia Forum alongside brother and collaborator FINNEAS – is the most-viewed Hit Me Hard and Soft live clip with 2.4 million views; its accompanying TikTok clip boasts a further 3.1 million views.
Last weekend (May 31-June 3), “Birds” collected 15 million streams, a 14% jump from the 13.1 million streams it earned over the same period the weekend prior (May 24-27) – signaling that the love for the song has clearly extended beyond the novelty of a new Billie album.
With the No. 1 spot on Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits playlist in its pocket and clear grassroots love, Billie could be eyeing her next chart smash with “Birds.” – KYLE DENIS
Listeners Get Educated on Lauryn Hill’s ‘Miseducation’
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Apple Music had much of the music-listening world on the edge of their Twitter accounts two weeks ago, as the streaming service slowly rolled out its list of the top 100 albums of all time. The wide-ranging list, which accounted for everything from Miles Davis’ epochal 1959 jazz LP Kind of Blue to SZA’s R&B blockbuster SOS from just 18 months ago, inspired a great deal of conversation and debate over its rankings, including for what it ultimately unveiled as its No. 1: Ms. Lauryn Hill’s iconic 1998 solo masterpiece The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
The 16-track set, which includes such classic singles as “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex Factor” and “Everything Is Everything,” rose from 6.3 million official on-demand streams for the tracking week ending May 16 (before the announcement) to over 8.1 million the week ending May 23, according to Luminate, with the announcement made on May 22. The bump from that lasted through week ending May 30, as the album rose again to 8.7 million streams – a two-week gain of nearly 38%. (The set also nearly doubled in sales over that period, from just over 900 for the week ending May 16 to nearly 1,800 for the week ending May 30.)
“I’m grateful that it connected and continues to connect with so many people,” Hill related to Apple Music after its ranking was revealed. “Thank you tons to every careful listener, thank you to every casual listener, and love to all the artists and those who support them fighting the good, courageous, and noble fight of presenting the art you love to a world that desperately needs it.” – AU
Lomiiel’s “Hay Lupita” Turns Dance Trend Into Streaming Smash
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If TikTok is consistent about anything, those users are going to dance. Dominican rapper-singer Lomiiel is the latest artist to land a streaming hit by way of a dance trend on the wildly popular app.
The Brazilian funk-inflected dembow song has earned over 2.4 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the tracking week of May 24-30, according to Luminate. That’s a 180% increase from six weeks ago (April 11-18), during which the track pulled just 863,000 streams. “Hay Lupita” has steadily increased in streams over that timespan thanks, in large part, to its viral dance trend.
The low-effort, hip-rocking dance appears in countless clips on the app, with Lomiiel’s self-uploaded audio boasting over 760,000 posts. Like any true viral song, uses of “Hay Lupita” have surpassed dance videos, with users placing the track over “fit check” videos and fancams of San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatís Jr. alike.
Lomiiel first posted a snippet of the track on Feb. 26, with the full track hitting DSPs on March 28. The official music video – which has garnered 18.3 million views – arrived on April 15, just four days before “Hay Lupita” earned its biggest single-week streaming increase to date. During the period of April 19-25, the song earned 1.3 million streams, up over 50% from the period of April 11-18.
With plenty of room to grow, it looks like Lomiiel’s new hit is just getting started. – KD
When tens of thousands of music fans visit Nashville June 6-9 for the Country Music Association’s annual CMA Fest, most of those attendees will see an artist — or two, or 10 — for the first time.
Surprisingly, those same artists may be meeting one of the musicians playing with them for the first time, too.
For all the uncertainties that fans and industry executives encounter during the festival, the instrumentalists carting their amplifiers and guitars through the Downtown footprint represent a sub-economy full of stress as they live out their musical dreams. Many of them work for multiple artists, sometimes picking up eight to 10 shows with as many as six different acts over the run of the festival. And in some instances, particularly on the smaller daytime stages, a musician could be appearing behind an artist they’ve never rehearsed with or even met.
