Chris Stapleton‘s version of “Tennessee Whiskey” has just been certified Double Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America. It’s the first country song ever to move 20 million units.
Vince Gill launches his 14-city 50 Years from Home Tour June 18 in Orlando, Florida. It’s set to wrap with six nights at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium in July and August.
If you missed Brandon Lake performing his top-25 hit, “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” on Good Morning America, you can check out his performance online.
Taylor Swift leaving ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ on December 10, 2025 in New York City. (Raymond Hall/GC Images); Joe Keery attends the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards, January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California. (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Back in 2024, Stranger Things star Joe Keery aka Djo told The Spoutpodcast that he was shocked when Taylor Swift told him she was a fan of his song “End Of Beginning.” Now Joe’s in the top 10 alongside Taylor.
Thanks to the final episode of Stranger Things, “End of the Beginning” has experienced a massive streaming boost, jumping from #16 to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s Djo’s first top-10 hit; it previously peaked at #11 in March 2024.
It should be noted the song was not used in the show’s final season. The last song to make the top 10 thanks to Stranger Things —Kate Bush‘s “Running Up that Hill” — did so only after being played over and over during season 4.
Meanwhile, Taylor’s “The Fate of Ophelia” has just racked up its 10th week on top of the Hot 100. It’s her longest-running #1 hit; the previous one, “Anti-Hero,” lasted eight weeks.
As for the Joe/Taylor encounter, Joe told the podcast that in June 2023 he and Taylor ran into each other at a New York recording studio.
“She said, ‘Hey, I really love that track of yours, ‘End Of Beginning,'” Keery recalled. The song, originally released in 2022, didn’t become widely known until early 2024. “She just said she had heard the song. And, you know, obviously I’m like, ‘What? You heard that song? How the hell did you hear that song?’”
“But she’s, like, a music lover and she’s also so hip to new music. … So I guess it’s not shocking to me because she’s a big fan of music and digs around and it somehow came across her desk.”
Miranda Lambert‘s hoping to see you on the road sometime in 2026.
“Lookin forward to seein y’all at a show this year!” she posted on Instagram Monday. “@rockthecountry fest just announced this morning.”
The “A Song to Sing” hitmaker will headline the festival May 29 with Kid Rock. Jelly Roll, Josh Turner and more will play the Bloomingdale, Georgia, stage May 30.
Miranda kicks off her 2026 shows Feb. 15 at the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida. So far, she has about a dozen dates at fairs, festivals and special events, though she hasn’t announced a major tour.
Johnny Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd performs onstage during the 2024 CMA Music festival at the Nissan Stadium on June 06, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Lynyrd Skynyrd is set to play the 2026 Rock the Country touring festival.
The mostly country festival will take place over eight weekends this summer, with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers confirmed for the Ashland, Kentucky, stop. Skynyrd will perform July 10, with a lineup headlined by country star Jelly Roll.
Other artists booked for the festival include rockers Creed, Kid Rock and Shinedown, plus country stars such as Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Brooks & Dunn, Riley Green and Miranda Lambert.
Other Rock the Country 2026 dates include: May 1-2 in Bellville, Texas; May 29-30 in Bloomingdale, Georgia; June 27-28 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; July 25-26 in Anderson, South Carolina; Aug. 8-9 in Hastings, Michigan; Aug. 28-29 in Ocala, Florida; and Sept. 11-12 in Hamburg, New York.
You can sign up now for a presale that begins Friday at 10 a.m. local time. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit RocktheCountry.com.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is set to spend their summer on the road with Foreigner on the Double Trouble Double Vision Tour. It will consist of 19 co-headlining dates, kicking off July 23 in Atlanta and wrapping Aug. 29 in Rogers, Arkansas. A complete schedule can be found at lynyrdskynyrd.com.
A$AP Rocky co-wrote, co-produced and raps on “Helicopter$,” his latest single and a preview of his Don’t Be Dumb album. The track arrives with a new music video, in which he also flexes his directing skills alongside Dan Streit.
