Carrie Underwood will be performing a CMT Crossroads with Steven Tyler on Saturday night, live from Indianapolis as part of the pre-Super Bowl festivities, and while a lot of people were hoping they might get a preview of Carrie’s new song, “Good Girl,” which she is planning to release next month, a spokesperson from her record label says that will not be happening. Citing rumors floating around on the internet to the contrary, the rep said, “There are no plans for her to debut the single on the program – but it’ll still be a cool show! Just trying to nip this rumor in the bud.” “Good Girl” is the first single Carrie will be releasing from her new album due this Spring. The single is scheduled for release on February 23rd.
It seems rumors of Reba McEntire’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The Global Associated News posted a report on Tuesday morning that said, “Actress Reba McEntire died while filming a movie in Kitzbühel, Austria early this morning – January 31, 2012.” As fast as news travels around the internet, the rumor took off and had concerned fans flooding her Facebook and Twitter trying to find out what happened. At about noon yesterday Reba heard about the rumor of her death and tweeted, “There is a rumor going around that I died after falling off a mountain in Austria yesterday while shooting a movie. While I would love to be shooting a movie in Austria, I definitely did not fall off a mountain! Nor am I dead! I am alive and kicking!!! Most of you know this already because I’ve been giving you daily accounts of Shelby’s race. Oh well. Have a great day.”
The most bizarre part of the story is that apparently the web site that posted the false story of Reba’s death did so intentionally. In teeny tiny print on the bottom of the site they posted this disclaimer:
“about this web site. FAKE… THIS STORY IS 100% FAKE! this is an entertainment website, and this is a totally fake article based on zero truth and is a complete work of fiction for entertainment purposes! this story was dynamically generated using a generic ‘template’ and is not factual. Any reference to specific individuals has been 100% fabricated by web site visitors who have created fake stories by entering a name into a blank ‘non-specific’ template for the purpose of entertainment. For sub-domain info, name removal requests and additional use restrictions: FakeAWish.com”
Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert will perform “America the Beautiful” to kick off the Super Bowl this Sunday on NBC. If you want to know what their version sounds like they have already made it available on iTunes. Blake admitted to Robin Meade of CNN’s Morning Express that he’s a little nervous about the performance. “Everything you do gets scrutinized. I’m actually glad to be singing with [Miranda] because it’ll help me relax to have her there and be able to be with someone that you can just look at and connect with and try to block out that there’s 60 million people watching at home, not to mention the 200,000 at the game. It’s a big performance and I don’t really want to screw it up.”
The Band Perry were home-schooled, so they didn’t have a prom or anything, but Kimberly Perry reveals she could soon be attending a formal dance that could make up for that. Not long ago the trio performed for President Barack Obama with the Naval Academy Glee Club and Kimberly told The Salt Lake Tribune that after the performance, a brave midshipman asked her to a formal in Annapolis and she says she’ll go if the band’s schedule will allow it.
Thompson Square had a big year in 2011 with their huge hit “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not” and the follow up, “I Got You,” both of which are off their self-titled debut album. Keifer Thompson reveals they had planned to go into the studio next month to begin working in their sophomore album, but those plans were pushed back to April so that they could deal with some family matters. He tells Tulsa World, “Shawna’s daddy was diagnosed with cancer. He’s doing a lot better now, but we’ve been helping him out and spending time with him.” In the meantime they are continuing their hectic touring schedule as openers for Lady Antebellum on their Own the Night Tour. Keifer says, “We spent 270 days on the road last year. So much is happening, there’s no way I can keep track of it all.”
A judgment for $2.8 million dollars has been reinstated to Toby Keith and his family by the Oklahoma Supreme Court stemming from the death of his father, H.K. Covel, in a crash on the interstate back in 2001. Evidence shows that Toby’s father was traveling on the interstate when his truck was bumped by another car, which caused it to crash through the center median and into the opposite lanes of traffic. His truck was hit by a bus, which ultimately killed Toby’s father. Toby’s family sued the bus company because they alleged that the bus’ brakes were faulty. They were awarded a judgment, which was reversed on appeal, but has now been reinstated by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
The lineup for this year’s Country Throwdown Tour has been announced and it includes Gary Allan, Justin Moore, Rodney Atkins, Josh Thompson, Eric Paslay and Sunny Sweeney. The tour will kick off in May and run for a couple of months, with only a couple of dates in Gulport, MS and Gilford, NH being announced so far. More dates will be released in the coming weeks. You can get updates on CountryThrowdown.com.
Chris Young headlined the Third CMA Keep the Music Playing All Stars Concert last night at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, where it was announced that The CMA Foundation is donating $1.4 million to benefit music education programs for Nashville’s 78,000 public school students. The money was raised during the 2011 CMA Music Festival through the “Keep the Music Playing” campaign. To date the foundation has raised more than $6.1 million to help build music labs and purchase more than 4,000 instruments and much needed supplies for Metro Nashville’s 80 public schools.
Jennifer Nettles has recorded the Hank Williams’ classic “Your Cheatin’ Heart” for a Pepsi Max Super Bowl commercial. In the commercial, which is part of their Cola Wars campaign, a Coke Zero driver hopes to quickly pay for a delicious Pepsi MAX without anybody noticing. Unfortunately for him, the transaction doesn’t go as planned and he wins free Pepsi MAX for life. The commercial is also said to feature Regis Philbin.
As if Rascal Flatts isn’t be busy enough touring, promoting their new single, “Banjo,” which they just released, and their new album Changed, which will be coming out in April, the guys have revealed that they have several side projects they’re working on as well. Jay DeMarcus tweeted on Sunday, “Back at work bright & early to start filming the Rascal Flatts “movie”… Think y’all are gonna dig it…More details to come soon. Def more of a performance/doc style with more of our individual stories intertwined.” Then in a recent interview with a Birmingham radio station Gary LeVox revealed that the group is working on opening a restaurant and they’re developing their own fragrance. “We started working on a fragrance about two years ago, and we went through a couple different companies,” he said. “We just couldn’t lock down on a scent that the three of us had liked. We’re actually in the process right now of putting it together. We’ve got some restaurants that we’re getting ready to open, so we’ve got a lot of stuff going on. But the scent of Gary LeVox will be out soon [laughs].” Gary explained that the restaurants would be in the vein of Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grills and he revealed they are teaming up with the head chef from Mastro’s Steakhouse (located in several metropolitan cities including Las Vegas, Chicago and Beverly Hills). They plan to break ground on their first restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, by Ohio State University and Gary says, “We’re going to have writers’ nights in there. It’ll be based around music.”