For the people that say Chris Stapleton can sing anything – here’s another example of them being right!
Chris is one of the many artists who added their vocals to the charity album The Metallica Blacklist.
The profits for Chris’ contribution to the project will be split 50/50 between Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation and Outlaw State of Kind – which is Chris and MorganeStapleton’s charitable fund that supports a variety of causes that are close to their heart. The Outlaw State of Kind Fund was founded in 2016 and is administered by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
Chris along with 52 other artists – including Darius Rucker, Jon Pardi & Miley Cyrus – contributed to the charity album, The Metallica Blacklist which features each musical act giving their own special twist to the music of Metallica‘s classic Black album – for Chris, his track is an amazing reworking of the song “Nothing Else Matters” which you can hear here…
Chris is also climbing the country music chart with his current single “You Should Probably Leave”…
Maren Morris added to her resume this week as she stepped in as a guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Jimmy Kimmel took the summer off to spend time with his family, he shared, “There’s nothing wrong, I’m healthy, my family’s healthy, I just need a couple of months off.”
So, while he’s off on summer vacation, the show must go on – and on it goes with guest hosts like Modern Family’s Julie Bowen, Will and Grace‘s Sean Hayes, and many more to be announced.
But this week kicked off with Maren in the host chair, and she did a great job…which started with a laugh filled monologue, that mixed her comedic talents along with her singing abilities…
During her guest hosting duties on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Maren got to interview one of her idols – Willie Nelson.
Maren also got to chat with Real HousewifeSutton Strackle…
and Megan Stalter from Hacks – one of Maren’s current favorite shows appeared on JKL! with Maren as host.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Heavy rain from remnants of Tropical Storm Fred greeted Tennessee football at its second and final preseason scrimmage on Tuesday morning, allowing the Volunteers to focus on ball security and building toughness.
Tennessee scrimmaged for less than two hours in conditions that could be common on a Saturday in the fall. The Vols also dressed at Neyland Stadium and went through warmups, simulating a normal game day.
“We got a chance to get out there in the rain and some adverse weather there,” head coach Josh Heupel said. “I thought special teams (and) offensively (we) handled it pretty well for the most part of the day.
“Game day, you wake up (and) no matter what the weather report has said throughout the course of the week, you’ve got to play in the elements that you’ve got. We will play in a rain game, so your mindset – offense, defense, special teams – has to be that this is the right weather for us to go out and execute. It has no bearing on who we are and what we do and how we do it.”
“There really weren’t a ton of turnovers last week. The weather really had very little effect, for the most part. I thought the quarterbacks handled the weather (and) were able the throw the ball efficiently and effectively. I thought our wide receivers did a pretty good job. (We) didn’t have any center-quarterback issues. It was really pretty good.”
Tennessee will take Wednesday off, which is also the first day of classes of the fall semester. The Vols begin a three-day stretch of practices on Thursday morning.
Tennessee opens its 125th season of football and the Heupel era on Sept. 2 against Bowling Green. Kickoff for the special Thursday primetime event is 8 p.m. ET live on SEC Network.
Head Coach Josh Heupel
Post Scrimmage No. 2 | 8.17.21
Opening Statement
“Awesome day. It was great for our program (and) our players. We got a chance to get out there in the rain and some adverse weather there. I thought special teams (and) offensively (we) handled it pretty well for the most part of the day. I think it’s awesome and needed for your entire program, all the little things that go one during the course of a game like, so it was good work. (It was) back and forth – all phases of the game – offense and defense throughout the course of the day. A lot of really good things that we saw out there.”
On the offense and quarterbacks’ performance while dealing with the bad weather…
“There really weren’t a ton of turnovers last week. The weather really had very little effect, for the most part. I thought the quarterbacks handled the weather (and) were able the throw the ball efficiently and effectively. I thought our wide receivers did a pretty good job. (We) didn’t have any center-quarterback issues. It was really pretty good.
“I thought special teams early in the day weren’t handling it as well as they could of. We put them in some tough situations throughout the course of the day, in particular our field goal unit. Those guys handled it really well at the end of the day.”
On scrimmaging in the rain and deciding on a starting quarterback…
“Game day, you wake up (and) no matter what the weather report has said throughout the course of the week, you’ve got to play in the elements that you’ve got. We will play in a rain game, so your mindset – offense, defense, special teams – has to be that this is the right weather for us to go out and execute. It has no bearing on who we are and what we do and how we do it. I thought we really functioned at a pretty high level on that side of the football. Now, I got to continue to see those guys compete, obviously, we’ll go back later today and have an opportunity to watch the scrimmage. I think those guys have all continued to grow during the course of this three-day block before we got into our scrimmage today.”
On the defense playing physical and what he say from that side today…
“Yeah, at times I thought they created negative plays and played up the field. I thought for the most part with gap integrity on the first, second and third level was really strong. At the same time, I felt like offensively they were able to bust them and create some space at times and move the football on the ground, as well. I thought the running backs as a whole ran with great pad level today and moved and finished plus two.”
