Nash Country Daily has confirmed that Jerrod Niemann and Morgan Petek have divorced after more than four years of marriage.
Morgan filed for divorce on June 18, 2018, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
The divorce became final on December 17, 2018.
According to the final divorce decree, Jerrod paid his wife a “$170,000 cash lump sum.” Both parties retained their personal cars, while Morgan assumed total possession of a Nashville house she paid the mortgage on. Jerrod was awarded assets in a family trust, including a Nashville property. Neither party is entitled to alimony or spousal support. Jerrod retained complete ownership of the two LLCs related to his music career.
The couple, which married in October 2014 in Puerto Rico, do not have any children together.
Jerrod released his most recent album, This Ride, in 2017. He has scored a trio of Top 10 hits over the last decade, including “Lover, Lover,” “What Do You Want” and “Drink to That All Night.”
Trisha Yearwood released her first full-length studio album in more than 10 years on Feb. 15 with Let’s Be Frank, a collection of tune made famous by Frank Sinatra.
Trisha recorded 11 of Sinatra’s tracks live with a 55 piece orchestra at the iconic Capitol Records building in Hollywood using Sinatra’s microphone and sitting on the same stool where he sat while recording the originals.
With a recording career that spanned more than 50 years—and 59 albums—Sinatra’s catalog of work is formidable, but, as Trisha says, she went with her instincts when creating her collection.
“I went through and kind of highlighted classic Frank songs that you have to do—and then my favorite songs that I have to do,” says Trisha. “And I remember the first sit-down meeting with [producer] Don Was, and he said, ‘Ok, right now, just write down 12 songs. If you had to pick 12, what would they be?’ And, honestly, this album turned out to be 11 of the 12! And the twelfth song ended up being an original song [“For the Last Time”] that I wrote with Garth, which I never intended to be on the record. It just kind of found its way because it seemed to fit.”
To celebrate the release of the new album, Trisha hosted a signing party at William Sonoma in New York City on Feb. 14, performed at NYC’s Rainbow Room and stopped by Live With Kelly & Ryan on Feb. 15.
During her Grammy acceptance speech for Best Country Album for Golden Hour on Feb. 10, Kacey Musgraves shared some heartfelt sentiments about her singer/songwriter husband, Ruston Kelly.
“My sweet husband is down here, Ruston—I love you,” said Kacey from the stage. “I really believe I wouldn’t have this album if I hadn’t met you and you didn’t open my heart like you did, so thank you so much.”
The future lovebirds initially met at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe in March 2016, after one of Ruston’s shows. A few months later, they got together for a songwriting session—and the rest is history. Kacey and Ruston got engaged in December 2016, before tying the knot in October 2017.
“First of all, it was his songs,” says Kacey. “This is such a Nashville story, but it was February, early March 2016, and I had nothing to do one night and I was randomly in town. I had just taken time off the road to just stay in town and write and start getting creative again, kind of get back to my creative center. This one night in particular, I didn’t have any plans. A friend was playing a songwriter round at the Bluebird and they were like, ‘You should come.’ So I went alone and sat at a table. Ruston was playing in the songwriting round and I had no idea who he was. But he played these songs, and they just really got to me. They floored me. I was kind of in a sad headspace around this time. I had just gotten out of a relationship and creatively was kind of lost. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and I just felt kind of weird.
“Anyways, his songs really spoke to me and I loved them so much. After the show, I went up to him and I said, ‘Hey, I never do this, but I really love your songs. Here’s my number. We should write sometime.’ That’s not like me to really step out on a limb like that. I definitely wasn’t even thinking in romantic terms. I just was really intrigued by his songs and his brain. I said we should write. So a few months went by and he would try to text me every now and then. I’d be like, delete. Whatever. I wasn’t looking for anything.
“But May 11th rolled around, 2016. I remember the date, May 11th. And he was coming to my house to write. The second he walked in my door, it was like just Dorothy walking into the colorful side of Wizard of Oz. He made me laugh again. I hadn’t laughed in what felt like forever. We made drinks, and we didn’t even get to writing because we were just talking about life and ourselves into the night. Just really hit it off. It just felt like, ‘Whoa, who is this? This is my best friend. Where have you been? Who are you?’ I wasn’t trying to get into any kind of relationship. I was like, ‘Damnit.’ But this is awesome. And then we dated for eight or nine months, got engaged. We were engaged for another nine months, and then we got married in October.”
The Brothers Osborne—John and TJ—released a new video for their single, “I Don’t Remember Me (Before You),” which is currently No. 52 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart after 13 weeks.
The new tune, which was penned by John, TJ, Matt Dragstrem and Shane McAnally, is the second single from the duo’s 2018 album, Port Saint Joe, following lead single, “Shoot Me Straight.”