“It was almost like a rite of passage,” says drummer Kayleigh Moyer, a Belmont University alumnus working this year with RaeLynn, Reyna Roberts and, quite likely, another artist or two who call at the last minute. “If you weren’t playing three or more shows during CMA Fest week, as a music major or musician — like, what were you doing?”
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Plenty of artists at CMA Fest — particularly those booked during the nightly concerts at Nissan Stadium — have their own bands on salary. But the daytime stages feature a fair number of acts who haven’t reached that financial level and need to hire a band for the festival, which represents a chance to showcase for some of the genre’s most avid fans. Those artists are all drawing from the same local pool of players, and up-and-coming musicians have the potential to make extra cash.
“In a lot of other situations, these artists wouldn’t be cool with people taking multiple gigs on the same day,” says multi-instrumentalist Kyle Pudenz, who had RaeLynn and Zandi Holup on his calendar 10 days ahead of the festival, with space to take late requests. “But when it’s CMA Fest, they know that the pay is not really livable unless you are playing several shows. I’ve actually jokingly called CMA week ‘Musicians’ Black Friday’ for the past several years, because it’s finally the week of the year where you overcome the January/February dry spell.”
Artists famously play CMA Fest for free, introducing themselves to potential new fans, cementing their relationships with existing followers and generating revenue for the CMA Foundation, which donates proceeds to music education programs.
The musicians are compensated at a lower rate than usual, with the CMA paying $170 per performance this year, based on an agreement with the Nashville chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, AFM Local 257. In 2023, the CMA paid $120,800 to 617 musicians, according to AFM 257 president Dave Pomeroy, an average of $195 per musician.
That’s not necessarily the only income source for the week. Some artists who pay their bands higher rates will compensate them beyond the CMA’s $170 base. And there are a ton of “non-CMA” shows, including label showcases and open bars on Lower Broadway.
“Every artist that I [play with], I have to fill out separate paperwork for each,” says drummer Andrew Edmonds, playing this year with Hannah Ellis, Madeline Merlo, Tenille Arts and Carter Faith. “Some artists are really great, and they’re like, ‘We’ll compensate you for full-show pay.’ Or, you know, ‘This acoustic thing pays this.’ Each person is doing different payments for different things. I have no idea what I’m making.”
They might get paid for rehearsal, too, though not every act has one, especially since technology has introduced new options. Most acts employ click tracks that keep the tempo steady in the musicians’ in-ear monitors. Fill-ins can receive “charts” — sheet music that provides chord progressions and song structures — and board tapes from previous shows are now routinely available, providing an opportunity to rehearse at home with the artist’s actual concert performances. “That wasn’t as common 10 years ago, to get those before gigs,” Moyer says.
No matter what level of preparation they have, musicians can still count on having an unpredictable experience. Thus, the festival has numerous nicknames: the “CMA hustle,” according to Pudenz; a “throw-and-go,” per Moyer; or a “plug-and-pray,” as drummer Sarah Tomek puts it.
Tomek will back Chris Housman and Jenny Teator during official CMA shows and make non-CMA appearances at the weekly Whiskey Jam and in Lower Broadway events at Tequila Cowboy and Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar.
Those CMA gigs are a tight-wire act. When one show ends, the next band has 15 minutes to set up on the same stage. That means plugging guitars into unfamiliar amps, praying the electronics all light up and setting in-ear monitor levels for each musician. Drummers have additional issues — most are in charge of a laptop with the click tracks and instrumental enhancements, and they have to play on a kit they’ve never used before, adjusting heights, angles and locations for cymbals, snares and toms.
“It probably takes you five minutes into the set to just settle down because you’ve made it, you’ve arrived, the sound check — everything’s working, we hope — and then you can kind of calm down,” Tomek says. “By the time you calm down, the set’s almost over. And then you’re on to the next one.”
Getting to the next one isn’t always easy. Most of the stages are within a block or two, but Nashville’s Downtown is hilly, the crowds can be massive, and once the day begins, the event never stays on schedule. Musicians have been known to text while onstage behind one artist to let the next artist know they’re running late.