In the clip, Rocky and members of his crew recklessly ride the D.B.D helicopter he used during his 2025 Lollapalooza set through the city. They hang out and perform to a rooftop filled with people dancing and waving rags around in helicopter-like motions. SWAT officers appear throughout, eventually targeting Rocky and even raiding his home. As he attempts to escape in the helicopter, he falls, dropping to his death.
“Helicopter$” was written with Kelvin J. N. Magnusen, and produced with Kelvin and Soufien Rhouat.
Don’t Be Dumb, which also includes lead single “Punk Rocky,” is set to arrive on Friday.
James Taylor at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony (Disney/Eric McCandless)
James Taylor is one of the acts set to perform at The Nearness of You Concert, an all-star benefit concert supporting cancer research at Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The event honors the memory of Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Michael Brecker, who died in 2007. He played sax on Taylor’s 1972 track “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” described on Instagram as “one of the most memorable collaborations in James’s catalog.”
The concert will be held Feb. 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room in New York, hosted by comedian Susie Essman. The lineup also includes trumpeter Chris Botti, singer/songwriter Lisa Fischer, inaugural poet Richard Blanco and special guests.
This is the fifth Nearness of You Concert that’s been held. Previous shows have raised over $5 million for cancer research and featured artists like Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Christopher Cross and others.
In December Taylor revealed his plans to tour in 2026, noting in a social media video that he would be out west in California and Nevada in April, and then hit the East Coast in June. So far the only confirmed U.S. shows are his annual July 3 and 4 concerts at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. Taylor also has dates in the U.K. and Europe in July. A complete schedule can be found at JamesTaylor.com.
Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society performs onstage at Hollywood Palladium on July 29, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
Black Label Society has announced a new album called Engines of Demolition.
The 12th studio effort from the Zakk Wylde-led band, and their first since 2021’s Doom Crew Inc., is due out March 27. It includes the previously released songs “The Gallows,” “Broken and Blind” and “Lord Humungus.”
Also on the track list is a cut called “Ozzy’s Song.” Wylde, of course, was the guitarist in Ozzy Osbourne‘s solo band and performed alongside the late Prince of Darkness during his final show at the 2025 Back to the Beginning concert.
Black Label Society will launch a U.S. tour in February.
Here’s the Engines of Demolition track list: “Name in Blood” “Gatherer of Souls” “The Hand of Tomorrows Grave” “Better Days & Wiser Times” “Broken and Blind” “The Gallows” “Above & Below” “Back to Me” “Lord Humungus” “Pedal to the Floor” “Broken Pieces” “The Stranger” “Ozzy’s Song”
Teyana Taylor wins Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture at the 83RD ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBES®, airing live from the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on Sunday, January 11, 2026 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT, on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. (Phil McCarten/CBS)
Teyana Taylor has fought One Battle After Another during her time in the industry, which makes her first Golden Globe win even sweeter. After taking home the award Sunday night for best supporting actress in the Paul Thomas Anderson film, she told the press that her years of hard work had finally come to fruition.
“I’ve been doing it since I was 15 years old, you know? And what this was, for me, was God reminded me that the weight is not punishment, it’s preparation for what’s already written,” she said. “So my name being written on that card and the engraving — this is just mind-blowing, you know? … I’m still gagging right now. I’m just like, oh, my God. I’m so happy. I’m filled with so much gratitude. I don’t take any of this for granted. I don’t take any of it at all.”
In an Instagram carousel featuring photos of her with the award, Teyana reiterated the closing words of her acceptance speech: “Our softness is not a liability. Our depth is not too much. And our light does not need permission to shine. We belong in every room we walk into. Our voices matter. Our dreams deserve space.”
She then thanked the Golden Globes for recognizing her journey.
“I’ve been at this for 20 years, so this award doesn’t only represent this role,” she said. “It represents every season, every sacrifice, every yes, every no, and all the love and life I’ve poured into my work and into others along the way.”