The new video centers around a professional bull rider who struggles to get his life back on track as he battles substance abuse. Once again, Brothers Osborne teamed with directors Wes Edwards and Ryan Silver (“It Ain’t My Fault” and “Shoot Me Straight”) for the new video.
“We’re very excited to release this emotional example of someone’s life being changed by another,” says John. “We’re never truly ourselves without the ones we love.”
“Wes and Ryan knocked this video out of the park,” says TJ. “We’re beyond proud of this one.”
A number of country stars in the Warner Music Nashville stable took the stage at Omni’s Broadway Ballroom for the WMN Lunch at Country Radio Seminar in Nashville on Feb. 13. Country Radio Seminar (CRS) is Nashville’s annual gathering of radio programmers, music executives, media and more.
Performers at the inaugural event included Blake Shelton, Dan + Shay, Devin Dawson, Morgan Evans, Cody Johnson, Ashley McBryde, Chris Janson and Cole Swindell.
In addition, Dierks Bentley presented Blake Shelton with the Country Radio Seminar Artist Humanitarian award, which was created in 1990 by the organization’s board to honor country music artists who have exhibited exceptional humanitarian efforts during their career. Past recipients of the annual award have included Dierks Bentley, Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Trace Adkins, Randy Owen, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, Reba, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks and Charlie Daniels, among others.
Blake’s recent philanthropic endeavors include raising money for children’s hospitals, tornado victims and flood victims.
“The cool thing about country artists is that I feel like we all step up anytime we get a chance,” Blake said. “We have the easy part. We get to make music and that helps to generate awareness for certain things, it generates money for things. [We] step up anytime we get a chance. I couldn’t be more honored.”
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Fueled by five double-figure scorers, No. 1 Tennessee continued its winning ways Wednesday night, defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks, 85-73, in Thompson-Boling Arena.
The victory marked the ninth time in Southeastern Conference that play the Vols (23-1, 11-0 SEC) have won by double digits and the second time they have done so against South Carolina (12-12, 7-4 SEC).
National Player of the Year candidate Admiral Schofield led the way with a game-high 21-point performance while grabbing a team-high 10 boards for his fourth double-double of the season.
Tennessee extends its winning streak to a record 19 games while pushing its win streak in SEC regular-season games to 15. UT’s now has its best start in SEC play, starting 11-0 to best the 1976-77 team’s 10-0 conference start.
The Vols had a balanced offense throughout the game, as every player who played more than three minutes scored and had at least one assist. National Player of the Year candidate Grant Williams led the team with seven assists to go along with eight points and nine rebounds.
After taking a 13-point lead into the second half, the Vols maintained their double-digit lead throughout the rest of the game. Tennessee started out the second half on fire from the field, knocking down five of its first six shots to build the lead out to 62-46 at the 15:16 mark.
Schofield scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half, scoring eight of the team’s final 10 points in the game to put away the Gamecocks.
Both teams traded buckets to open the first seven minutes of action before Tennessee took control of the game. With UT trailing 15-12 at the 12:48 mark, a Lamonte Turner 3-pointer sparked a 27-6 run, putting the Vols firmly in control of the game.
In the midst of the run, UT knocked down all five of its attempts from behind the arc. Tennessee started the game 6-of-7 from deep with a trio of makes coming from SEC Sixth Man of the Year candidate Jordan Bowden.
The junior from Knoxville led the Vols in scoring in the opening stanza, contributing nine points.
After being up by as many as 18 points in the first 20 minutes, Tennessee took a 49-36 lead into halftime.
Sweeps Week: Over the past eight days, Tennessee has completed season sweeps of Missouri, Florida and South Carolina. The Vols will attempt to complete a season sweep of Vanderbilt next Tuesday at home.
Swat Team: With three blocks against South Carolina, Grant Williams moved into Tennessee’s top five in career blocks with a total of 143 blocked shots, surpassing Dyron Nix (142).
Williams joined teammate Kyle Alexander in the top five. Alexander, who ranks second all-time in Tennessee history, has 167 career blocks.
AD Double-Double: Admiral Schofield’s 21-point, 10-rebound outing against South Carolina was his ninth-career double-double and his fourth this season. Schofield’s double-double is the 15th this season by a Tennessee player. Grant Williams leads the Vols with five such performances this season.
Dimes a Dozen: Tennessee dished out 22 assists (on 34 made baskets) as a team against South Carolina, surpassing 20 assists for the 12th time this season. Entering Wednesday night, the Vols led the nation in assists with an average of 19.9 per game.