“There’s really nothing you can guarantee,” says guitarist Tyler Cain, who works with pop artist Gavin DeGraw. In previous CMA Fests, he has played behind Meghan Linsey and Billy Currington, among others. “Not only are you hoping everything’s on time and works out, but you also may be jumping into a situation where you didn’t even have any rehearsal, or maybe you don’t even know the artist. Like, when you’re onstage for them, that’s the first time you’ve met them.”
The schedule tends to work itself out — “I’ve never missed a downbeat,” Moyer says — and adapting to the surprises as they come does have long-term benefits. “I think it makes you a better musician to put yourself in situations that you’re maybe a little scared,” Cain suggests. “Being able to deliver quickly, that’s a good skill to develop as a musician.”
The biggest skills revolve around overcoming weather. The heat index invariably tops 90 degrees during CMA Fest, and there’s typically a rain shower or two. “Music gear isn’t actually designed to work at that temperature,” Pudenz notes. “If your pedal board’s sitting directly in the sun, you might suddenly find that none of your stuff works when you plug it in.”
That goes for the human body, too. Tomek says she has “seen stars” while overheating in the middle of a CMA Fest set, though that doesn’t allow for any presentation shortcuts.
“You got to still look cool,” she says. “It’s not like you’re going to be wearing khaki shorts out there. You’re going to still be wearing your boots and your hat, and it’s like 100 degrees. It’s such an intense week for the cats down there.”
Grueling as it is, the musicians appreciate CMA Fest. They came to Nashville to play, and succeeding at the festival builds confidence that they can probably play through anything.
“At the end of the day, the music is the most important thing,” Edmonds says. “No matter what happens, you have to mentally block everything out and just be like, ‘All right, we’re doing this. This next 30 minutes, I’m here, and we’re going to crush it.’ ”
“Ain’t About You” singer HunterGirl had a “pinch me” moment recently as she was preparing for this week’s CMA Fest, where she’ll perform at the Chevy Vibes stage on Friday (June 7) and appear on the CMA Closeup stage on Saturday (June 8).
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“I had rehearsals with a band and I was thinking back to being 14 years old and playing shows — little Hunter would lose her mind thinking about all these cool things that are happening right now,” HunterGirl said in conversation with Billboard at the BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville offices.
Those “cool things” include not only being runner-up during the 20th season of American Idol two years ago, being announced as part of this year’s CMT’s Next Women of Country class in January and making her Grand Ole Opry debut in March, but also gearing up for the release of her major label debut EP, Tennessee Girl, out Friday (June 7) on 19 Recordings/BBRMG/BMG Nashville.
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Born Hunter Wolkonowski, HunterGirl grew up 90 minutes south of Nashville, in Winchester, Tennessee. She earned her stage name by being the only girl named Hunter in her elementary class. Inspired equally by the confessional songwriting of Dolly Parton and the fierceness of P!nk, HunterGirl made her way to Nashville soon after graduating high school, studying at nearby Middle Tennessee State University, while playing the downtown Nashville bars. She won a Nashville Songwriters Association International contest — and then came her career-expanding time on American Idol in 2022. HunterGirl grew up listening to Luke Bryan’s 2013 Crash My Party album, so her stint on American Idol nearly a decade later was full circle, with HunterGirl performing for and being mentored by Bryan himself.
“He’s always told me, ‘Just keep writing songs and always stay true to yourself,’” HunterGirl says of Bryan. “He’s just been such a champion for me since I was on the show and I’m very grateful to have him in my corner.” She will also open shows for Bryan this summer.
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Her EP includes “Ain’t About You,” which made HunterGirl the first female country artist in over three decades to write her debut radio single by herself.
“Ain’t About You” – which reached No. 53 on Hot Country Songs — detailed the deflating feeling familiar to so many aspiring Nashville hitmakers who watch as friends and fellow artists reach career milestones and framed the now 26-year-old as a clear-eyed purveyor of emotional depth.
“It was the most honest and vulnerable I’d ever been in a song,” she says. “I wrote it in my bedroom and never thought anyone would hear it. That song and people’s reception to it changed my songwriting because I realized people needed to hear the not-so-pretty parts of your life, the really hard things I was scared to say. After that it made choosing [songs for] the EP so much easier, because I’m like, ‘I’m just going to be myself and hopefully, it touches somebody else out there.’”
