Cody Johnson‘s partnering with Tractor Supply Company to mentor the next generation of country stars.
“I’m so proud to team up with Tractor Supply for their Emerging Artist Program, shining a spotlight on up-and-coming artists who have something real to share,” he says. “My high school FFA teacher was the first person to encourage me to perform.”
“I took the stage and that moment ended up changing the course of my life,” Cody continues. “He believed in me, and now it’s my turn to help give someone that same encouragement.”
Entries will be accepted online through Dec. 1. The winner will receive a trip to Nashville and the opportunity to play before a private Cody show, to record a song and to meet with a music industry exec.
Tractor Supply launched its Life Out Here Emerging Artist Program in partnership with Lainey Wilson in 2023.
‘AVTT/PTTN’ album artwork. (Thirty Tigers/Ramseur Records/Ipecac Recordings)
AVTT/PTTN, Faith No More frontman Mike Patton‘s collaborative project with folk band The Avett Brothers, has shared a new song called “Heaven’s Breath.”
Patton describes “Heaven’s Breath” as a “bit heavier taste” of the upcoming self-titled debut AVTT/PTTN album. It marks the second track to be released from the record, following the lead single “Eternal Love.”
The album AVTT/PTTN is due out Nov. 14.
Patton will hit the road with one of his many other bands, Mr. Bungle, in January for a Latin America tour with Avenged Sevenfold. Faith No More, meanwhile, remains inactive.
No Doubt Las Vegas Sphere residency art. (Courtesy of Live Nation)
No Doubt has added six more dates to their 2026 residency at the Las Vegas Sphere.
The newly announced shows will take place beginning May 21 and wrapping May 30. They follow the previously scheduled performances set for early May.
Presales are open now, and tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. PT. For all ticket info, visit NoDoubt.com.
No Doubt had been on hiatus since 2015 before announcing a pair of reunion performances at Coachella 2024. Since then, their only other live performance took place at January’s FireAid benefit concert.
“The opportunity to create a show at Sphere excites me in a new way,” frontwoman Gwen Stefani previously said. “The venue is unique and modern and it opens up a whole new visual palette for us to be creative. Doing it with No Doubt feels like going back in time to relive our history, while also creating something new in a way we never could have imagined.”
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Labor Department is warning of a potential food crisis linked to President Trump’s immigration raids – and one family-owned farm is caught in the middle.
“The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers,” according to a Department of Labor report submitted earlier in October.
Owyhee Produce, a third-generation agricultural business in Idaho, is now facing worker shortages in the wake of the Trump administration’s increasing deportation raids.
Shay Myers, Owyhee Produce’s general manager, said the farm typically has 300 workers at peak harvesting times, with roughly 82 H-2A visa employees, who are temporary, seasonal agricultural workers from abroad.
According to Myers, these seasonal workers – some from Mexico, some from South Africa and other countries – are granted a visa for up to nine months after being interviewed to determine whether they qualify. Owyhee then provides their travel to the farm, and their housing – “everything, really, when they’re here except for food and clothing. That’s part of the requirements,” said Myers.
Given the cost and requirements, it may seem easier to hire local workers instead. Not so, according to Myers.
“We would love to hire people from here. The reality is that we can’t find the numbers of people here,” Myers told ABC News. “We’re in a rural area, number one. Number two: This is hard work. It is difficult work, and there are lots of people that are not willing to do it.”
Mauricio Sol, a seasonal worker at Owyhee, said 90% of the workforce at the farm is from Mexico, but it is becoming more difficult to find seasonal agricultural workers due to increased concerns about possible ICE raids.
“We all come on the H-2A visa program, so we come all here legally by the season, just for the season, and then we go back to Mexico,” Sol told ABC News. “We usually get a lot of applications. We’re not getting that many now because people is afraid of that even when they are legally here, they’re getting arrested for no reason.”
James O’Neill, the director of Legislative Affairs for the American Business Immigration Coalition, which describes itself as “a bipartisan coalition of over 1,700 employers and CEOs from across the country to provide a strong and unified voice seeking lasting immigration solutions,” says that President Trump’s immigration raids are hurting agricultural labor forces and could lead to higher food prices.
“It’s absolutely impacting the labor force,” O’Neill told ABC News. “Nationwide, the USDA’s ag labor survey suggests that somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of our farm labor workforce is undocumented immigrants.”
“And if that’s the case, if we were to deport them all overnight, then that’s 60% of the workforce, meaning that’s 60% of the supply that’s not being met without a shift in demand. And I think anyone that understands economics knows that means higher prices for them at the grocery store,” O’Neill said.
A September report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service estimated that “about 40 percent” of “hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status.”
Myers said he wants to share Owyhee’s story in hopes of bringing attention to the plight faced by seasonal agricultural workers across the country, “because it’s wrong not to.”
“I have a voice, I have reach. I have people that will listen,” Myers told ABC News. “And because I am a conservative and a Republican, people assume that I would have a different perspective here, and this is my reality.”
“I love these people. I love the culture, and I love the effort that they make. And ethically, to continue to not fix this problem is absolutely completely wrong.” Myers said. “We as Americans try to do the right thing. Let’s do the right thing.”
ABC News reached out to the U.S. Department of Labor for comment but was told that their press team was unavailable due to the ongoing government shutdown.
The title treatment for ‘Red, White & Royal Wedding.’ (Amazon MGM Studios)
A sequel to Red, White & Royal Blue has officially been greenlit.
The much-anticipated sequel film to the popular rom-com is officially coming via Amazon MGM Studios. It will be titled Red, White & Royal Wedding. But I’m a Cheerleader director Jamie Babbit will helm the upcoming movie.