Williams’ World: Despite scoring just eight points, Grant Williams contributed to Tennessee’s win over South Carolina in other statistical categories. Williams finished the game with eight points, nine rebounds, seven assists and three blocks. His efficiency rating of 23 led all Tennessee players, and marked his 18th game this season with an efficiency rating of 20 or better.
Up Next: Tennessee travel to Lexington Kentucky, on Saturday for a top-five matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats. Tipoff at Rupp Arena is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley of Florida Georgia Line are making the media rounds in preparation of the Feb. 15 release of their new studio album, Can’t Say I Ain’t Country, which will be their fourth studio album with Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Records (or its former imprint, Republic Nashville).
Tyler and Brian stopped by the Blair Garner Show on Feb. 12 for an interview that will air on Feb. 22, revealing to the host that they have one more record left on their Big Machine contract after the release of Can’t Say I Ain’t Country. And it sounds like T-Hubb and BK are going to test the free agency market when the contract expires in 2020, much like Taylor Swift, who was Big Machine’s flagship artist. In 2018, Taylor left Big Machine for Universal Music Group after releasing six studio albums with Borchetta.
As Blair and FGL were talking about the vast number of songs the duo recorded for the new album, some of which didn’t make the final track list, Brian and Tyler hinted at testing the market in 2020.
The excerpt below is an exclusive clip Nash Country Daily obtained:
“Is there going to be a day, then, that we will have the Unreleased Florida Georgia Line [album], because you certainly must have recorded and probably even went through the process of mastering all that stuff?” asks Blair.
“Probably when we own a hundred percent of it, Blair,” says Brian, as the duo begins to laugh. “Probably about a couple years from now.”
“You don’t own all your stuff?” asks Blair.
“Not far off,” says Brian.
“We still got a record deal, Blair,” says Tyler.
“We’re with Big Machine,” says Brian.
“Well, I know. He’s giving me a little wink, there. How much more in the contract?” asks Blair.
“Well, a year from this Friday [Feb. 15],” says Brian. “I don’t care. Start the bidding war, baby. Nah, we have one more record and we can release that a year from Friday.”
Big Machine’s current stable of country artists include Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum, Sugarland, Carly Pearce, Brett Young, Midland and more. From an outside perspective, Florida Georgia Line certainly appears to be Big Machine’s cash cow right now.
You can listen to Blair’s entire interview with Florida Georgia Line on The Blair Garner Show on Feb. 22.
The Academy of Country Music announced four events and more than 20 participating artists for ACM’s 7th annual Party for a Cause, which will take place at select venues in Las Vegas on April 5–7 in conjunction with the ACM Awards on April 7.
Artists taking part in scheduled events include Lauren Alaina, Rhett Akins, Rodney Atkins, Ross Copperman, Easton Corbin, Morgan Evans, Walker Hayes, Chris Lane, Maddie & Tae, Shane McAnally, Ashley McBryde, Scotty McCreery, Lori McKenna, Michael Ray, Runaway June, Darius Rucker, Dylan Scott, Mitchell Tenpenny and Brett Young.
ACM Party for a Cause events support ACM Lifting Lives, the charitable arm of the Academy of Country Music.
ACM Stories, Songs & Stars
April 5, 7:30 p.m.
Location: Marquee Ballroom, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Talent: Rhett Akins, Ross Copperman, Ashley Gorley, Shane McAnally, Lori McKenna, Chase McGill, Josh Osborne and more
ACM Lifting Lives Topgolf Tee-Off
April 6, 10 a.m.
Location: Topgolf Las Vegas, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Talent: Hosted by Darius Rucker and Scotty McCreery, plus performances by Morgan Evans, Chris Lane, Scotty McCreery and more
ACM Decades
April 6, 7 p.m.
Location: Marquee Ballroom, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Talent: Lauren Alaina, Carlton Anderson, Rodney Atkins, Easton Corbin, Jordan Davis, Tracy Lawrence, Maddie & Tae, Jamie O’Neal, Carly Pearce, Michael Ray, Mitchell Tenpenny and more
ACM Awards Official After Party
April 7, 8 p.m.
Location: Marquee Ballroom, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
Talent: Hosted by Shawn Parr and Big Kenny, plus performances by Jimmie Allen, Big Kenny, Brantley Gilbert, Adam Hambrick, Caylee Hammack, Walker Hayes, AJ McLean, Cassadee Pope, Runaway June, Dylan Scott, Brett Young and more
![Trisha Yearwood Hosts “Let’s Be Frank” Album Release Party in NYC [Photo Gallery]](https://cdn.socast.io/6616/sites/1446/2019/02/15083205/Trisha-Yearwood-AFF.jpg#aqua_resizer_image_not_local)