The six-song EP weaves in what HunterGirl calls “blue jean jacket songs” and “leather jacket songs.” She explains: “The blue jean jacket songs feel like me sitting in my bedroom and talking about my story, and the leather jacket songs are the ones that make me feel like I can take on the world and feel powerful. So the EP shows different sides of my personality.”
“Bad Boy,” an up-tempo rocker with lyrics that gush over a tattooed, cigarette-smoking guitar player, is a decidedly “leather jacket song,” HunterGirl says.
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“I wanted to write a song about my terrible taste in men,” says HunterGirl, who wrote the song with writer-producer Lindsay Rimes and Greg Bates. “I was out after a show and a guy pulled up on a motorcycle, and later I just started singing the lyric, ‘I got it bad for a bad boy.’ I took the idea to them and we just got in the studio and had fun.”
Billboard spoke with HunterGirl, our Country Rookie of the Month for June, about her new EP, songwriting, her passion for supporting the military and more.
“Ain’t About You” was a solo write for you. Why is songwriting such an important aspect of your artistry?
I write every single day. It’s just unloading my day in my diary or in my notes app. I feel like I need to write my songs just because I’ve gone through different circumstances, and I feel like I can talk about them with my audience. I feel like whenever I’m writing a song, it just lets me sit with everybody else and say, “Hey, this is me as a person.”
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP?
I love the line in “Pretty Much” that says, “Who decided what pretty was?” Even as a young girl, I just worried about how I looked — “Am I wearing the right outfit?” — or when your friend takes a picture and you’re scared to look at it. I’m finally getting to a phase in my life where I’m like “I just want to be myself, say the things I want to say, and be who I want to be — and if you don’t like it, that’s okay.”
A standout on the EP is “Clockworks,” which you wrote with Rimes and JoyBeth Taylor. What do you recall about writing that song?
JoyBeth brought up the title and idea for “Clockworks,” and I thought, “Oh my gosh, that’s my grandpa.” We were just talking about all those moments I wish I could live again. I feel like things move so quickly and I forget to live in the moment sometimes. Whenever I sing that song in my set, it’s a reminder to live in the here and now. I dedicate that song to my grandpa and I just feel like everyone should take that trip, or make that call and tell people you love them while you can.
You come from a family of military veterans. How does that influence your work with military-focused organizations?
Yeah, my grandpa, my great-grandpa, six of my great-uncles, all of them. I grew up around military people. I started working with veterans when I was 17, and I started writing with organizations like Operation Song, Freedom Sings, and A Soldier’s Child. A lot of times, when we write these songs and record them, and then the families hear them, it is the first time the families are hearing about some of the things they went through.
In 2020, I started a female veterans class on Zoom, and it became a community of support. I think when veterans come home, they can feel lost, and that’s what my grandpa and others in my family have felt. Giving back to veterans is important to me, because I’ve seen how much it can change a person to write a song.
When did you first realize you had musical talent?
I started singing at three years old, singing with my grandpa in church. I wrote my first song at nine and some of my first performances were talent shows and county fairs. I played parking lots and car shows, I played them all. Even though they didn’t have any musical background [my parents?] just told me if I wanted to do this, I had to work hard. My family worked multiple jobs, so I saw how hard they worked and that was built into me as a kid.
Did you take guitar lessons or were you in bands in school?
I learned piano by ear first, then I wanted to learn bass because I wanted to be in a band and they needed a bass player, so I sang lead and played bass. Then I learned guitar so I could write on guitar. I want to get back into playing bass. My bass is still at home, and I think my mom is going to bring it up during CMA Fest.
You moved to Nashville and studied music business at Middle Tennessee State University. How do you feel like that prepared you for your career?
I feel like I learned a lot about music and who I am as a person. The songwriting program is great there, and [Grammy-nominated songwriter and MTSU associate professor] Odie Blackmon is amazing, and [MTSU dean of the College of Media and Entertainment] Beverly Keel has been such a champion for me, and for all women. I think I punched the passport for every bar on [Nashville’s Lower] Broadway, going to school while playing shows seven days a week.
