Universal Universal Music Group Nashville Pressroom

Capitol Street Party 5 took place in downtown Nashville recently, and Luke Bryan, along with Jon Pardi and Kelleigh Bannen, played to over 25,000 fans on lower Broadway. He also had a special guest — Dierks Bentley — join him on stage during the show. Check out the behind-the-scenes look at the Capitol Street Party on the latest episode of LBTV!

Jon Pardi has been hitting the streets on the Tie One On Tour with new pals Frankie Ballard and Miss Willie Brown. He described the trek initially as a “rowdy, beer-drinkin’ good time,” and it sounds as though that prediction has come true, at least in part. “We’re just out there hittin’ the honkytonks and bars, wherever we can play, and it’s been really fun,” says Jon. “We all get along. It’s a lot of fun, and…it’s just a lot of talent on the stage.”

Since he’s been on the road so much these last several months, he’s not been able to see the inside of his gym as often as he’d like, which is quite the challenge in staying healthy on the road. “My biggest challenge on the road? Putting on the pounds, man,” he says. “Sometimes it just feels good to sleep in, I tell you, instead of waking up and going jogging…and pizza, it’s the pizza man, we had to outlaw pizza, like ‘No more pizza after the shows!’”

Jon is closing in on the Top 25 with his single “Missin’ You Crazy.” 

AUDIO: Jon Pardi talks about the Tie One On Tour.

Jon Pardi (Tie One On Tour) OC: …the stage. :13
“We’re just out there hittin’ the honky tonks and bars, wherever we can play and it’s been really fun. Miss Willie Brown and Frankie Ballard are awesome, we all get along, it’s a lot of fun and everybody’s a solid act. It’s just a lot of talent on the stage.”

AUDIO: Jon Pardi says he’s outlawed pizza after his shows.

Jon Pardi (Eating On The Road) OC: …the shows. :27
“My biggest challenge on the road? Putting on the pounds, man! I’m like, ‘Oh man, whew!’ [I’m] getting a little bit of a…beer belly. But, no, I’m not. It’s hard working out and kind of like managing my time, ’cause sometimes it just feels good to sleep in, I tell you, instead of waking up and going jogging. But other than that, that’s probably the hardest thing. And pizza, it’s the pizza man, we had to outlaw pizza, like ‘No more pizza after the shows!’”

Little Big Town‘s video for “Tornado” will make its world premiere on CMT on Wednesday, October 31st at 6:00 a.m. ET on CMT, repeating every hour throughout music hours.  Leading up to the Halloween-timed premiere, fans can visit CMT and CMT.com for an exclusive trailer launching this Saturday, October 27, as well as a special countdown clock that will run until the video’s debut.

            “Tornado” was filmed in Watertown, Tennessee, and is a highly symbolic, visually eerie and thrilling portrayal of Little Big Town’s latest single and title track “Tornado.” Actor and friend of the band, Johnathon Schaech (That Thing You Do!, Takers, Prom Night) serves as co-star and brooding antagonist to Little Big Town’s sexy and commanding foursome.  With visuals that portray a classic Americana landscape and with dramatic fashion styling, the video of “Tornado” yields the power of its name and is the tale of a woman scorned. “Tornado” was directed by Shane Drake, who has also worked with such artists as Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry and Panic at the Disco.

            Little Big Town will be featured on CMT all week long and will appear on CMT RADIO LIVE WITH CODY ALAN to promote the world premiere on Tuesday, October 30th. “Tornado” will also be highlighted during CMT TOP 20 COUNTDOWN as a Bonus Video on Friday, November 2nd.  The video premiere will be promoted across all of CMT’s digital platforms including CMT.com, CMT Pure, CMT Mobile and over 3 million social media fans.

            Fans can also expect more big news from Little Big Town on Wednesday, October 31st regarding the band’s 2013 tour plans and an exclusive offer from CMT. Check littlebigtown.com and CMT.com at 10 a.m. CT for the news.

The video for Darius Rucker‘s latest single, “True Believers,” makes its debut on AOL’s TheBoot.com today. The South Carolina native immediately thinks of his wife, Beth, whenever he hears the song.

(From The Boot)“It’s the story about a husband and a wife who all their friends said were never going to make it,” he tells CBS Local, “and all these years later all their friends are divorced and they’re still together … It’s a song that’s saying to everybody, ‘Screw you. I know we’re going to make it. Through all the crap, we’re going to be the two that make it.’ And that’s how my wife and I feel. I love the song.”

Click here to see the video.

Luke Bryan picked up a pair of CMA nominations this year, including Male Vocalist and Album of the Year for his platinum-certified tailgates & tanlines, which features three consecutive platinum-selling singles.

The 46th annual CMA Awards will be broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 1st at 8pm ET on ABC.

AUDIO: Luke Bryan talks about his CMA nominations for Male Vocalist and Album of the Year.

