Today's Country Tidbits

Gentlemen, start your Fenders? That might be the call at Daytona, where Brad Paisley will serve as the Honorary Pace Car Driver before the 53rd Annual Daytona 500 this Sunday. He'll also be performing a three-song set leading up to the start of the Great American Race. Watch the fun on Fox starting at noon Eastern.

And in more sports/country news, congratulations to Clay Walker who won $19,000 for his MS charity at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am celebrity golf tournament last weekend.

Congratulations to Luke Bryan, who scores his third #1 song in a row this week with "Someone Else Calling You Baby."

And congratulations, too, to Gary Allan, who performed last night for the first time since he had surgery on his vocal chords to remove a polyp in November. He's rarin' to hit the road and tour, and has even gotten a new bus for the occasion. “We’ve got birds-eye maple on the walls. The whole top is done in like a cream leather. The seats are a dark brown leather. The tables are black and then they’re lit from the sides so there’s green and black stripes through them. There’s neon lights all through the top. It’s got a slide out so there’s more room to dance. We have a great time!”

Lady Antebellum is still basking in the glow of winning five Grammy awards on Sunday night, but they feel some pressure to follow up the success of "Need You Now." According to Charles Kelley, “It was one of those moments we were kind of had this surreal moment. We looked over at each other and we said, ‘we got a lot of work to do’. It made us really, it really did, it kind of inspired us and … and, and did put a little pressure in a good way of like, OK, I mean, this is, this is our moment to really take this thing and make a great record.” They're back in the studio, working on the project, which is about half finished.

Best quotes from backstage at the Grammys Sunday night:

"Oh my gosh, we were so stunned we started walking the wrong direction." — Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum as they accepted the group's third Grammy

"Right before it went to No. 1, he asked if he could have it back, but it was a little too late." — Miranda Lambert on "The House That Built Me," which was originally pitched to fiancé Blake Shelton

"I ate a lot of fried chicken over the holidays. So, I'm cutting back on that a little bit, but man, it's going to be hard to curb the drinking. There's too much celebrating. So, I won't be backing down on that at all." — Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley

"Blake doesn't listen to prompters or me or anybody else. He goes with the flow, so they were brave to let him present me." — Miranda Lambert on Shelton introducing her performance

"I was real honored when Zac asked me to be on this record. You know, it's pretty cool when a few of us Georgia boys can end up winning a Grammy out in L.A." — Alan Jackson on winning Country Collaboration with ZBB for "As She's Walking Away"

People.com asked musicians what their rap name would be. Check out Lady A, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton and more funny replies.

Owl City frontman Adam Young was apparently quite taken by Taylor Swift. It's rumored that her song "Enchanted" is about him, and he has returned the favor, on Valentine's Day no less, with his reply song to her.

Since it was Valentine's Day, you might have had other plans and missed Tim McGraw tracing his family tree on "Who Do You Think You Are" last night. Here you go...you're welcome!

Want Thompson Square to play a private party for you and your Valentine? They're offering it up on Facebook...go get it!

Gretchen Wilson is on the Tonight Show tonight and Keith Urban is on Good Morning America Thursday morning.

The tweet of the day is from Terri Clark: "People who can make you " belly laugh" are absolutely priceless..hang on to them"

Today's Country Tidbits

Congratulations to Taylor Swift, who won Favorite Country Artist at the People's Choice Awards last night. Even better, though, was what happened when Taylor was awarding the Favorite Male Actor trophy to Johnny Depp. He stepped up to the mic, turned to Taylor and said, "My daughter said if I didn't say hi to you I'd be in trouble, so hi from my daughter." Johnny's daughter Lily-Rose is 11, and apparently a huge Taylor Swift fan.

More kudos to Taylor, as she had the third-best-selling album of 2010. Country did well at the cash registers, with Lady Antebellum having the second-best-seller. Here's the top 5 list:

1) Eminem, Recovery – 3.42 million, released in June

2) Lady Antebellum, Need You Now – 3.09 million, released in January

3) Taylor Swift, Speak Now – 2.96 million, released in October

4) Justin Bieber, My World – 2.32 million, released in March

5) Susan Boyle, The Gift – 1.85, released in November

Little Big Town is very sought-after as college bowl game National Anthem singers. Monday night they sang it prior to the Discover Orange Bowl and tomorrow night, they'll sing it before the AT&T Cotton Bowl, airing on FOX.