I put my classes super early, at like 7 a.m., and then would go to Broadway, play eight to 12 hours, and then drive back to Murfreesboro [Tennessee] to do it all again. I don’t know what kind of coffee I was drinking back then. I remember sometimes someone would say, “Play something that you wrote.” Playing covers for eight hours, then you get to sing your own song? God bless people like that.
What was the first song you fell in love with?
I remember hearing Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” for the first time, just sitting there watching with my dad and Pa. They loved Dolly. I remember thinking, “I hope I can write a song like that one day.” You feel every word she’s singing, and she says such complex things in the most simple way. It feels like you are talking to your best friend.
What was the first concert you went to?
I went to the Southern Ground Festival here in Nashville, with Zac Brown Band. It was so fun and I got to see Willie Nelson perform, so it was incredible.
Who would you most love to collaborate with in the future?
I would love to collaborate with Dolly or Reba McEntire at some point and on the other side of the spectrum, P!nk, definitely.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO are on a journey toward expanding their family. The “Halfway to Hell” hitmaker made an appearance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast on Monday, and when the discussion turned to his current fitness focus, Jelly Roll revealed a surprise.
“My wife and I are talking about having a baby, and it really made me realize that at almost 40, I was like, it means I got to live to at least 60. I got to see this kid into college,” Jelly Roll said. “My plan was never to be 60. It was to be like 55. I think [the Grateful Dead lead singer Jerry] Garcia died at 56. I was young, so I was like, ’56 would be great for me! …It’s better than 27 when all the other stars died. It’s 27 or 56 in the celebrity world. Let me be 56.’ But now I’m like, ‘I’d like to see my 60s.’ You know what I mean? And that really lit it up.”
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Meanwhile, Bunnie XO also shared a snippet from the podcast on her social media, adding in the caption, “God willing–Baby DeFord 2026,” and revealing that the couple is undergoing their own IVF journey.
Bunnie XO added, “Papa Bear dropped a surprise on this pod today. We had planned on doing this privately, but decided our IVF journey needed to be shared because we’ve always been so open. And w/ all odds stacked against us, it’s already been hard and we have only just begun. We have been meeting with IVF doctors & exploring all our options to add to our family.”
Bunnie XO continued, “J and I are so excited and scared all at the same time. We genuinely never thought we’d want to add to our family but something changed this year & we both just want a piece of us together to add to our our already perfect family with Bailee & Noah [Jelly Roll’s children from previous relationships]….so here we go y’all! Send all your love our way.”
Last month, Jelly Roll ran his first 5K, with Bunnie by his side. In training for the 5K, the singer lost more than 50 pounds.
“I couldn’t walk a mile when I started trying to do this back in January,” he told Entertainment Tonight after finishing the 5K race. “So the fact that we got 3-point-whatever it was [miles], got it down, I feel really, really good about it.”
Jelly Roll has notched three Billboard Country Airplay chart-toppers to date with “Son of a Sinner,” “Need a Favor” and his Lainey Wilson collaboration “Save Me.” He will also perform a headlining set at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest in Nashville on Saturday.
“How did all these people find out about Shaboozey?” one audience member could be heard asking at the country star’s headlining show at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on May 17.
It’s the kind of question that longtime fans grapple with when their favorite artists have their breakthrough moments, but in Shaboozey’s case, the answer is pretty clear. Ten years removed from “Jeff Gordon,” a piano-inflected trap banger that granted him his first quasi-viral moment, the Nigerian-American singer-songwriter has combined his own self-sourced momentum, the glow of dual appearances on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and an authentic understanding of the throughline between outlaw country and hip-hop to arrive at his splendid third studio album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going.
The months-long build-up for Shaboozey’s third LP has resulted in a series of buzzy moments, each bigger than the last. Despite a third of the album already out in the world as singles – with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” leading the way, thanks to its No. 3 Billboard Hot 100 peak – Where I’ve Been sidesteps a lack of cohesion by contextualizing those standout singles (“Annabelle,” “Let It Burn” and “Vegas,” among them) within a narrative that subverts the idea of Westward expansion.