While plot details are being left under wraps, the new film will tell the next chapter in the love story of Alex Claremont-Diaz, the first son of the United States, and Prince Henry, who is third in line to the British throne.
Nicholas Galitzine and Taylor Zakhar Perez are set to reprise their starring roles for the sequel. Babbit takes over directing duties from Matthew López, who helmed the first film. She directs from a script by GemmaBurgess, López and Red, White & Royal Blue author Casey McQuiston. McQuiston will also executive produce.
“Working with this team to bring Red, White & Royal Blue to life has been a dream come true, and I hope readers and watchers alike will love how the story continues in the sequel,” McQuiston said in a press release. “I’m so grateful to Matthew for all his hard work on the first movie and in co-creating this new story with me, and I know that Jamie has the vision, wit, and tenderness to take great care of Alex and Henry from here.”
Babbit said she’s thrilled to be back in the “queer love universe” after she directed But I’m a Cheerleader while she was in her 20s.
“We all need this kind of optimism, fantasy, and gay joy,” Babbit said. “I’m thrilled to work with this brilliant team.”
Shaboozey performs at the 2024 CMA Awards (Disney/Frank Micelotta)
Shaboozey‘s next album doesn’t sound like it will have anything to do with getting “Tipsy.”
Speaking to Billboard, ‘Boozey says his next album — the follow-up to 2024’s Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going — is “ready to go,” but he keeps on “changing the songs and the sequences and the track order and all that stuff.” Plus, he says, he keeps “making new songs.”
But when it does come out, the singer says, get ready for some serious listening.
“[It’s about] feminism, I’ll say that,” he tells Billboard. “Femininity is probably the best word I can use. There’s a story there. It’s a concept album, but y’all are the first to know that, to be honest.”
“It’s a Western concept album about femininity — I shouldn’t have told you that!” he adds.
Shaboozey will attend the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, on Sunday. He’ll be there because he helped come up with the tortoiseshell design that will grace two of the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls’ Formula 1 cars that are competing in the race.
Cover art for Cardi B album ‘Am I The Drama?’ Courtesy of Atlantic Records
Cardi B is pleased with the performance of her Am I the Drama? album thus far. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 after earning 200,000 album equivalent units in its first week — a number she says she’s proud of, despite what others think.
“It’s been such a drama with the numbers. First of all, I’m very proud of my number. … We’re in a very different era when it comes to music,” she tells Paper. “There’s people that have never even seen 100,000 sales calling me a flop. … [B]ut clearly, they don’t discourage me.”
“That’s what people will try to do, but it fails,” she continues. “It fails when [thousands] of videos are being made to your music. And then there’s [thousands] of people doing memes to your songs.”
Beyond being proud of the album’s reception, Cardi notes she’s proud of all the work she put in.
“I have worked so hard these past two months, nonstop, and I’ve been doing it all while I’m carrying [a baby],” she says. “I just feel like nobody really understands when you say, you working your a** off, and you see the results. You see the love. You feeling the energy of your hard work.”
Cardi also praised her own strength in the interview, which she says was on display as she went to bat for her daughter Kulture Cephus after she was mentioned in a heated exchange with Nicki Minaj.
“My mother warrior came out,” she says, noting she “showed the world that I will get the most nasty about mine.”
“This has been one of the moments I got tested the most about being a parent. But it just goes to show me how strong I am,” adds Cardi, who is pregnant with her fourth child. “I will really take it to hell for mines: mentally, physically, anything.”
Inductees Rick Allen, Phil Collen, Joe Elliott, Rick Savage and Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard speak onstage during the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony – Press Room at Barclays Center on March 29, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/WireImage)
Def Leppard has had a lot of highlights over the course of their career, but for frontman Joe Elliott one stands out above the rest.
In a video post on Instagram, Elliott reflects on some of his most memorable moments with the band, including concerts in 1993 and 2023 in their hometown of Sheffield, England.
But Elliott says the overall best moment for him was the band’s 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, noting, “Only because even to this day I’m still shocked that we’re actually in it.”
“I’d been talking to Jon Bon Jovi, I said, ‘Ah, I don’t care if we’re in there.’ He goes, ‘Nah, dude, you’re gonna love it, you’re gonna love it,’ and he was absolutely right,” he says. Elliott notes that having Sir Brian May from Queen induct them was “pretty special.”
Elliott called the induction a “brilliant night,” adding that it was particularly great that they got to perform with Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter, with The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs, The Zombies’ Colin Blunstone, and Rod Argent and E Street Band guitarist Stevie Van Zandt on backing vocals for the all-star finale of “All The Young Dudes.”
Elliott, a well-known Mott the Hoople fan, says getting to play with Hunter “really did bring it full circle. It was pretty cool.”
Hot on the heels of her surprise Am I Okay? Tour (Live) album, Megan Moroney‘s ready with a new song.
“nashville heard it first… but my next single beautiful things is out next friday!” she revealed on Instagram.
Ahead of the Oct. 24 release of “Beautiful Things,” there’s something else Megan hopes you’ll do.
“in the meantime, make sure you go to [LaLa Land Kind Cafe] & order the Megan Moroney latte + grab a sleeve to write something kind & encouraging to a stranger,” she adds. “can’t wait for y’all to have this song that is sooo special to me.”
The accompanying photos and video show Megan hanging out in the coffee shop, which has locations in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Austin and Nashville.
Portugal. The Man has shared a new song called “Angoon,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, SHISH.
In the “Angoon” lyrics, the “Feel It Still” outfit declares, “No ICE/ No borders enforcers/ No owners/ Don’t need New World Order.”
SHISH, the follow-up to 2023’s Chris Black Changed My Life, drops Nov. 7. It also includes the previously released songs “Denali,” “Tanana” and “Mush.”
Portugal. The Man will launch their Denali tour in November.