Luke Bryan (CMA nominations) OC: …the nominations. :28
“At the end of the day all you want to be is in the game and have some nominations and be in the hunt. At the end of the day, whoever wins, it will be an awesome night. If we win, it’ll be a big deal. It’ll be an amazing night for me and we’ll have the time of our lives and enjoy them. And if we don’t win, we’ll approach the year to try to make the best album [and] the best songs and kinda going from there. For me, it’s always enjoying this and celebrating the nominations.”

AUDIO: Luke Bryan talks about his CMA nomination for Album of the Year for tailgates & tanlines.

Luke Bryan (CMA album) OC: …a big deal. :13
“To put your heart and soul into a record and to have it get nominated for Album of the Year, it’s really special…it makes all the hard work really stand out and really feel like it’s paying off, and it’s a big deal.”

Eric Church leads the list of CMA nominees this year with five. He’s up for Male Vocalist, Album for his platinum-selling Chief, as well as Single, Song and Video of the Year for “Springsteen.”

The 46th annual CMA Awards will broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 1st at 8pm ET on ABC.

AUDIO: Eric Church talks about making his platinum-selling album, Chief.

Eric Church (making of Chief) OC: …its heartbeat. :59
“We have built our career on the backs of our fans. We have not cared what else was going on around us. The other thing, we went and played shows, and we have given those fans the keys to this vehicle, and we said, ‘Drive it!’ And they have told people about it, and they’ve spread the word, and they’ve preached that gospel, and they’ve just become an army out there. This record when we made it, it needed, for me, to sound like a live show. It needed to sound like we had recorded it live, like you were watching something that we didn’t rehearse, that we didn’t think out. And there’s so many tracks on this record, where I am interacting with the musicians, because I am in the room with them, and either I will sing a melody line or the guitar will be playing a melody line, and we’ll pick up on each other, and it will turn into this little jam moment. And that is where the magic happens. We didn’t plan it, we didn’t talk about it, there’s as much unrehearsed magic on this record as we’ve ever had. There’s a lot of mistakes on it, and I think that’s part of a live show. We mess up every night live, and we talk about it after a show. We left it on this record. Those mistakes are in there, and I think that’s what gives it its heartbeat.”

AUDIO: Eric Church explains what the song, “Springsteen,” means to him.

Eric Church (Springsteen) OC: …my favorites. :44
“The interesting thing about this song is it has probably less to do with [Bruce] Springsteen than it is about what’s happening at this amphitheater up on the lawn. I had this experience. If you’ve had this experience, no matter whether you stay together or don’t stay together, when you hear that person’s music whether it’s Springsteen or anybody else, you always think of the person you were with at that show. And I have that. I just thought it was an interesting story about two people falling in love at a concert, and for the rest of their life that’s the soundtrack. That artist is the soundtrack to their love, to that time. I just love that. It makes me feel 17 again every time I hear it, and I think that other people feel the same way. It’s just a track that I’m very, very proud of. It might be my favorite on the record. I mean, I go back and forth between a couple, but that’s one of my favorites.”

AUDIO: Eric Church is shocked at receiving the most nominations for this year’s CMA Awards.

Eric Church (CMA nominations 2012) OC: …get this done. 1:13
“I really don’t know what to say. The funny part of the story is I’ve been on vacation for the last week and I lost my phone in the Gulf of Mexico when I was swimming. And I had no clue that even the CMA nominations were today and just landing on an airplane, and really just been unplugged and not paying attention to what’s going on in the world. I got whisked to my management office and they had a screen up that said we were the most nominated artist, so I’m still a little bit in shock. I’m truly speechless. I think it’s a testament to really fans that believed in the music and loved the music and told people about the music. Otherwise, we don’t really have really the track record to be the most nominated artist at this point in time in our career for the path that we’ve taken. I think it’s truly because of the fans and because they did something that’s, I think, really going to be judged as pretty special and pretty unique that we were able to get this done.”

Dierks Bentley scored three CMA nominations this year, including Album of the Year for Home, as well as Single and Song of the Year for the title track, “Home,” which he co-wrote with Dan Wilson and Brett Beavers.

The 46th annual CMA Awards will broadcast live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena November 1st at 8pm ET on ABC.

AUDIO: Now that he’s a husband and a father, Dierks Bentley says his music, especially the songs included on the album Home, reflects a more well-rounded artist.

Dierks Bentley (Home album portrays real life) OC: …audience out there. :55
“I think if you’re trying to make great country music, I think we’re all trying to make the best records we can and write the best songs and put them together in a way that’s really a cohesive record, you really have to go inside and write about what’s happened to you in your life, at that moment. For me, it’s not like going from one chapter to the next, it’s just, the book keeps evolving.  It’s all a part of the same story. The road, the lifestyle, the partying, the fun and just that energy you feel when you walk on stage – it’s like always being a teenager up there.  You’re still bouncing around like you’re 17 years old. But life for me, I’ve gone through first, second, third, fourth gear. I’m moving up the gears and having a chance to experience more of life and having a couple kids is an amazing experience. Trying to be honest as a person, as a songwriter, and stuff like that is going to make its way into the music. It’s a big part of my life, so those songs get added to the playlist and part of the record, part of who I am and the live show.  I think it just helps, hopefully, to make you a more complete singer/songwriter, a more complete artist and gives you more material to draw from when you’re up there on stage singing to relate to your audience out there.”