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In his May Billboard profile, Shaboozey explained the similarities between “the outlaw Old West and hip-hop” as “talking about the same things: going out and going after what is yours, and having to finesse to make ends meet.”
“If you listen to some old Western music, especially gunfighter ballads… Marty Robbins is a good one, [he] was a thug! He’s like robbing cattle, robbing trains, [he] knows [his] mom is disappointed,” he said. “It’s the same s–t Bossman Dlow [is] talking about, it’s just painted in a different world. Switch out draco for a six shooter. Switch out Balmain jeans for Wrangler jeans or chaps.”
The urgency of this middle ground – as well as this particular aesthetic’s preoccupation with moving forward (and westward) while always honoring the past – makes it a natural sonic space for Boozey’s third LP to reside in.
Where I’ve Been commences with “Horses & Hellcats,” a song whose title immediately synthesizes Shaboozey’s penchants for hip-hop, country and Western aesthetics. “We ride palominos like they’re SRTs/ Once I pick a speed, ain’t no catchin’ me,” he sings in the chorus, employing a cadence that’s firmly rooted in melodic rap, while his raspy drawl plays on the more overt country elements of the song (namely the brooding guitars and the neighing horses in the background.) “Horses & Hellcats” is a song that exalts the common ground between outlaw country and hip-hop. Preying on the shock value of the two genres’ juxtaposition isn’t Shaboozey’s goal –it’s the way those two genres are intrinsically tied together in Shaboozey’s artistic, sonic and personal profile that makes the sound so arresting.
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“Last of My Kind,” assisted by East Texas country rocker Paul Cauthen, emphasizes the outlaw feel of Shaboozey’s sound, with Cauthen’s dramatic warble pairing well with the rock influences of the song’s arrangement. “Can’t wait much longer, baby, yeah, it’s my time/ You won’t ever find another like me, uh, I’m the last of my kind,” Boozey closes the song, once again musing over new destinations, both literally and figuratively. Standout tracks “Highway” and “East of the Massanutten” — which finds Shaboozey “runnin’ full speed ahead out West” for his “freedom” and “40 acres” – keep that theme of new frontiers at the forefront of the record, despite occasional detours into poppier, more saccharine affairs. While those tracks do balance out the record’s darker moments, they still feel like surface-level examples of where Shaboozey can take his sound; in those moments, the outlaw cowboy becomes a law-abiding citizen of the country-pop state – a concession that Boozey doesn’t really need to make.
Advance singles “A Bar Song” and “Anabelle” are still stellar showcases of Shaboozey’s knack for melody, as is the BigXThaPlug-assisted “Drink Don’t Need No Mix,” which finds two of the South’s hottest new stars standing proudly in the legacy of country rappers like Nelly. Boozey and BigX have the best chemistry out of any of the album’s other collaborators; both of their voices effortlessly skate over the trap-inflected beat as they provide a celebratory complement to the escapist revelry of “A Bar Song.”
Outside of Cauthen and BigXThaPlug, Grammy nominee Noah Cyrus is the album’s only other featured artist. Always a strong duet partner (her past collaborations with Demi Lovato and big sister Miley Cyrus are both absolutely gorgeous), Noah provides a tender upper harmony on “My Fault” that picks up on the emotional fragility of the track’s finger-picked acoustic guitar. Here, the glory and wonder of unfamiliar streets are tempered by grueling heartbreak – a testament to Shaboozey’s ability to embrace and honor the full breadth of what it means to move forward. “But this road you lead me down is too long/ It ain’t nothin’ like the streets I grew up on/ When I beg you not to go, you leave again/ Well, I guess I wasn’t enough in the end,” they croon.
