Having your first-ever song blow up is nice, but Russell Dickerson says he’s glad that his current hit, “Happen to Me,” didn’t happen to him until now.
“I think about this year a lot, like, what if this was my first song, and [it became] like the biggest [one],” he mused to ABC Audio. The song has become his biggest in several years, as well as a viral smash on TikTok. “I would just be, like, ‘that guy.'”
But Russell has been a chart-topping country star for years now — he scored the first of his many country #1 hits back in 2017.
“It’s so funny to see people comment that don’t know who I am,” he notes. “They’re like, ‘This is all this guy has, is a stupid dance.'”
He laughs, “Like, ‘Actually, no, bro, I got, like, five number ones also.’ … And I mean that in the most humble of ways.”
“I’ve worked my you-know-what off for the last decade to get to where we are now.” (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)
And “where we are now” is “everywhere.” Thanks to “Happen to Me,” Russell has sung on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, headlined a major tour, done a remix with the Jonas Brothers and appeared on multiple TV shows.
He’ll also ring in 2026 as one of the performers on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest on Dec. 31.
Chino Moreno of Deftones performs live on stage at the Rock Am Ring festival at Nuerburgring on June 07, 2024 in Nuerburg, Germany. (Gina Wetzler/Redferns)
Deftones have announced a collaboration with a youth soccer team based in the band’s hometown Oak Park neighborhood in Sacramento, California.
The collection includes replicas of the jerseys Chino Moreno and company designed for the team, called Los Jaguares, as well as a Deftones-branded soccer ball.
“Los Jaguares represent an underserved community in one of California’s lowest-income districts,” reads the product description. “For these athletes, soccer is a vital source of pride and community, as reflected in their rallying cry: ‘Who are we? Familia.'”
The band adds, “Your purchase helps guarantee soccer remains free for every player, while providing vital access to fields, quality coaching, and healthy snacks.”
You can order your own Deftones jersey and soccer ball now via the group’s web store.
Deftones released a new album, private music, in August. Lead single “my mind is a mountain” became the first Deftones song to hit #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Max McNown has followed up his breakthrough hit “A Little More Free” with “Better Me for You (Brown Eyes).” While the song was inspired by his then-girlfriend, Max says it’s not exactly a love song — it’s more about how she inspired him to be worthy of her love.
“The verses are very honest depictions of who I was and who I didn’t want to be,” he told ABC Audio. “I was just making decisions that I was not proud of. I was a person I wasn’t proud to be.”
“And it’s so funny, people think the song is just purely about this relationship,” he added. “But it’s actually about, equally, who I was before the relationship and how it kind of saved me.”
Max says his manager initially had to convince him to release the song as a single. But he had an inkling it might be special the first time he played it for his the woman who inspired it.
“We were in the parking lot and I was just like, ‘Hey, I wrote a song about you today and about us and how I feel.’ And she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, can I hear it?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, for sure,'” Max recalled.
“And it was just a guitar and my voice, and I played it, and I remember she was just in the passenger seat and she just started crying,” he said. “And I was, like, ‘Man … I think this is a special song.'”
The woman turned out to be pretty special, too — she and Max are now married.
Max launches his The Cost of Growing Up headlining tour March 20 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Year-End Rock & Alternative Albums chart also includes several greatest hits packages, including Elton John’s 2017 release, Diamonds, at #5; Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1976 album, Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits, at #11; Queen’s Greatest Hits, released in 1981, at #14; and Journey’s 1988 compilation, Greatest Hits, at #15.
All of those artists landed on the Year-End Rock & Alternative Artists chart as well, with Elton at #15, CCR at #20, Queen at #23 and Journey at #26.
The second season of the Disney+ series based on Rick Riordan‘s beloved stories focuses on his book The Sea of Monsters. It finds Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) back at Camp Half-Blood one year later as his friendship with Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) is changing and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) has gone missing.
ABC Audio caught up with the main trio at the Disney Upfront back in May, where they spoke about what fans can expect from the new season.
