Dierks Bentley is climbing the country charts with his latest single, “Tip It On Back.” When the performer feels the urge to “tip” one back, he will usually reach for a domestic, light and cold (trivia: “Domestic, Light and Cold” is a song from his debut album, Modern Day Drifter). “The smart thing for me to do is to just stick with beer, light beer, watered-down American beer,” says Dierks. However, he does like other adult beverages, as well. “I really don’t discriminate. I kind of like a little bit of everything, and there’s a lot of things you get good at over the years of playing the road and being able to appreciate the fine spirits, all of the spirits, is one of those things,” he laughs. “I appreciate ‘em all on certain levels.”

Dierks is set to perform at this year’s American Country Awards, which will air December 10th on FOX. Other performers include Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town and Luke Bryan. He’s also nominated for Album of the Year for Home. The ACAs are fan-voted, and TODAY is the last day for fans to vote for their favorites at theacas.com. Voting for Artist of the Year closes December 7th.

AUDIO: Dierks Bentley who has hit the Top 20 with his latest single “Tip It On Back,” says he prefers beer to any other adult beverage.

Dierks Bentley (prefers beer) OC: …certain levels. :19
“The smart thing for me to do is to just stick with beer, light beer, watered-down American beer, but I really don’t discriminate. I kind of like a little bit of everything, and there’s a lot of things you get good at over the years of playing the road and being able to appreciate the fine spirits, all of the spirits, is one of those things. [laughs] I appreciate ‘em all on certain levels.”

Scotty McCreery has been tapped as a spokesperson for Bojangles’ Restaurants, so you’ll be able to see him on TV and in-stores, as well as hear him on radio spots touting Bojangles’ famous chicken, biscuits and more (we’re getting hungry just thinking about it).

Beginning November 26th, Bojangles’ customers will be able to pick up a card with a unique code from the restaurant, which will be redeemable for a free song download from his new holiday album, Christmas with Scotty McCreery.

Check out the TV commercial featuring Scotty below! It’s Bo Time at Bojangles.

Lady Antebellum‘s video for “A Holly Jolly Christmas” debuted on Friday (November 9th) on VEVO, and it features a mischievious little boy looking to get a kiss from Lady A’s Hillary Scott. He enlists the help of the other Lady A’ers, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood, in concocting the perfect scenario to make it happen.

Jon Pardi attended the CMA Awards this year in style – in a red Bentley, which left him rather speechless. “We were just like dumbfounded,” Jon says. “We were walking around the car, looking inside of it, and we were like, ‘Are you sure this is ours all night? This is ours all night, so I can put my stuff in here?’ And he was like, ‘Yes, it’s yours all night.’ So, it was my ride home, it was everything.”

The new artist, whose debut single “Missin’ You Crazy” is heading up the country charts, wasn’t nominated and didn’t present, so he wasn’t credentialed to walk the red carpet at last week’s awards. However, he ended up “accidentally crashing” the red carpet. “[Our driver] pulls into the red carpet entrance where all the vehicles are going, and of course, this kid comes up to us and starts flipping through his pages after the driver said my name,” recalls Jon. “After [the kid] gets done looking through the pages, he goes, ‘Naw, he’s not on the list, but I saw him at the [Capitol] Street Party, and he was awesome. You guys are totally cool. Come back here.’ That was the coolest part because the Street Party got us on the red carpet. We pull up, and the Marines open the door and we got out, and maybe 5 or 7 girls said my name, and they asked for my autograph. Then I was like, ‘We gotta go. I’m not supposed to be here.’”

As you might recall, he took to the stage prior to Luke Bryan who headlined the Capitol Street Party in Nashville last month, performing for 25,000 people.

Jon stood on the CMA red carpet so photographers could snap his picture, but bypassed all of the interviews, because he felt he would get in major trouble. He and his road manager walked to the end of the red carpet and try to slip into Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena via the artist entrance, but were turned away since they weren’t “on the list,” and they had to go back around to an alternate entrance. “Our 10 seconds on the red carpet was extremely over after we got in an elevator going upstairs like, ‘Where do we go now?’,” Jon laughs.

The California native won’t have to worry about “getting in trouble” for walking the red carpet next year; he’ll be there legitimately.

AUDIO: Jon Pardi describes his ride at this year’s CMA Awards.

Jon Pardi (CMA ride) OC: …and the car. :33
“I was riding with my tour manager, and he gets off the phone and he was like, ‘I talked to the driver, and I may not have heard correctly, but I think he said a red Bentley. And we were all like, ‘No, he probably said ‘Red Mercedes’ or like a Lincoln Towncar.’ We get there, and it’s a freaking red Bentley. We were just like dumbfounded. We were walking around the car, looking inside of it. And we were like, ‘Are you sure this is ours all night? This is ours all night, so I can put my stuff in here?’ And he was like, ‘Yes, it’s yours all night.’ So, it was my ride home, it was everything. It was my driver and the car.”