At a tight 12 tracks, there’s no real filler on Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going. Shaboozey assembled his strongest hooks and smartest arrangements to craft a record that embraces both country music tradition and modernity. A decade into the game, his singular vision of the 21st century urban outlaw cowboy has finally coalesced into something that’s not just coherent, but also plainly irresistible. Whether he’s belting out heartbreak ballads like “Let It Burn” or parsing the consequences of homewrecking on late-album standout “Steal Her From Me,” Shaboozey has delivered a terrific record of songs tailor-made to rock the arenas – which will certainly be where he’s going.
By the time Hootie & The Blowfish released their Atlantic Records debut, Cracked Rear View, on July 5, 1994, the band had already been together for more than eight years. Singer Darius Rucker and guitarist Mark Bryan met while attending the University of South Carolina and began gigging as a cover band called The Wolf Brothers. They were joined by bassist Dean Felber and drummer Brantley Smith, who was eventually replaced by Jim “Soni” Sonefeld. And Hootie & The Blowfish was born.
During the height of the grunge movement, Atlantic Records A&R executive Tim Sommer signed the quartet, which had already built a strong regional following for its jangly, harmony-filled pop rock songs and Rucker’s rich baritone. But the label’s expectations for the album were low.
“The only people [at Atlantic] championing us at the time were Tim and [Atlantic’s then-president] Danny Goldberg,” Rucker recalls. “One guy actually said that if they put Cracked Rear View out, they’d be the laughingstocks of the music business. Grunge was king, and nobody was looking for this pop/rock band out of South Carolina.”
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But Cracked Rear View surpassed all expectations — and then some, to put it mildly. Bolstered by the singalong, uplifting first single, “Hold My Hand,” the album bounced into the top spot on the Billboard 200 five times and has been certified 21 times platinum by the RIAA, signifying sales of more than 21 million units in the United States. The album, which took its name from a lyric in a John Hiatt song, is the highest-certified debut album of all time, according to RIAA data.
Thirty years later, to mark the anniversary of Cracked Rear View, Hootie & The Blowfish are staging the Summer Camp With Trucks Tour on a bill with Collective Soul and Edwin McCain.
Today, Bryan and Rucker fondly remember making the album with producer Don Gehman (R.E.M., John Mellencamp), whom they still work with; their favorite moment at the 1996 Grammy Awards; and where they were when the album first went to No. 1.
A promotional photo used on the band’s flyers in the early ’90s.
Courtesy of Hootie & the Blowfish
You started as a cover band, The Wolf Brothers. When did you start writing your own songs?
Mark Bryan: We were having fun doing the acoustic covers in the meantime, just the two of us. But I think we were always dreaming a little bigger, for sure. Then as Hootie, when we were in school, we started writing, but it was nothing we would want to share with you. (Laughs.)
Darius Rucker: We had decided that we wanted to make a change and [do] mostly originals. So when Brantley [Smith] left and with [Jim “Soni” Sonefeld] coming in, he made it an easy transition. We had written a couple of songs, but when Soni came in, we really started writing.
Soni came in with “Hold My Hand,” right?
Rucker: He played that the day he auditioned for us. He walked out of the room and I told the other guys, “He’s in the band!”
There were certain songwriters and acts you adored, like Radney Foster and R.E.M. How did they influence your sound?
Rucker: There’s always such a country element, and all of that comes from Radney Foster and [Bill] Lloyd. That jangly guitar we use definitely comes from R.E.M. [member] Peter Buck’s guitar with the jingle. It was rock’n’roll but it wasn’t metal. It was something we could do.
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Who is an act people would be surprised to know influenced the band?
Rucker: We listened to a lot of rap along with those country songs. Digital Underground and De La Soul and those bands. They influenced us in a big way. We still do [Digital Underground’s] “Freaks of the Industry.”
Why are the songs on the album credited to all four band members?
Bryan: We’ve split our publishing right down the middle from the very beginning. Nobody knew whose songs were going to be the hits. Our attorney was smart, and he was inspired by R.E.M. Not only did they inspire us musically, but they inspired us on the business side as well because they did the same thing. That fit with the way we were writing together anyway because everybody was bringing stuff in.
Despite the low expectations, the album took off. When did you realize you had a hit?
