Ella Langley is hitting the pause button on her touring schedule to focus on her health. She said that weeks of fighting illness and feeling, “more run down than ever” pushed her to postpone the rest of her August shows. That includes dates with Morgan Wallen and Riley Green. “I’ve made the hard decision to take a couple of weeks to rest and focus on my health . . . mind, body, and heart. I want to be fully present for all the moments ahead and I know I can’t do that without first taking care of myself.” She ended her post with “I’ll be back on the road in September, ready to give you my all.”
Morgan Wallen keeps on breaking records. His album “I’m the Problem” returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart . . . which means he has a total of 39 nonconsecutive weeks at the #1 spot. He’s now tied with Elton John with the fourth-most weeks among male solo artists. But that wasn’t all. Morgan is now the only act in HISTORY to spend at least 10 weeks at #1 with three consecutive full-length albums. Only six acts in history have ever had at least three albums that have spent 10 weeks at #1. The Beatles and Elvis Presley have four albums each . . . and Whitney Houston, The Kingston Trio, Taylor Swift, and Morgan are now all tied with three.
Carly Pearce just did a “Get Ready with Me” on her TikTok, but this time it was with ONE HAND. Because she recently cut her thumb pretty bad and had to go to the hospital to get stitches. Here’s what she said, “So last night I was getting ready to eat dinner after my show, and I went to open a bottle of ranch dressing, and when I went to open the bottle of ranch, it snapped off and a piece of glass cut my thumb . . .”All of a sudden I thought ketchup was running down my hand and it actually was blood.” The paramedics on site thought she needed stitches, so they wanted to take her to the nearest hospital. But she didn’t know the policy that when you take a ride in an ambulance you need to be strapped down on the stretcher and loaded into the back. So, she was a little embarrassed that there was all this hoopla just because she wanted some ranch dressing.
The songwriters of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” originally wanted Johnny Cash to record it. John Denver eventually got a songwriting credit on the finished product, but Johnny’s version would’ve taken on an entirely different vibe. Here are some other famous country songs that were almost recorded by other artists:
- “Where the Wild Things Are” by Luke Combs . . . This was pitched to Eric Church, but he passed.
- “Drink a Beer” by Luke Bryan was actually written by Chris Stapleton . . . And it was first pitched to Dierks Bentley, but he passed.
- “Big Green Tractor” by Jason Aldean . . . It was first pitched to Jake Owen but he said it wouldn’t be authentic to sing about something he didn’t relate to, so he passed. Jake’s brother then reminded him, “Johnny Cash did not shoot a man in Reno.” And now when Jake gets pitched a good song, he takes it.
- “The House That Built Me” by Miranda Lambert . . . It was supposed to be recorded by her then-husband Blake Shelton, but he saw how much Miranda connected to it, and gave it to her.
- “Chicken Fried” by Zac Brown Band . . . Alan Jackson was planning on recording it, but he had just cut another song called “Where I Come From” that mentioned fried chicken, so he passed.
Casey Affleck is 50.
Pete Sampras is 54. Tennis stud married to Bridgette Wilson.
Mark Knopfler is 76. Dire Straits god.
George Hamilton is 86.