“You get a chance to see more of it when you go back and watch the video. I think there is great competition in that room, the accountability factor, and who they are going to be every day. We’ve continued to evolve from where we finished spring ball, throughout the course of the summer, and certainly here during training camp. There’s a lot of guys who can play and can play at a really high level in that second level, that linebacker group. I think the strength of any position can never be one guy, you guys have heard me say that before. We’ve got the ability to play a lot of bodies on that second level throughout training camp, but especially during the scrimmage, and you’ve seen most guys play with great effort, great strain, speed that has shown up on the video. We’ve shown our guys a lot of that during the course of our team meetings.”
On the performance of the offensive line…
“I thought they were more efficient from the whistle to getting lined up and getting ready for the next snap. I thought they created good vertical movement at times over the course of the scrimmage and did a good job of protecting the quarterback.”
On the separation of quarterbacks thus far…
“When we see separation (and) we are ready to say something, I’ll come back here and do that. That group has continued to compete and handle things the right way, and I like the growth of that group from day-to-day. You just look from the first scrimmage to the second scrimmage who they are and over the course of the practices leading up to today, that group is continuing to trend in the right direction.”
“Athleticism, he’s got a tremendous upside. He’s only going to continue to get better, and I think his purpose and the way he has practiced throughout training camp has been more focused and intentional in the way he takes every single rep. He has become a much better student of the game, understanding defensive alignments, what we are doing offensively. He is a better communicator than he was during the course of spring ball.”
On how he evaluates the scrimmage…
“It’s about guys that you trust at this point that are going to go out and compete the way that you want them too and I’m just talking about effort. Then the ability to reset play to play, guys who understand their alignments, assignments and can communicate out there on the football field. It’s never just about 11 guys. It’s about as many guys that are going to prove they can play at a high enough level to go win and finding roles for those guys – and that’s offense, defense and special teams. Today is probably our last major scrimmage, but it’s not the last piece of their development before we go out and play. We’ve got to continue to push as we lead up to kickoff.”
On how much better he feels about how many people he can trust now compared to months ago…
“I think there’s been tremendous growth of the football team. You look at where we finished spring ball, and then the guys who got back from injury, the guys that were brought in through the transfer portal, the development of some of our young guys—we’re a much deeper football team then we were. That shows up on offense and defense and it shows up in your ability to play on special teams, too. Our young guys are continuing to take strides that make you feel like they have an opportunity to go out there and play at a high level.”
On how he’s able to judge who’s winning between offensive and defensive line in practice…
“It’s certainly different when you get to game day against somebody that hasn’t seen you and hasn’t gone against you for close to 26 or 27 practices at this point if you look back to spring ball. The way that we rotate though, you see different matchups. So, the rotation on the offensive line with guys swinging from left to right, whatever it might be, that versatility, you see guys in different positions against a different individual over the course of a practice. As a football coach though, you understand the fundamentals and the techniques of what you’re trying to do, and we’ve seen really good growth on both sides of the line of scrimmage.”
On if he saw an improvement in cutting down penalties in the team’s second scrimmage…
“There are certain things we have to get corrected. There are a couple things that happened pre-snap that we can certainly correct. Throughout training camp though, we’ve been relatively clean there. We have officials out there every single day that are calling it like a game, and we point that out to our players every single day. They’re taking ownership in it. No, we’re never where we want to be, but we have a lot of positives there.”
On the defense being aggressive…
“There were times during the scrimmage where they got people behind the chains and created some zero or negative yard plays, they got after the quarterback. It’s always tough in a scrimmage when your quarterbacks aren’t live. Does he have him? Does he not have him? What’s the elusiveness of that player? But I thought they did a good job, particularly early in the first couple drives, they got off the field in some third-down situations in ones and twos. Offensively, there was some give and take, and it got going as the scrimmage went on. If you walk out of a scrimmage and it’s completely one-sided, that’s where you feel like as a coach that there’s some major concern. If there’s some give and take, you feel like you’re going on both sides of it and there was some of that today.”
On if he was pleased with the tackling during Tuesday’s scrimmage…
“Yes, for the most part. I thought there were a couple of plays in space where our skill guys were able to make some plays. Our guys on the defensive side of the football have been really solid throughout the course of training camp. Getting to a football game on Sept. 2, that’s when we really find out. There has been a ton of growth in that way. There have been some things we’ve done in our practices to try and emphasize that early in the course of practice. I feel like from day-to-day, drill-to-drill, scrimmage-to-scrimmage, we’re continuing to make some improvements.”
On if he believes the defense finished Tuesday’s scrimmage better than last week…
“You’ll find out individually and collectively if they finished better. There were some long drives out there during the course of play today. I thought, for the most part though, our guys competed on both sides of the line of scrimmage.”
