By the time Carly Pearce was in first grade, she was already in training to be a country singer — and she owes a lot of that drive and ambition to LeAnn Rimes.

Ahead of tonight’s premiere of CMT Crossroads: LeAnn Rimes & Friends, Carly says that her admiration for LeAnn runs deep.

“When I say I imitated her in my childhood years, it’s the truth. I won talent shows at school singing versions of her songs. My mom had to push to try and find a vocal coach at six, seven, eight years old because LeAnn was a 14-year-old doing it,” she recounts to CMT.

Now, Carly’s one of a stellar lineup of country’s new female acts tributing LeAnn on the special, alongside Mickey Guyton, Ashley McBryde and Brandy Clark.

“When this came up, my little childhood self was so excited,” Carly adds.

The special will review LeAnn’s storied career in country music, dating all the way back to her 1996 breakout hit, “Blue,” which came out when she was just 13. Onstage, she’ll revisit those early hits as well as previewing material from her new album, god’s work, which features Mickey.

LeAnn began her career so young that the artists celebrating her tonight grew up with her music, even though they’re not much younger than her themselves.

“To hear her story of how she put the yodel on ‘Blue’ when she was 13 years old, she’s a mastermind,” Ashley marvels. “She’s a prodigy. She’s been doing what I wanted to do my whole life already for 25 years.”

The CMT Crossroads episode premieres tonight at 8 p.m. CT on CMT.

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Kesha was dealt another blow in her ongoing suit against Dr. Luke, reports Rolling Stone.  A New York State appellate court ruled she cannot use evidence she deemed “critical” to her case.  Kesha found notes from attorney Greg Clarick from 2006 of her detailing the moments before Dr. Luke allegedly sexually assaulted her in 2005, saying he gave her a pill to “feel better” and she blacked out.  Dr. Luke’s team alleged Kesha first made the “sober pills” claim in 2013.  The appellate court said Kesha discovered the notes too late, calling it a “belated disclosure.”  Kesha was sued in 2014 for defamation and she countersued.  The case is ongoing.

BTS is “the nicest group of people” Grammys host Trevor Noah ever met — and he means it. During a taping of The Daily Show, he chatted with the audience about meeting BTS, and told them, “They’re just nice in every interaction that they have with people and what they do.”  He also praised their dance moves, adding, “They’re so good and efficient at what they do,” joking they make NSYNC look like a bunch of sloppy dancers.

Olivia Rodrigo pumped the brakes at her Denver show after a concert-goer suffered a medical emergency.  A fan caught the moment when the audience used their cellphone flashlights to alert the Grammy winner, who cut the music.  “Sorry, could we stop for a second? Is everyone okay over there? Do you need help? Can you get them some help over there?” Olivia called out, then waited until everyone was “good” before starting “traitor” from the top.

Andy Grammer has a new song coming out called “Save My Life,” which features the band R3HAB.  He shared a snippet of the upcoming, upbeat song to his Instagram. It arrives May 6.

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When Jack “Wildchild” Brown kicked off the creative process for his latest project, one that’d been two years in the making, he had no idea of the album’s concept. All that was certain is he wanted to “start with the music,” having sifted through many instrumentals, choosing those that spoke to his intrinsic musicality.

Wildchild recorded the album, his first solo body of work in six years, as a personal diary, not sure if it’d ever see the light of day. Now, the Lootpack rapper told ABC Audio, he’s “blessed” that it did.

With the unnecessary help of Omowale’s greatest influence — all of the Black men and women dead at the hands of the police — Wildchild went to work, creating the album as a tribute to being Black in America.

It wasn’t only the unlawful traffic stops as referenced in “Manifestin,” or the racial profiling mentioned in “Reflections,” that inspired the 15-track project. What served as Omowale’s most prominent influence was Wildchild’s own story– a near-fatal run-in with the law. He said he’s “fortunate” to have had an encounter where he only “almost” lost his life.

“I spent my life being thankful it didn’t happen, thankful I didn’t react wrong,” he said.

After “subconsciously suppressing” the scary moment for nearly 20 years, he finally shared the memory with his Black son and daughter, with whom he’d often have private conversations about their identity.