AUDIO: Jon Pardi talks about crashing the red carpet at this year’s CMA Awards.

Jon Pardi (crashing CMA Red Carpet) OC: …the red carpet. 1:03
“We’re cruising around. We’re sitting in traffic in this freaking Bentley. So, the driver starts asking questions, and he’s like, ‘Are you guys walking the red carpet? Where do you go?’ And one of the key questions he asked me and [road manager] J.R., ‘Where do you park this?’ We were like, ‘Well, you can’t park it in a downtown parking garage.’ So, he’s like, ‘Well, I know where there’s an artist drop-off.’ He pulls into the red carpet entrance where all the vehicles are going, and of course, this kid comes up to us and starts flipping through his pages after the driver said my name. He said, “I’ve got this guy, Jon Pardi.’ So, after [the kid] gets done looking through the pages, he goes, ‘Naw, he’s not on the list, but I saw him at the [Capitol] Street Party, and he was awesome. You guys are totally cool. Come back here.’ So, we pull up, and that was the coolest part because the Street Party got us on the red carpet. So, we pull up, and the Marines open the door and we got out, and maybe 5 or 7 girls said my name and they asked for my autograph. Then I was like, ‘We gotta go. I’m not supposed to be here.’ And so, I ran up to the camera and said, ‘We just crashed the red carpet!’”

AUDIO: Jon Pardi continues his story about crashing the red carpet at this year’s CMA Awards.

Jon Pardi (crashing CMA Red Carpet) 2 OC: …the red carpet. :53
“I took pictures like very awkwardly, like I didn’t know like what I was supposed to do, like I had no publicist. I just had J.R., and he didn’t know what he was doing. We were just taking pictures. [laughs] It was crazy. People were just taking pictures, and it was crazy. People were like, ‘snap, snap, snap, Jon, snap, snap.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know what we’re doing! This is our first, we’re not supposed to be [here], it’s cool. We had a Bentley.’ We just kept going. I just went past all of the interviews. Sorry, I didn’t want to get into even more trouble. And then we get to the end of where you’re like supposed to go if you’re a regular red carpet [artist], then we get to another list, and they’re like, ‘You’re not on the list. You guys [have] got to go back out and around to the other artists’ entrance. Our 10 seconds on the red carpet was extremely over after we got in an elevator going upstairs like, ‘Where do we go now?’ At the end of it, we went in and got a beer and said, ‘That was fun. We just crashed the red carpet.’”

Nashville, TN – Nov. 9, 2012 – Although winter storms and airport closures kept the group from traveling to New York City to accept in person last night, GRAMMY winning country trio Lady Antebellum received Billboard’s “Breakthrough Award” at the 2012 Billboard Touring Awards for their headlining OWN THE NIGHT 2012 WORLD TOUR. The trophy goes to the highest grossing touring artist who cracks Billboard’s Boxscore recap for the first time in their career based on tickets sales and other touring data. The all-genre category also included Miranda Lambert and The Black Keys, and the group joins previous winners including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Jason Aldean.
 
“Mother Nature wasn’t our friend this week…we would have loved to have been there to accept this in person,” said Lady A’s Dave Haywood. “We count this tour as one of our proudest accomplishments and want to thank our band, crew and all the fans around the world who came out to ‘Own The Night’ with us.  It’s a huge honor, and a responsibility to our genre, to travel around the globe representing country music.  We don’t take that lightly and really appreciate the recognition.”

The “Breakthrough Award” recognizes the band’s first world tour that wrapped last month in Australia with three sold out nights at Sydney’s Opera House. More than one million fans attended the tour that kicked off in Jan. and visited 11 countries on three continents.
 
In celebration of the tour, the trio also recently announced that they will release a live concert film titled OWN THE NIGHT WORLD TOUR on Dec. 4 in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Japan with additional worldwide release plans in 2013.  Fans will be able to purchase the film in multiple formats including DVD, Blu-ray and will be available at all digital retailers. Distributed by Eagle Rock Entertainment, the live film includes 90 minutes of performance from the Little Rock, AR stop of the World Tour this past June, tour documentary footage and seven additional bonus cuts. For more information about the live film, visit www.ladyantebellum.com.

Go backstage and behind the scenes at the CMA awards with Luke Bryan and some of his other country music singer buddies, such as Dierks Bentley. Where Luke is, hilarious moments follow!