Taylor Swift is 22 today, and in that short time, she's accomplished a ton. She's the best-selling country artist, the CMA Entertainer of the Year, AMA Artist of the Year, CMT Artist of the Year and the Billboard Woman of the Year. She's won 4 Grammy's, 5 ACM Awards, 10 American Music Awards, 7 CMA Awards, earned the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, scooped up 11 Billboard Music Awards,11 BMI Awards, 6 CMT Awards, 1 MTV Award, 4 NSAI Awards, 2 People's Choice Awards, 13 Teen Choice Awards, 1 Young Hollywood Award, 3 Canadian Country Music Awards, 3 Nashville Music Awards, 2 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, 1 Independent Music Award, 3 Teen Icon Awards, 1 Thailand Music Video Award, 1 MYX Award from fans in the Philippines, and won special recognition from the Associated Press, the RIAA, Entertainment Weekly, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Guiness Book of World Records, Rolling Stone Magazine and Billboard Magazine. She's also a great role model, a task she takes seriously. What's her advice for young fans who want to be like her? “Get inspiration from all your heroes, but try to be something completely different from your heroes. You know, for me, I think that writing my own songs was a way to create what I wanted to create, and music about my life, and that way it kind of became just a diary put to music every time I put out a new record.” I don't know about you, but I hadn't accomplished nearly that much by the time I was 22!
Brad Paisley has recorded a benefit song for the Ataxia-Telangiectasia Children's Project. He recorded "Hard Life," written by Joe Kindregan, who suffers from A-T. According to Brad, "I've known Joe for several years, and he is one of my favorite people. His disease is physically debilitating, but obviously, creatively and mentally, Joe has such tremendous depth. It's an honor for me to be the person to give voice to his creativity and cause." If you want to help, you can download the song and donate.
Radio's most-played song of the year is Jason Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem." Congrats to Jason, Colt Ford and Brantley Gilbert.
Send up your prayers for Wade Hayes, ("Old Enough to Know Better") who has stage 4 colon cancer. He had surgery last week and his doctors are upbeat. Chemo and radiation treatments will continue for some time.
In a serious relationship? Love Lady Antebellum and going to one of their shows? If you're thinking about getting engaged, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott have some advice about when during the show to pop the question. “[Dave] Don’t do it on ‘Love Don’t Live Here.’ Save it for ‘Just A Kiss’ maybe. [Hillary] Yep, ‘Just a Kiss,’ or another song off our second record, ‘When You Got A Good Thing.’ That’s a good one for that.” Oh, and if you're going to the show, wear a tacky Christmas sweater. People wearing the worst ones get seat upgrades.
Nothing tacky about Christmas at Ronnie Dunn's house - he says Janine does a good, thorough job: “My wife is crazy about it. I mean, there’s stuff everywhere. That time of year, I have to go upstairs in the attic and pull all the stuff down in the boxes and unpack it and stuff. You know, once we get it out, it’s all pretty.”
Tonight on CMT, the Artists of the Year concert happens. Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley are the honored recipients, and they'll perform on the show.
Happy birthday to Taylor Swift, who turns 22 today, John Anderson, who is 57, and Randy Owen of Alabama, who turns 62.
The tweet of the day is from David Nail: "Killed the cardio! Killed my salmon and veggies! Now I'm gonna kill this nap! Then I'm gonna kill a shower hopefully!"