“It’s much bigger than season 1, for sure,” Scobell said, noting that in the first season, many of the scenes consisted of only him, Jeffries and Simhadri. “A lot of the characters are in more of the episodes. Last season it was kind of like the three of us, and then the next episode there’d be three of us and a guest star, and then another guest star. This time … our paths cross a lot.”
As for the moment that Simhadri is excited for fans to see, he says, “Oh, the chariot races, for sure.”
“I mean, just seeing that in the beginning gave me goose bumps,” Simhadri said. He is also looking forward to the introduction of the fan-favorite character Thalia (Tamara Smart), who is the daughter of Zeus.
“I know Thalia pops in kind of at the end of the book, so hearing about her and, as a fan, knowing that she’s gonna show up — even just reading the scripts, anything I could get that was related to her — it had me so excited for the next season where we finally get to, like, really be with her the entire time,” Simhadri said.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2 premieres Wednesday on Disney+.
Ed Roland of Collective Soul performs at Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre on July 22, 2025 in Sterling Heights, Michigan. (Scott Legato/Getty Images)
Collective Soul has announced a run of U.S. tour dates for 2026.
The headlining shows span from Jan. 29 in Anaheim, California, to May 2 in Bossier City, Louisiana.
Presales begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time. The general sale begins Friday at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit CollectiveSoul.com.
The tour includes Collective Soul’s previously announced three-night Las Vegas residency in February, as well as Creed‘s Summer of ’99 and Beyond concert cruise.
Collective Soul’s most recent album is 2024’s Here to Eternity.
Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson attend “The Naked Gun” New York Premiere on July 28, 2025 in New York City. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Pamela Anderson is opening up about the romantic relationship she shared with Liam Neeson.
The actress recently revealed that she and her Naked Gun co-star developed a private relationship following production of their summer box office hit.
“If you must know, Liam and I were romantically involved for a short while but only after we finished filming,” she told People.
Anderson also mentioned how she and Neeson spent an “intimate week” together at his upstate New York home.
“I had my own room,” she said. “Our assistants both came; even family stopped by.”
She went on and shared several memories with Neeson, including the time the pair ate dinner at a “tiny French restaurant where he (Neeson) introduced me as the ‘future Mrs. Neeson,'” and how she “tended to a rosebush overgrown with mint” in his garden.
Following what she described as their “romantic lost week,” she said that they went their separate ways to work on other film projects.
“We were having fun,” she said and added, “I always was laughing when people thought, ‘Oh, that’s a publicity stunt.’ I’m like, ‘A publicity stunt? This was real. We have real feelings.'”
Good Morning America has reached out to reps of Anderson and Neeson for additional comment.
Anderson and Neeson fueled romance rumors over the summer while they promoted their film, The Naked Gun, which was a reboot of the popular comedy franchise of the same name and the 1982 television series Police Squad!
The duo appeared in a flirty promo video shared on the film’s official Instagram page in August. They also shared sweet moments on carpets during the film’s premieres with Anderson in one image, giving Neeson a kiss on the cheek.
Following The Naked Gun, Anderson said she and Neeson are good friends. Neeson has also been there to support her in her endeavors following their summer film.
It may be the fall season, but Khalid clearly has summer on his mind. He’s announced his It’s Always Summer Somewhere Tour for 2026, which kicks off May 16 and does, of course, include some summer dates. Lauv will join him as a special guest for the 25-city tour, which has dates set in Las Vegas, Toronto, Atlanta, Charlotte and more. The general sale begins Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
The Upshaws, a show about a working-class family in Indianapolis,will be coming back for a final season. Season 5 (or Part 7) of the Netflix show will premiere on Jan. 15. “Truly grateful to Netflix for giving us this season to once again bring the warmth and funny that we’re known for (and with this fifth and final — some closure) to our Upshaws family,” creator and executive producer Regina Hicks says in a statement. Fellow creator and EP Wanda Sykes adds, “We are excited to give the show and the fans a proper farewell.”