AUDIO: Dierks Bentley talks about writing “Home” in the days following the tragic Tucson, Arizona shooting in 2011.

Dierks Bentley (Home & Gabby) OC: …terrible incident. 1:21
“I remember that day so well that Gabby Giffords was shot and the Tucson, Arizona shooting, that terrible, terrible thing. Four days later I was writing with Brett Beavers who I write a lot of songs with and a new guy I had never written with before named Dan Wilson, who’s had a lot of success in different genres of music. I remember going to that writing appointment…We had 2 days planned so we could use this first day to kind of talk about some things and get to know each other…And that day something happened. It was a real magical moment. Something came together where a melody and an idea came out of nowhere and all of us had our inputs. For me, that was weighing heavily on my mind, big time. And it happened that at the same time there was a lot of chatter on TV that had been going on for a while, and there was a lot of really negative stuff back and forth and it really kind of bothers me, and always will when people try to divide the country into two sides. There’s over 300 million people living here. How could there just be two teams? It would be like the NFL having two teams. Like there’s the NFC and AFC – no, there’s several teams. There are several different groups of people but in the end we’re all Americans. I think that’s the most important description of all of us and I think we wanted to write a song that really captured the spirit of this country – the good and the bad. I think it’s an amazing song. I’m really proud of that song and I think to see Gabby make the recovery that she’s made is pretty miraculous. I’m so happy for her and her family and friends. I think it’s a very positive thing to come out of such a terrible incident.”

Dierks Bentley (writing Home) 2 OC: …with this song. 1:06
“[So] we were hanging out for about an hour, getting to know each other, and my wife called, battery’s dead. Typical — that car of hers. I went over and jumped her car, came back over, and Brett and Dan had started this melody, and I thought it was beautiful. Dan had said something about America. He kept thinking, ‘This song feels like America.’ And I was like, ‘Aw man, writing a patriotic song is so difficult. Let’s not do that. Those songs are too hard to write.’ Brett said something about ‘Home,’ and then I think I said something like, ‘the place we all call home.’ Maybe we could write a song about America that’s not overly in your face about it, you know, something that everyone could grab a hold of and feel inspired by. The recession was in full board at this point a year ago, the political nature of this country was as bad as it’s ever been with, basically, Washington D.C. being turned into a football game between two sides and not caring about the fans, the voters, the public at all, just their own internal thing going on there. It’s about now, but it’s a little bit of a history lesson too about what we’ve been through. And at the end of the day, I think it’s inspiring and hopeful, and it’s been a real blessing of a song and one that none of us really could take too much credit for, just inspiration hit. You write that many songs over the course of a year, you might get one of those moments, and we got one with this song.”

Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley and Little Big Town, along with Jason Aldean, have been announced as performers at this year’s American Country Awards. The show will be broadcast live from The Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas December 10th at 8pm ET/PT delayed on FOX.

The People’s Choice Awards are open for nomination voting and the selection for Favorite Country Artist is filled with a handful of stars, including Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Scotty McCreery, Zac Brown Band and Taylor Swift. The show will air January 9th on CBS.

Make sure to wish Keith Urban a Happy Birthday today!

Luke Bryan will be featured on a special All Access Nashville episode of ABC’s 20/20, hosted by Katie Couric. Katie scored interviews with several of country music’s top female artists, including Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Reba and Miranda Lambert. Luke, along with Jason Aldean and Martina McBride, will chat about some of the greatest female country singers of all time.

Luke says with interviews such as this, he wants people to see he’s having a great time, just like he does onstage. All Access Nashville With Katie Couric – A Special Edition of 20/20 will air Friday (October 26th) at 9pm ET on ABC.

AUDIO: Luke Bryan says he hopes fans enjoy his interviews almost as much as they do his performances.

Luke Bryan (All Access) OC: …watching. :35
“You know, I don’t get briefed on questions, and I want people to understand that, or whoever’s interviewing or whoever’s talking to me or whoever’s watching me be interviewed that you’re getting a true person that’s telling you what’s on their brain – if they’re having a good day, a bad day, they’re not putting on a front. When I’m out on stage having the time of my life, everybody else can join in on that fun and let their guard down. For me on an interview as big as that, it’s just having fun in the situation and being yourself and hopefully, people love that type of personality that they’re watching.”

A new promo photo for American Idol has been released (see below), and it features all four judges–Keith Urban, Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj, as well as host Ryan Seacrest. Fox also announced the premiere date for Idol‘s new season, which is actually a two-day event: Wednesday, January 16th and Thursday, January 17th.