“I’m going to have to put this into the music, it’s no longer something that’s just in the household,” Wildchild said, recalling family talks about social injustices, one of which is represented in the new video “Breathe,” out April 14.

The inspiration behind “Breathe,” the single named after George Floyd‘s infamous cry for help, “I can’t breathe,” was obvious, Wildchild said: “We, people of color, are just tired of explaining that we’re tired.” 

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Machine Gun Kelly and Mod Sun‘s film Good Mourning will premiere in theaters and on-demand May 20, Variety reports.

The movie, previously titled Good Mourning with a U, is a “stoner comedy” co-directed, co-written and co-starring Kelly and Mod, who previously worked together on MGK’s Downfalls High film.

The cast also includes Megan Fox, Pete Davidson, Becky G, Whitney Cummings and Dove Cameron, among others. 

Meanwhile, Kelly has shared the Good Mourning poster — tagline: “When life hits a new low, reach for a new high” — and revealed that the trailer will premiere next week on April 20, which is surely not a coincidence.

The Good Mourning news follows an eventful few weeks for both MGK and Mod Sun. Kelly debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with his new album, Mainstream Sellout, while Mod just got engaged to Avril Lavigne.

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t turns out The Kid LAROI is not joining Taylor Swift in the “I Hate Scooter Braun” club after all.

Even though the Australian artist seemingly dissed the music manager on social media on Wednesday, Braun has now used his Instagram Story to reveal that the whole thing was a stunt to promote LAROI’s new single “Thousand Miles.”

On Wednesday, LAROI posted a snippet from the song, in which he sings, “Here goes another mistake/ I know I’m gonna make,” with a text balloon reading, “Show me ur last mistake. Use this sound.” He then posted three photos of Braun, suggesting that his last mistake had been signing with Braun’s management company.

Last year, LAROI signed on with Braun, who also handles his “Stay” duet partner Justin Bieber, but then departed after four months, with Billboard reporting that Braun had reneged on a promise to be personally involved in his career.

However, Braun has now produced receipts in the form of text messages proving that LAROI had run the idea about the diss past him first. He also posted a screenshot of an exchange in which he wrote to LAROI, “People are calling from media thinking you and I got real beef,” to which LAROI replied, “LMAO I’m dead. They’re quick with it!”

Braun wrote over the screenshots, “For those asking about the beef…and my friends who are wanting to go hard. Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.” He also urged his followers to check out “Thousand Miles,” which he notes was produced by his client Andrew Watt.

And, pointing out that LAROI’s “last mistake” could be interpreted as him leaving Braun, not signing with him, Braun posted a video of himself saying in mock anger, “Huge mistake. Probably the biggest of your career. That guy’s trash.”

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Four years ago today, the world got to witness greatness personified, by way of Beyoncé’s groundbreaking 2018 Coachella performance.

From her pyramid stage, the 28-time Grammy winner performed a two-hour set that was rich in Black history, HBCU pride, iconic hits, musicality and so much more.

The full production was extraordinary, to say the least, but it was also filled with cultural references and homages to Black life, Black art and Black music. And rightfully so — after more than 20 years of shows and events from Indio, California’s Coachella Valley, Beyoncé made history as the first-ever Black woman to headline the festival.

From marching bands and Greek strolls to majorette dancing and chopped and screwed versions of songs, Beyoncé and the 150 dancers and musicians, made proud both the Black community and the millions of fans who watched the concert.  Highlights included a mini Destiny’s Child reunion, and appearances from her husband, Jay-Z, and sister, Solange.

The 2018 performance, which was quickly dubbed ‘Beychella,’ received widespread critical acclaim, not only for the history it made, but so much more. The New York Times called the show “meaningful,” “absorbing” and “forceful,” among other things, with others wondering if Beyoncé’s two weekend performances can ever be topped, and more still considering it one of the greatest concerts of all time.

Netflix knew what to do: They joined forces with the singer to release the original concert film, Homecoming, at the same time Beyoncé released Homecoming: The Live Album.

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