Earlier this week, we reported (along with everyone else) that Willie Nelson’s pot charges in Texas were going to be reduced to a $100 fine if he would just show up in the courtroom and sing his great song, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.”  Turns out that was just a “joke that got out of hand,” say authorities in the Texas court system handling the case.  There was some grumbling that the judge wasn’t going to let Willie settle the whole thing through the mail, someone made the comment sarcastically, and the news outlets of the world picked it up as fact.  So the real deal is that Willie will indeed be able to settle the charge by mail.

This should be cool:  Darius Rucker will be performing a song on the ACMs that was created under very unique circumstances:  “Music From the Heart” was written at the ACM lifting lives summer camp last year by a group of about 25 developmentally disabled young adults with the help of two bigtime Nashville songwriters.  On Sunday, Darius will sing the song with help from those 25 song co-writers.  Have the hankies ready.

It’s a term I made up to describe Shania Twain’s stalker, the guy who was arrested at the Juno awards this week just after Shania was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.  His name is Giovanni Palumbo, and he’s a doctor!  Yes, even Shania’s stalkers are rich.  At one point in the 90s he even made enough money to owe $500,000 in back taxes.  But like all stalker stories, there’s a sad side to this whole thing.  Up until about ten years ago, this guy had a wife, three kids, and a big house, but then he had some kind of psychotic break and everything fell apart.  That’s when his obsession with Shania began, and he was soon showing up all over the place, at her houses in Canada, at her grandma’s funeral, trying to convince the superstar that they were meant to be.  Hence the restraining order, which is why they were able to arrest him on the floor of the Juno Awards ceremony earlier this week and throw him in jail.  End of sad story.

US Weekly did a number on Miranda Lambert…one of those “25 Things You Don’t Know About Me” interviews, and here’s what she said:

1. I have had my ears pierced only once.
2. I hate beets.
3. I played shortstop on my Little League softball team.
4. I don’t know how to make gravy.
5. I used to collect bells — now it’s salt and pepper shakers.
6. I have more than one tattoo.
7. I have been bitten by a dog.
8. I like rainy days in winter.
9. In sixth grade, I was voted most likely to be a country singer.
10. My family is Irish and Indian.
11. I want Carrie Underwood’s legs!
12. I’m learning to barrel race.
13. I don’t like spicy food.
14. I played Annie Oakley in a high school play.
15. I have a birthmark on my leg.
16. I once had a conversation, a real one, with my mean cat about her attitude. Didn’t work.
17. I don’t like my profile.
18. I love the band Audioslave.
19. I don’t like swimming in the ocean, only looking at it.
20. Snakes freak me out
21. I have never broken a bone.
22. I get motion sickness if I do anything besides look out the front window while moving.
23. I’m named after my great grandma Lucy Miranda.
24. I don’t know how to play poker.
25. Don’t talk to me before I have coffee. Period.

So now you know!

Yep, it’s true.  Chris Young, who is usually always seen in a hat, has started performing without it, and it turns out he has a full head of hair!  Why are we all so surprised, he asks,  “I’m only 25!”  I think it’s from years of bald-head-hiding hat acts like Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney.  We all just tend to assume nowadays.  Well for the record, I think he actually looks cuter without the hat, not that he asked me.

So clever, am I not?  Because the pop star who just released a country version of her song is none other than Lady Gaga.  Kind of that last person I would ever think of to do a country song, but she’s taken her current hit, “Born This Way,” and turnted it into what she’s calling the “country roads” version.  (In case you haven’t heard the song, it’s the one that got criticized for sounding exactly like Madonna’s song “Express Yourself.”)  So what do you think?  It’s no less country than, say, a Kid Rock song, but it’s Lady Gaga. 

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It’s The Donald, Donald Trump.  According to John Rich, who is currently competing in Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice, says that Trump recently told him that basically Trace Adkins was nobody until he did the Celebrity Apprentice a few seasons back,and that now he’s huge thanks to the show.  Forget about the multiplatinum albums, the number one hits, Donald Trump MADE Trace.  John Rich says that he was about to debate the issue until he remembered that he was in a competition that he wants to win, so he just said, “Yes, sir, he sure was!”

Isn’t she a pop star from the Bahamas?  Yes.  So of all of the country acts that could be doing some kind of musical event with a non-country act, who pops up in your mind?  Sugarland?  Me, too.  And we’re right.  They’ve already collaborated with Beyonce on one awards show, and with the B-52s on another.  So yep, it’s Rihanna singing her new song, “California King Bed”, with a little help from Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush.  As they are both singers who like to make a lot of random sounds while they sing, this could get really interesting!

Elizabeth’s Taylor’s passing was big news yesterday, so I did a little digging to find out if she had any country music connections.  Turns out she was pals with Kenny Rogers, who featured her in one of his photo books (see cover above).  She was also close with Johnny Cash, who was born one day before she was.  Johnny’s daughter Roseanne remembers that every single year, Taylor used to send her dad a telegram that said, “Remember, I’m younger than you!”  And if you are old enough to remember the Statler brothers, you might remember their big hit, “Elizabeth,” which was actually written after watching her in the movie “Giant.”

She says she is dying to have a baby with her new husband, Jay Barker (they have 7 between them!), but after having three of her own, she knows that she despises being pregnant.  So she says she was inspired by what Keith and Nicole did, and she now wants to hire a surrogate to have a baby for her.  Jay’s against it, but she’s so gung-ho she even offered a few family members $20,000 to carry the baby for her.  So far no takers.  How about you, would you carry a country star’s baby for $20k?