Rodney Atkins dropped a bombshell in an interview with the Associated Press. Rodney, who was adopted as an infant, finally met his birth mother and her family in 2008. He won't reveal her name, for privacy purposes, but did say that she got pregnant when she was 19 on what she described as a traumatic first date. She hid the pregnancy and gave her son up for adoption. Rodney was raised by Allan and Margaret Atkins, who were supportive of the meeting and have become close with Rodney's birth mom. He's the spokesperson for the National Council for Adoption.
A couple of days ago Toby Keith's video for "Red Solo Cup" showed up on this blog. If you saw it, you saw a lot of heavy-hitters having fun with Toby's song. How did he talk them all into it? “I called all my friends and said, ‘Everybody do something stupid with a red Solo cup with your phone cam and send it to me.’ And, so I’ve got Sammy Hagar, Ted Nugent, Craig Ferguson, Larry Bird and Carrot Top. I actually talked a bunch of people I feel are important into doing something really dumb, and I love it.” In case you missed it, here it is again, complete with a language alert.
The Bayou Country Superfest is back for the third year, and it's bigger than ever. Who's there? Might be easier to say who's not going to be performing. The Superfest will include Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Sara Evans, Little Big Town, Joe Nichols, and Jerrod Niemann. The event happens at LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, LA on May 26th and 27th, 2012.
Tim McGraw will headline the Tour for the Troops concert at Camp Pendleton in California. The November 13th show is free for military and Department of Defense ID holders. Civilians can see the show for $55 each.
It could be called the Bluest Eyes Tour, but instead it's George Strait with Martina McBride. The tour starts January 27th and so far, 11 stops have been announced. How does Martina feel about touring with George? “I love George Strait and, you know, I’ve made no secret of that. We all love George and have grown up with his music, and I’ve been fortunate enough to tour with him before and to, um, even sing on stage with him. And it’s just, he’s just, one of those artists that is just so consistent and so great.”
1/27 – Lafayette, LA
1/28 – Bossier City, LA
2/3 – Phoenix, AZ
2/4 – Las Vegas, NV
2/10 – Atlanta, GA
2/11 – Orlando, FL
2/16 – Tulsa, OK
2/17 – St. Louis, MO
2/18 – Wichita, KS
2/24 – Des Moines, IA
2/25 – Kansas City, MO
More performances have been announced for the CMA Award Show. Rascal Flatts & Natasha Bedingfield will sing their duet, "Easy," and Kenny Chesney will duet with Grace Potter on "You and Tequila." Show hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will perform their song, "Remind Me," for the first time in front of an audience that night, too. The show airs November 9th on ABC, and tickets are on sale at all Ticketmaster outlets.
Jewel's been a mom for three months, and was asked by Perez Hilton to share some parenting tips...and she shared some good ones, plus gives insight into the way she and rodeo hubby Ty Murray are raising their son Kase.
Congratulations to Scotty McCreery. The American Idol winner has the #1 album on the Billboard Top 200 and the Billboard Country charts. He's the youngest male artist to debut at the top of the all-genre 200.
Martina McBride is on the Late Show with David Letterman, Taylor Swift s on Good Morning America and Live with Regis and Kelly and Lauren Alaina is also on Live with Regis and Kelly.
Happy birthday to Rhett Akins, who is 42, and Marie Osmond, who turns 52.
The tweet of the day is from James Otto: "Feeling motivated to change some bad habits lately. Sometimes my biggest obstacle is me. Good to have that knowledge."
