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Chris Young notches four billion career streams as “Famous Friends” continues to climb

• No Comments • Country Music News

Jeff JohnsonChris Young hit a major milestone this week, as he officially achieved four billion career streams. That feat encompasses his entire career to date, since releasing his 2006 debut studio album.

Since then, the singer has racked up 11 chart-topping country radio hits, and he’s now setting his sights on a potential 12th. His current single and duet with Kane Brown, “Famous Friends,” is currently inside the Billboard Country Airplay’s Top 30 and rising.

In fact, as his streaming number passed the four billion mark, Chris and Kane were at work on a music video for their new song. Chris teased a picture and a video snippet from their time on set together, both of which showed the two country stars sitting together in a car.

“Famous Friends” is the third single to come off of Chris’ next studio album, following “Raised on Country” and “Drowning.” The singer officially put out the song in late 2020, after he and Kane had both been teasing it for over a year.

Speaking of “Famous Friends,” Chris and Kane are longtime buddies in real life, not just in song. They toured together in 2018, and Chris also appears on “Setting the Night on Fire,” a track on the deluxe version of Kane’s self-titled debut album.


By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'Queer Eye' star Karamo Brown is ready to start dating again: "I want to be married"

• No Comments • Entertainment News

Courtesy of Karamo(LOS ANGELES) — After breaking up with longtime love Ian Jordan, Queer Eye star Karamo Brown revealed how he’s getting back into the dating game a year after the heartbreak.

Previously, the Dancing with the Stars alum joked he was willing to jump onto another ABC show, The Bachelor, but tells Just the Sip podcast, “That will not be happening.”

“For me, being 40 now, dating is such an intimate thing,” Karamo said Tuesday, explaining that he wants something that is built to last.

“I was in a place where I was ready to get married and I’m still in that place,” the TV personality confessed. “I just broke up the man I was with, but I wake up every day and I literally yearn. I’m that guy who wants marriage.”

As it turns out, he wants to be married sooner rather than later.

“I need to know that whoever I’m dating, we’re on the same page because truth be told—and you’ll hear this first—by 2023, I gotta be married,” Brown laughed. “I want to be married… I don’t have time to play.  I know what I want.”

Still, he is not looking forward to dating again, noting the landscape has drastically changed over the past decade.

Beyond marriage, Karamo revealed that he wants to have more children so that his sons Jason and Chris can have siblings.

“You know, I didn’t get the opportunity to have my son when he was a baby; I got him when he was 10,” he said. “I want a little baby, and now I have the financial resources, I have security in my life, I could do it.”

If he could pick, the Emmy nominee wants to add twin girls to his family, gushing, ” think they’d be so cute… I’d spoil them.”

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Dierks Bentley shares why he opted for Denver as Whiskey Row’s next destination

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Monfort CompaniesDierks Bentley officially broke ground on the fourth location of his Whiskey Row gastropub this week, and for the first time, the venue is headed for a place other than Dierks’ home state of Arizona or his adopted hometown of Nashville.

Whiskey Row’s newest iteration will instead be located in downtown Denver, Colorado, in the middle of the bustling Ballpark neighborhood.

As his team was officially breaking ground on the new site, Dierks explained that there’s quite a bit of significance behind the new location for his franchise.

“It’s really meaningful to me to open up a Whiskey Row in Denver, a city I’ve come to love from the many concerts and visits to the Rocky Mountains over the years,” he said. “We’re very selective in the places we choose, and I’m honored to build something that will contribute to what’s happening down here in the Ballpark neighborhood for years to come.”

Dierks has found a lot of reasons to spend time in Colorado over the past few years. His 2018 studio album, The Mountain, was largely written and recorded in Telluride, and his annual Seven Peaks Music Festival takes place in Buena Vista.

Plus, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Dierks and his family took an extended vacation away from Nashville, spending the bulk of the year in Colorado instead.

Dierks adds that his new Whiskey Row location is just another reason to spend time in the state.

“Selfishly, this gives me a great excuse to come back to Colorado to visit, and of course, play some live music here when it’s safe,” he adds.

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Michael Cudlitz on getting to know his character, and escaping COVID, with 'Clarice'

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Brooke Palmer ©2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved(NEW YORK) — The Walking Dead and Southland vet Michael Cudlitz stars as straitlaced FBI Agent Paul Krendler in CBS’ new Silence of the Lambs spin-off, Clarice. And while fans may be pulling for Rebecca Breeds’ newbie agent Clarice Starling right off the bat, Krendler doesn’t trust her.

“And why should he at this point?” Cudlitz asks ABC Audio rhetorically.

The show takes place in 1993, a year after the events of Lambs, in which the young trainee Starling ended up finding and killing the serial killer dubbed Buffalo Bill, with the help of Hannibal Lecter, the brilliant incarcerated psychiatrist with a taste for human liver.  

“She’s just had one lucky thing, she’s been foisted on him and his group, his hand-picked group,” Cudlitz says of his character’s relationship with Clarice. “He doesn’t want her there…And he’s the guy in charge.” 

Fans of the show have playfully taken the actor to task for it on Twitter, Cudlitz laughs, adding, “Some of ’em ask, ‘Are you going become less of an a-hole?’ And I was like, ‘Watch the show!'” 

Incidentally, although the show is produced under strict COVID-19 protocols, it’s a period piece, so viewers won’t be seeing any masks on its leads.

“Somebody actually tweeted about that and they say, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s so nice to be in a world where they don’t even address the COVID,’ and I understood it,” Cudlitz says.

“…You live your whole life in reality every day with the masks in and out…But you don’t necessarily want to come home and see it on your entertainment…And so we are an escape from that.”

However, he adds with a laugh, “I don’t know if it’s the laugh riot you’re looking for tonally!”  

Clarice airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Kane Brown launches Verse 2 Music, a co-venture with Sony Music Publishing

• No Comments • Country Music News

ABC/Image Group LALess than a month after launching his own label, 1021 Entertainment, Kane Brown is adding another new endeavor to his resume.

The country superstar has announced the launch of Verse 2 Music, his own publishing company, which is a joint venture with Sony Music Publishing Nashville. According to Billboard, who broke the news, Kane also signed a worldwide publishing deal with Sony this week.

It’s Kane’s latest step as an entrepreneur: Verse 2 Music will focus on developing a diverse roster of new artists and songwriters across all genres.

Kane’s focus on diversity is at the forefront of 1021 Entertainment, too: His flagship act is Restless Road, a pop-inspired country trio that was also Kane’s opening act on tour prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns.

“I want to provide opportunities,” the singer explains of the motivation behind launching his new venture. “As an entertainer, I love being able to take people I believe in out on the road with me, or be able to help them find a moment that makes a difference in their career. I also want to work with great people. We are a family.”

By Carena Liptak
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.