“Purpose doesn’t rush,” she continued. “It arrives right on time.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is drawing backlash from former Federal Reserve and Treasury officials as well as current members of Congress, including those in President Donald Trump’s own party.
A bipartisan group of top economic officials released a blistering statement on Monday calling the probe an “unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine” the central bank’s independence.
“This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly. It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic success,” read the statement from Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, Tim Geithner, Jacob Lew, Hank Paulson and others.
The investigation, announced by Powell in a rare video message on Sunday, is related to Powell’s testimony last June about the multi-year renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings in Washington. But Trump has made Powell a frequent target of his attacks and push to cut interest rates.
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, who is on Trump’s short list to be the next Federal Reserve chair, said time will tell if the probe is a pretext for firing Powell over interest rates.
“Well, in the fullness of time, we’ll find out whether it looks like a pretext,” Hassett, who denied involvement in the probe, told CNBC in an appearance on Monday. “But right now, we’ve got a building that’s got, like, dramatic cost overruns and, you know, plans for the buildings that look inconsistent with the testimony. But, you know, again, I’m not a Justice Department person. I hope everything turns out OK.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, said he will oppose the confirmation of any Trump nominee to the Federal Reserve until legal matters concerning Powell are resolved, which could make it difficult for a nominee to advance out of committee.
“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question,” Tillis said in a statement on Sunday night.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in a post on X on Monday, said Tillis is “right in blocking any Federal Reserve nominees.”
“After speaking with Chair Powell this morning, it’s clear the administration’s investigation is nothing more than an attempt at coercion. If the Department of Justice believes an investigation into Chair Powell is warranted based on project cost overruns — which are not unusual — then Congress needs to investigate the Department of Justice. The stakes are too high to look the other way: if the Federal Reserve loses its independence, the stability of our markets and the broader economy will suffer,” Murkowski posted on X.
House Financial Services Chairman Rep. French Hill, a Republican, said pursuing criminal charges against Powell is “an unnecessary distraction.” Sen. Kevin Cramer, another Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said that he does not believe Powell is a criminal and that he hopes the criminal matter will soon be put to rest.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Monday that “if the investigation is warranted, then they’ll have to play that out.” When pressed if he believed the probe is warranted, Johnson said, “I have not reviewed his testimony, so I am not sure, but that’s not really my lane.”
A spokesperson for Attorney General Pam Bondi said Bondi “has instructed her U.S. Attorneys to prioritize investigating any abuse of taxpayer dollars.” Powell said in his statement the probe was fueled by Trump’s monthslong pressure campaign on him to lower interest rates.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, slammed Trump as a “wannabe dictator” over his campaign against Powell.
“Acting like the wannabe dictator he is, Trump is trying to push out the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and complete his corrupt takeover of America’s central bank so that it serves his interests, along with his billionaire friends,” Warren said in a speech about the future of the Democratic Party ahead of 2028 at the National Press Club.
President Trump denied any involvement in the criminal probe during a brief interview with NBC News on Sunday night but continued his criticism of Powell’s leadership.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
Jackson Dean & Shannon Miscoll (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for BMI)
Jackson Dean is engaged to be married, an Instagram post from his fiancée reveals.
“forever with you,” Shannon Miscoll posted on Jan. 3. “i can’t wait to be your wife @thejacksondean !!”
The post shows Shannon and Jackson in the woods in one photo, and a closeup of her engagement ring in another.
So far, Jackson hasn’t posted anything about his impending nuptials.
Musically, the “Don’t Come Lookin'” hitmaker has just released “Make a Liar” as his new radio single. It’s the follow-up to “Heavens to Betsy,” which became his second #1 in November.
“Make a Liar” seems to hint at Jackson’s third studio album, since it doesn’t appear on his most recent collection, On the Back of My Dreams, which came out in September 2024.
