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!

Eric Church has been tapped as special guest for Kenny Chesney’s No Shoes Nation stadium tour, which kicks off March 16th at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The 17-date trek will also makes stops in Dallas, Milwaukee, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Detroit, among others. A handful of dates will feature the Zac Brown Band, while the Eli Young Band and Kacey Musgraves will open all of the stadium shows (check out the tour dates below).

For specific on-sale information visit https://tickets.kennychesney.com.

Sat. Mar 16 — Tampa, FL — Raymond James Stadium^
Sat. May 4 — Columbia, SC — Williams Brice Stadium*
Sat. May 11 — Dallas, TX — Dallas Cowboys Stadium^
Sat. May 18 — Milwaukee, WI — Miller Park^
Sat. May 25 — Landover, MD — FedExField^
Sat. Jun 1 — Seattle, WA — CenturyLink Field^
Sat. Jun 8 — Philadelphia, PA — Lincoln Financial Field^
Sat. Jun 15 — Kansas City, MO — Arrowhead Stadium^
Sat. Jun 22 — Pittsburgh, PA — Heinz Field^
Sat. Jun 29 — Columbus, OH — Crew Stadium^
Fri. Jul 12 — Minneapolis, MN — Target Field*
Sat. Jul 20 — Denver, CO — Sports Authority Field at Mile High^
Sat. Jul 27 — Anaheim, CA — Angels Stadium^
Sat. Aug 3 – Atlanta, GA — Georgia Dome*
Sat. Aug 10 — East Rutherford, NJ — MetLife Stadium^
Sat. Aug 17 — Detroit, MI — Ford Field^
Sat. Aug 24 — Foxboro, MA — Gillette Stadium^

* with Zac Brown Band, Eli Young Band, and Kacey Musgraves
^ with Eric Church, Eli Young Band, and Kacey Musgraves

AUDIO: Eric Church talks about what kind of energy he receives when he performs for the audience.

Eric Church (performing energy) OC: …type of crowd. :43
“I think, for me, every night I try to empty the tank. There’s always that energy floating around.  It’s a palpable thing. It’s up to me to start that exchange and get the crowd to give it back to me and then watch it build on itself, and just to have that experience. I mean, we have one night here in whatever city we are in, whether it’s Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Monday. We got this night, I’m not going to see you for a while and you’re not going to see me for a while, you know? And I love being able to capitalize on that moment and trying to live in that moment and get as much energy exchanged between myself and the crowd as we can. I love that! That’s my favorite part of what we do. I love being around people…I’m very passionate about my music and I love people who are passionate about the music too, and I love playing a show for that type of crowd.”

It’s just been announced that Lady A will continue the holiday cheer with their A Holly Jolly Christmas music video premiere Friday, November 9th on VEVO!

Check out some exclusive content from the video shoot at ladyantebellum.com.

Kelleigh Bannen explains how she became a whiskey drinker in her latest webisode.

Luke Bryan scores his sixth No. 1 single, as “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” climbs to the top of the Mediabase country singles chart. It’s the third chart-topper and fourth hit from his platinum-certified album, tailgates & tanlines. Luke wrote the song with his producer Jeff Stevens and songwriter Shane McAnally. “I think the chorus of that thing is some of the best writing that I’ve ever been a part of and I love the simplicity of the verses,” says Luke. “I just love ‘Girl, rest your head.’ I love all that the melodies and all that through the song.”

Luke is currently in the studio working on the follow-up to tailgates & tanlines.

Luke is nominated for seven ACA Awards, which will be handed out live from Las Vegas December 10th on FOX.

Luke Bryan (Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye) OC: …the song. :30
“‘Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye’ I wrote with my producer Jeff Stevens and Shane McAnally. We got out on the road and had a great time and wrote a couple songs, and the last day, Jeff had this title, and we wrote it. I mean, it’s a great idea and a great thought, and man, we wrote it right then. I think the chorus of that thing is some of the best writing that I’ve ever been a part of and I love the simplicity of the verses…I just love ‘Girl, rest your head.’ I love all that — the melodies and all that through the song.”

The video for Kelleigh Bannen’s single, “Sorry on the Rocks,” went live on CMT.com on Monday (November 5th). The “house” it was shot in was originally a barn, before it was turned into someone’s cool home. “I found out from Paul Worley, my producer, it used to be like a dance hall, and there was music,” says Kelleigh. “So, it was not really a venue, but it hosted these dances and parties, so that’s kind of cool that was the setting [for the video].”

Last week, Kelleigh was featured on the CW’s Hart of Dixie during the show’s Halloween party episode as their band. A handful of her songs were used during the show, and they liked her so much, another one of her songs will be used in Tuesday night’s (November 6th) episode of the popular show (8pm ET).

Kelleigh Bannen (where video was shot) OC: …the setting. :25
“We shot it at this barn off of Estes in town here in Nashville. Actually, I found out from Paul Worley, my producer, it used to be like a dance hall, and there was music. He said my co-producer on my project, Jerry Smith, he’s like, ‘I’m sure Jerry played there back in the ‘70s.’ So, it was not really a venue, but it hosted these dances and parties, so that’s kind of cool that was the setting.”

In the latest episode of DBTV, you get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at last week’s 46th CMA Awards. You’ll also catch a bit of Dierks Bentley‘s performance of his latest single, “Tip It On Back.”