On if he calls the offensive plays and how the rest of the voices of the coaching staff help put the offense together…
“The voices inside the room, it’s a growth. You find out who your personnel are. You have a way that you want to play, then you find out your personnel and then you try to put those guys in situations to be successful. We’ve got a lot of guys that have a ton of experience—guys that have been with me for a long time. Coach (Alex) Golesh came with me from the previous stop. Kodi Burns has a ton of experience in this league, having played in his league and he coached in it for a long time. You try to find out your personnel and put them in positions for success. Yes, there’s a base of who we are and our core fundamentals, how we play and certainly inside of our playbook. Then, you constantly evolve. Some of that happens during the course of training camp, but some of that happens as you go through the season and continue to find out more about your players and how you want to attack defenses. It’s a constant evolution of who and what we’re going to be.”
KNOXVILLE, TN – August 12, 2021 – Quarterback Joe Milton III #7 of the Tennessee Volunteers during 2021 Fall Camp practice in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Caleb Jones/Tennessee Athletics
It’s easy to miss an interview or UT football practice highlight with the huge volume of both we’ve been able to bring you this preseason practice.
So below, we’ve compiled every single Tennessee Volunteers football interview and five minutes per day of practice highlights every time there’s been media access.
Tennessee head football coach Josh Heupel spoke to the media after Tennessee’s second, and last, scrimmage of the preseason. That was practice #12 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. Video courtesy of UT Athletics.
Mitchell Tenpenny has just announced that he’s hitting the road with Drew Green this fall on the To Us It Did Tour!
The tour will be making stops in 12 cities, kicking off in Wantagh, NY on September 23 and wrapping up on December 18 in Royal Oak, MI.
These shows will kick off a full fall of touring for Mitchell as a special guest on Chris Young’sFamous Friends 2021 Tourand two dates on Dierks Bentley’sBeers On Me Tour.
The To Us It Did tour includes a bucket-list item for Mitchell – playing the Ryman Auditorium in his hometown of Nashville, TN. A portion of the proceeds from his Ryman debut on October 10 will go towards the 10Penny Fund, which provides “inspiration and support to cancer patients beyond traditional medical treatment.” He created the fund in 2018, following his own father’s cancer diagnosis, to encourage the healing process for Middle Tennessee families facing similar diagnoses.
Mitchell’s upcoming EP Midtown Diaries is out September 10, which features his latest single “Truth About You.” Listen here:
Reba McEntire joined Sarah Trahern, the Chief Executive Officer of the CMA, this morning to share the Country Music Hall of Fame’s 2021 inductees – Eddie Bayers, Pete Drake, Ray Charles, and The Judds.
This year’s inductees represent three categories – Modern Era Artist, Veterans Era Artist, and Recording or Touring Musician.
Drummer Eddie Bayers and late steel pedal player Pete Drake represent the Recording or Touring Musician category, both of whom represent the first of their instrument to be inducted in the CMHOF.
Photo Credit: Rick Malkin
Bayers’ talent can be heard on over 300 gold and platinum records, where he played for artists including George Strait, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, The Judds, George Jones, Reba McEntire, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis, Keith Whitley, Tammy Wynette, Trisha Yearwood. and more. He has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry house band since 2003, was named the ACM’s top drummer 14 times, and has been nominated for CMA’s Musician of the Year 10 times.
Photo Courtesy of Rose Drake
Drake has had an undeniable influence on the heart of Country music, as he played steel guitar on Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden,” Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man,” Charlie Rich’s “The Most Beautiful Girl” and George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” Throughout his career, his pedal steel can be heard on albums by Bobby Bare, Kris Kristofferson, Ronnie Milsap, the Oak Ridge Boys, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, The Statler Brothers, Hank Williams Jr. and Ray Charles. His influence made its way into the world of Rock and Roll, as well, where he played on projects for Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and Ringo Starr.
Photo Credit: Michael Putland/Getty Images
Willie Nelson has often stated that “Ray Charles did more for Country Music than any single artist has ever done” throughout his career, especially with his 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. That record spent 14 weeks at the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s pop albums chart, a record that would not be matched by another Country album for 30 years. The record truly showed the Country music industry the power of a crossover artist, and opened a new world of possibilities to producers and industry professionals alike. Throughout his career, Charles won 17 GRAMMYs, was inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was nominated for two CMA awards.
Photo Credit: Kristin Barlowe
Naomi & Wynonna Judd complete the list of 2021 honorees. The Judds have long been recognized as one of the most successful duos in Country music, garnering 20 top 10 hits between 1984 and 1991, 14 of which made it to the No. 1 spot. The mother-daughter duo went on to win 8 GRAMMY awards, 9 CMA awards, and 7 ACM awards throughout their career, and together created some of the most instantly recognizable songs of the genre, like their chart-topping hits “Mama He’s Crazy,” “Grandpa (Tell Me ’bout The Good Old Days),” and “Love Is Alive.”
About this year’s inductees, Trahern shared:
“The works of this year’s inductees span crucial timestamps of Country Music history…this impressive career landmark is the pinnacle of accomplishment in Country Music and I’m so proud to see Eddie, Ray, Pete, Naomi and Wynonna getting their much-deserved plaques on the wall of the Rotunda. Today’s fans and generations to come will forever be reminded of the distinct impact each made on this genre.”
Headline Photo Courtesy of the CMA Country Music Hall of Fame