Nicole Kidman is featured in the February edition of Harper's Bazaar, interviewed by none other than Jennifer Aniston. Talking about first meeting Keith Urban, Nicole tells Jenifer, “I remember thinking, "Oh, my God, if you ever gave me a man like that, I promise I would be completely devoted for the rest of my life.” Prayer answered!

Get well wishes to George Jones, who was admitted to the hospital yesterday in Nashville for heart-related issues. The doctors decided to adjust the dosage of one of his medications and he's expected to go home today.

People.com has a photo gallery of Twitter photos from Kellie Pickler.

Tim McGraw will be on E! tonight, visiting the Chelsea Lately show.

Happy birthday to the legendary Earl Scruggs. He is 86 today.

The tweet of the day is from Terri Clark: "Getting my hairs done. Love it when my country roots show, but not if they are gray..."

Today's Country Tidbits

How much would it cost you to have your favorite artist play a private concert for you? If you want Kellie Pickler, write a check for 40 grand. Rather have Keith Urban? Cough up $487,500. Need some Rascal Flatts? That'll set you back $702,500. Now, doesn't that make you appreciate your free radio station even more?

There was a #1 party in Nashville on Tuesday, celebrating the success of "The House that Built Me." Written by Allen Shamblin and Tom Douglas about 6 years ago, the two re-worked it last year and pitched it to Blake Shelton, who put it on hold. When Miranda Lambert heard it during one of the long drives from the airport to her Oklahoma ranch, she cried for two hours. She quipped at the #1 party, "Blake, thank you for giving me this song. You could have been selfish and kept it for yourself, but I know you wanted to live."

There was another #1 party in Nashville yesterday, and Carrie Underwood was one of the honorees. The luncheon celebrated the success of "Temporary Home," co-written by Luke Laird, Zac Maloy and Carrie Underwood. It's Carrie's 12th #1 song and the 5th one she's co-written.

CMT's "Invitation Only" series will kick off on August 23rd with Miranda Lambert, and includes Kenny Chesney on September 27th, Toby Keith on October 8th and Rascal Flatts on November 15th.

Faith Hill has been named Tide's "Loads of Hope" ambassador and will headline a free concert on August 24th in New Orleans. The show marks the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the event that prompted Tide to send in tractor-trailer-laundromats so people could have clean clothes while restoring their lives and homes.

Kid Rock is throwing a military appreciation concert on 9/11 at Fort Jackson, SC. Service members and their families get in to the concert for free.

Happy birthday to Terri Clark, who turns 42 today.

The tweet of the day is from Taylor Swift, who's new song, "Mine," was released to radio and to iTunes yesterday afternoon. Within minutes, it was the number one purchased song on iTunes. Taylor was traveling, and tweeted this on arrival: "I landed in Japan and got 20 texts and looked at iTunes and got tears in my eyes. And so, we begin again. :)"

Today's Country Tidbits

The weather on Sunday wreaked havoc with homes, roads and concerts in Tennessee. Dierks Bentley's Knoxville concert was canceled and he spent the extra time bailing water out of his house, Terri Clark had to bail water out of her basement with big plastic storage totes, and Naomi Judd had six buffalo escape from her farm in Leiper's Fork. Jo Dee Messina tweeted, "Well, house flooded :( trying to pump out water. Its at least 5 ft high. Crazy weather here. family is well. Thats most important." And Kenny Chesney asked for help for the community: "TN is a mess with floods. If you're fortunate enough to help out, hit up the mid-TN Red Cross: Stay safe, everyone." In Nashville today, there's a lot of clean-up going on. Schools are closed, many businesses are closed & mopping up the mess, and the Opryland Hotel sits empty, a victim of flood evacuation. Singer-songwriter Seth Jones put the mess to music:



The 136th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday evening was a great race, made even more special by Rascal Flatts' performance of our National Anthem.



The spring leg of the Strait/Reba/Lee Ann tour wrapped up last night. They'll take their show back out on the road for more concerts later this year.

Last night was also the last night for Martina McBride's Shine All Night tour. Here's hoping all of those artists who are heading home from tours find their homes safe and dry.

Tim McGraw is about to take his Southern Voice tour south of the Equator - he's headed to Australia and New Zealand.

Congrats to Taylor Swift, who has logged another endorsement deal. Now she's the new face of Cover Girl cosmetics. A brand new product is on the way, featuring Taylor as the face of it in print, tv and in-store advertising.

This week's edition of Country Weekly is the Mother's Day issue, with Miranda Lambert and her Mom, Bev, on the cover, and Carrie Underwood, Reba, Darius Rucker and more stars saluting their Moms.

Happy birthday to Eric Church, who turns 33 today.