Bryan: Right when “Hold My Hand” hit, we realized our sound was connecting. Then it was “Let Her Cry,” “I Only Want To Be With You” and “Time.” A lot of times, it’s really hard for the artist, manager and label to decide what’s the right song for the [next] single. The funny thing about Cracked Rear View is there was never any question. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.
Where were you when the album went to No. 1 for the first of its five times?
Rucker: We were on the road, and it had been moving [up the charts] so much, we were waiting for it to go to No. 1. Then you get that phone call that you’re finally the No. 1 record in the country. It was like, “Great. Let’s go play a show!” When you have so many naysayers and then you have the No. 1 record, it’s a pretty great feeling. You’re not [considered] cool, but you’re selling half a million albums a week.
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The melodies are so upbeat and jangly that it was easy to overlook a lot of the darkness or messages in the lyrics. For example, “Drowning” is about racism. Did you feel some people didn’t understand what you were saying?
Rucker: One hundred percent. I still don’t. “Hold My Hand” was a protest song. That’s a song about “Why are we hating each other?” You’ve got “Drowning,” and “Not Even the Trees” is such a dark song. “Let Her Cry” is a dark song. I think some people were caught up in “Hold My Hand” and “I Only Want To Be With You” and they didn’t look any deeper than that.
Bryan: I think Darius was very overt with “Drowning,” but that wasn’t our intention on a lot of our songs. It was more of that subtle approach to that, which is just treating each other right. I think there were other lyrics, here and there, where he was telling you about how he was feeling as a Black man in America at the time. It would have been nice if people caught up more on that. And I think from our end, too, with the fame that we got, we maybe had a responsibility to write into that a little more, and I don’t know if we ever resolved that.
For the 30th anniversary, do you wish people would give it a deeper listen?
Rucker: We wish they would but they won’t, and the thing that really matters to us is 23 million records sold [worldwide]. Success is the best revenge. Say what you want. Don’t put us on the ballot for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We still have one of the top 10-selling records of all time.
Does the lack of recognition from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame bother you?
Rucker: If we didn’t get in, that’s fine. But you really mean to tell us that we don’t even deserve to be on the ballot?
When was the last time you listened to Cracked Rear View from start to finish?
Rucker: 1994. I’m not one to listen to records after I put them out. Ever. I don’t really love to hear me sing, to be honest with you.
Bryan: When we played it in Mexico last April. We played it from start to finish.
A performance in Raleigh, N.C., during the 2019 Group Therapy Tour.
Todd & Chris Owyoung
In a shocking twist at the 1996 American Music Awards, Garth Brooks won favorite artist. He left the award on the podium, saying he didn’t deserve it and said backstage that you did.
Rucker: That’s one of the greatest, classiest things I’ve ever seen. When Garth did that, it just said so much to us about what we were doing for music. Every time I tell that story and he’s around, he says, “You know where our award is, Darius? On the mantel!” (Laughs.)
The next month, you won Grammys for best new artist and best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals. What do you remember from that night?
Rucker: We figured they had to give us best new artist because we sold so many records. But the second one, we thought [TLC’s] “Waterfalls” was going to win everything. KISS, in makeup for the first time since 1979, and Tupac [Shakur] walk out to present this category. We had just won best new artist and they rush us back to our seats. We’re drunk. We sit down and then Tupac says, “My boys, Hootie & The Blowfish.” That was unbelievable.
So “my boys” meant as much as the Grammy?
Rucker: Exactly! And KISS meant so much to all of us.
Bryan: I can’t physically remember being on the stage with KISS and Tupac. It was so much bigger than me that I almost blocked it out. Isn’t that crazy? It was so overwhelming that I didn’t embrace the moment maybe the way I would have now.
Thirty years later, what do you think is the album’s legacy?
Bryan: It seems to resonate in people’s lives in a very big way. Those stories like [it’s] their wedding song or they say, “It got me through my father’s death,” always keep coming back up to us, and it never gets old. What a great full-circle way as a songwriter to know that you’ve connected with people. As a songwriter and musician, you can’t ask for more. It’s such a dream come true to have made an album that has connected on such a level with people like that.
This story originally appeared in the June 1, 2024, issue of Billboard.