If you’re tailgating at Zac Brown’s Portland show on Sept 16th, keep an eye out for a dude cruising around on a Harley.  It’s probably Zac himself!  He says that his new favorite way to get a feel for what’s happening at his shows is to put on a helmet and cruise around on his hog.  ”Nobody knows who I am,” he says. ”I can ride right through the tailgating with a helmet on, and it’s just like you’re invisible.”  Obviously not as much tailgating happens at the coliseum as it does someplace outside like Sleep Country Amp, but I did see some partiers in the parking lot at Kenny Chesney last weekend.  Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for Zac, and your ears peeled (gross!) for the wolftones this weekend to win tickets to the September show.  They go on sale today, by the way.

Chris Young was on Jimmy Kimmel’s show this week, and if you blinked you might have missed a wedding proposal.  Chris’ bass player Steve had a shirt on that said, “Missy, Marry Me?”  Turns out it was for real!  Chris tweeted to confirm it.  Mike thinks this is not the best way to propose, since they weren’t even in the same room together.  I think it’s kind if sweet because the guy is probably on tour, and misses her, and wanted to do something original and clever.  Either way, she said yes, so she must have liked it just fine.

Two tidbits today came from police blotters across this great land of ours:

The first one is courtesy of Brad Paisley.  Remember I told you that more than 60 people were arrested at his recent show in Connecticut?  Brad has called them out a bit by tweeting a list from the local paper of everyone arrested, including their names and what they were arrested for (mostly underage drinking, but some other stuff, too).   His message said “Quite a performance in Darrien Lakes Saturday. We also played music.”  I get the feeling Brad would prefer it if his fans weren’t acting up in such a way and ruining things for the other ticketholders.

Tim McGraw has a habit of stopping his show to kick out rowdy audience members, so why didn’t he do anything about this one?  Four guys are still on the loose after Tim’s recent show in Buffalo, where they beat up a 19 year-old kid who had to be hospitalized.  They punched him, then kicked him while he was down.  Nice.  Obviously Tim didn’t see it or he would have probably had them tarred and feathered right there on stage.   Police are seeking any info they can get to try and bust these a-holes.

He looks like he's going to kick some butt, doesn't he?

Eric Church, that’s who.  I have to admit I’m surprised that he’s on track to sell more copies of his new CD “Chief” this week than Blake sold during his first week with “Red River Blue.”  So even with Blake’s sudden superstar status thanks to  ”The Voice” and “The Marriage” to Miranda Lambert, Eric Church is going to have higher numbers, with an expected 120-130,000 copies sold (Blake sold 116,000).  Like Blake, Eric will be at the top of the Billboard 200, which means he’s got the top CD of any kind of music this week.  So congratulations to secret superstar Eric Church!

OK, you heard the song “She’s Going Places,” that was a tribute to little Caylee Anthony and was supposedly written by Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox, along with Cledus T. Judd and another guy. So Caylee’s grandparents, George and Cindy, were using this as an excuse to request a meet and greet with Rascal Flatts, to express their gratitude (a thank-you note wouldn’t do the job, I guess.) I was pretty sure the Flatts boys would pass on this opportunity, but now I’m quite sure, since it turns out Gary didn’t actually write Caylee’s song. He did write a song with Cledus and the other songwriter a year or so ago, and then Cledus took that song and totally revamped it into a song about Caylee. So that’s how Gary’s name got mixed up into this whole thing on CNN and pretty much everywhere else, including right here in my tidbits.  But in terms of actually writing a song for Caylee,  Gary had nothing to do with it.  End of story. It’s still a nice story, and you can still get it on itunes and feel good, because all the money goes to charity.

Here’s Tim McGraw’s latest movie.  It’s called “Dirty Girl,” and it opens next Friday.  There’s an interesting twist to this plot, which may be why Tim decided to do the movie.   It’s 1987, and the main character, branded a “dirty girl” in her high school, finds out her dad isn’t who she thinks he is and heads out on a road trip with a gay male fellow-outcast.  Then when she finds her “real dad,” it’s none other than Tim McGraw!  (This is all in the trailer below, by the way, so I’m not spoiling anything.) What makes this interesting is Tim’s real-life story, which as you probably know involves growing up believing someone else was his dad, then learning that his real dad was a famous baseball player.  Tim is not a famous guy in this movie so far as I can tell, but he’s at least a little more handsome and glamorous than her real dad.  Check it all out below…

in happier times…

Let’s get this straight right off the bat:  We love Sara Evans.  She’s always been kind to us over the years, and we’ve got nothing against her.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for her ex-husband, Craig Schelske, who lives right here in this area.  In his continuing battle for custody of their three kids, Craig is now presenting evidence from a young woman who was Sara’s back-up singer/nanny on tour while Sara and Craig were still married.  This person says she has video of Sara and tourmates doing “illegal” things and trying to get her to do them as well (she was 16 at the time).  She also says that Sara confided in her about having “personal time” with Kenny Chesney on his bus, and that he supposedly “exposed his privates” to Sara!!!

Okay, okay, let’s calm down and examine this fairly:  Firstly, Craig has tried going to court to get the kids away from Sara while she’s touring and he’s never succeeded.  So now, this evidence may be his strongest case yet, but we haven’t seen this “footage”, and right now all we have is that the singer/nanny has passed two out of three lie detector tests (administered by some detective in St. Louis).  I’m a bit suspicious of all of this, possibly because Craig’s team releases regular press releases about this instead of handling this private matter privately.  And the singer/nanny has a publicist and is trying to start a singing career herself, so there’s that.  But of course, we don’t know what really happened.  Just letting you know the particulars of an ugly story that’s out there, and if anything is ever proven, we will certainly let you know.

For years there has been a rumor about Dolly Parton, and it turns out that it’s true! A fan really did once leave a live baby on her doorstep.  Can you imagine???!!!  It was back in the 70s when Dolly’s song “Jolene” was a big hit.  The baby was left there in a box, with a note that read, “My name is Jolene, my mama has left me here, and she wants you to have me.”  How crazy is that?  Dolly says, “Of course we all freaked out.”  And they did the right thing, which was to call Human Services and have the baby go through the proper channels of adoption, etc.  As Dolly says, It wasn’t like it was a kitten or a puppy.  It was a baby named Jolene!”

So you remember this song that Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox wrote with Cledus T. Judd?  It’s about little Caylee Anthony, and it’s a heartbreaker.  The good news about this song is that if you buy it from itunes, ALL of the money goes toward charities that help kids.  No one is profiting from it.  Especially not the Anthonys.  Unless, of course, Gary LeVox agrees to meet with Caylee’s grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony, who have taken this song as an excuse to request a meet and greet with the singer and his band. They want to let him know how much they appreciate it, and I guess a thank-you note won’t do the trick…Gary won’t know how much they appreciate it until he’s posed for a photo with them and signed an autograph for them. Sorry, my sarcasm is showing. But really, I find this request tacky. While the band hasn’t decided what to do yet, I have a feeling they’ll find a way to decline this one.