Kendrick Lamar is ending 2025 as Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Year, thanks to the charting success of his album GNX, its song “Luther” and Billboard touring data. He’s also #1 on Billboard‘s lists of the top Hot 100 songwriters, top rap artists, top R&B/hip-hop artists – male and top rap artists – male.
Doechii, who joins K. Dot on the U.K. leg of the Grand National Tour, has TikTok’s music trend of the year with her song “Anxiety.” The song also placed on the platform’s top 10 songs in the U.S. and the top 20 songs globally.
CeCe Winans is Billboard’s top gospel artist for the second year in a row.
Keith Eli in police photo. St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office
(LOUISIANA) — Officials are raising concerns about the conditions in a Louisiana jail as investigators continue to search for a man who authorities said escaped the facility with two others last week by scaling down a wall.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz released new photos and a video Monday of the Dec. 2 escape, when authorities said three detainees, Johnathan Jevon Joseph, Keith Eli and Joseph Allen Harrington, allegedly used sheets to scale the St. Landry Parish Jail’s outer wall, before dropping onto a first-floor roof and fleeing.
At a news conference, Guidroz criticized the conditions of the jail, located 130 miles northwest of New Orleans, and noted that there was ongoing construction he alleged that may have given the detainees a way to escape.
“[The] Parish government had a contracting crew out there fixing some of the water leaks of the roof, and they left extension cords, they left rope and they left any inmate an opportunity to just slide on out,” Guidroz said during the news conference Monday.
Two of the three escapees were found last week. One of the inmates, Harrington, took his own life Thursday after officers tracked him to a home and ordered him to surrender, police said.
Joseph surrendered to police the next day after authorities said they followed a tip and found him in another home.
Eli remains on the loose as of Tuesday and there is a reward for his capture.
Guidroz, meanwhile, has criticized St. Landry Parish President Jessie Bellard over the incident, claiming Guidroz has been asking for funding to repair the 43-year-old jail’s deficiencies.
Bellard said in a Facebook post that the claims of “crumbling walls and rusted out cell door locks were inaccurate.”
“The security incidents that have occurred are primarily due to a shortage of deputies and a lack of training for current staff,” he said.
“The Sheriff must take responsibility for improving deputy pay to ensure we are competitive with surrounding parishes, properly compensating those who risk their lives daily,” Bellard added.
Guidroz dismissed Bellard’s claim, contending that the pay was “competitive.”
“The pay for a non-post-certified corrections officer is $18 and some change [an hour]. If you get post-certified, it’s $19.15, and we’re fixing it to go up to $20,” the sheriff said.
Bellard told ABC affiliate KATC Monday that he disagreed with the sheriff’s characterization of the jail.
“The bricks and mortar are fine, and I have everything to back it up,” he told KATC.
“I have an architect coming from Baton Rouge tomorrow — a corrections specialist — to help design ways to fix the cinder block issues and prevent escapes. If I have to spend the money myself to protect the public, I will. But this only applies to the third floor — that’s where the mortar is weakening. The other floors have brick and mortar on the outside protecting them,” Bellard added.
Nick Jonas and his brothers have been filling stadiums on their current tour, but on Sunday Nick will be performing in Toronto for just 200 people. It’s a promotion for his upcoming album, Sunday Best: He’ll sing at Toronto’s Powder Room during what’s being called a Sunday Best Brunch. You can buy tickets on Nick’s web store. The album’s out Feb. 6.
Christina Aguilera hasn’t released an album since 2022, but that may change in the near future. Appearing on Jennifer Hudson‘s talk show, Christina teased, “There is new music that is being made.” She added, “It’s gonna be a really personal project … it’ll tie in with a very personal documentary we’ve been filming for the last few years.”
If you’ve ever wanted to hear Olivia Rodrigo sing a Christmas song, now you can. She recorded a version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” with Grammy-winning U.K. artist Jacob Collier for an Instagram video. She sings the lead, while Jacob provides backup vocals in 11-part harmony via multiple smaller videos. No less a star than Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Sheryl Crow — a friend of Olivia’s — responded in the comments, “Ok MIND BLOWN.”
