NashvilleGab - Country music news and Nashville celebrity gossip

Did Taylor Swift refuse to give Carrie Underwood a standing ovation at the Grammy Awards?

So you've probably heard the rumor that there's no love lost between Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift and that the two made a specific request to the people in charge of the Grammy Awards to keep them away from each other. 

Spoil sports.

After the rumor came to light, Carrie Underwood went on record and said that if there's a fight between she and Taylor she's not aware of it. You can see video of her denying the reports here. The thing is, did anyone really expect Carrie to confirm the rumor even if it was true? Please, she's much more polite than that. I don't know if there's really a feud going on between the two power houses, but if a picture is worth a 1000 words then this picture has a heckuva lot to say.

A reader sent me this screen shot that she found over on the Examiner website. It's pretty interesting because the screen grab reportedly shows the moments after Carrie finished singing at the Grammys when everyone gave her (and her light up dress) a standing ovation. 

Well everyone except Taylor Swift. 

The picture shows Taylor sitting firmly (but at least politely clapping) while everyone else is on their feet. 

This really wouldn't be a big deal to me if the media hadn't gone wacko over the fact that Chris Brown did the same thing when Frank Ocean won his Grammy Award that evening.

Oh sure, Taylor hasn't beat up her girlfriend in the past and deserve everyone's scorn like Chris does, but it's still the exact same disrespect paid to another artist. Media double standard much? 

You can watch Carrie's performance below or here. 

Carrie Underwood - Blown Away & Two Black... by IdolxMuzic

Keith Urban ready to quit "American Idol?"

Uh oh, is Keith Urban ready to walk away from his newly acquired "American Idol" gig?  

He is if you listen to the the National Liar Enquirer. 

According to the rag mag, Keith is tired of the "bitch-a-thon" that's going on between fellow judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj and he's been threatening to walk away from the show.  

Furious about the out-of-control MARIAH CAREY-NICKI MINAJ bitch-a-thon raging backstage at "American Idol," judge KEITH URBAN suddenly bellowed at the show's producers: "This trash isn't what I signed up for!"

He's publicly playing it cool, telling interviewers everything's ideal at "Idol," but the Aussie country crooner's crying the blues to execs and close pals – saying he wants to quit.

"They don't pay me enough to have to deal with this crap," kvetched Keith, who pockets a paltry $4 million a season, about half Minaj's take – and chump change compared to diva Mariah's whopping $18 million paycheck.

Insiders say Keith told execs: "I don't want to be the peacemaker this entire season" – and he'd be grateful if they'd replace him.

"Keith knew there'd be friction between the two women, but had no idea how vicious and threatening it would become," said a source.

"What makes him uncomfortable is the level the animosity has escalated to – and where it could go from here. And his wife, NICOLE KIDMAN, is concerned as well."

I have a feeling that Keith's contract probably wouldn't let him just saunter away from the show without a huge legal fight anyway, but for Keith's mental health, let's just hope things aren't actually bad enough for him to want to escape the show.  

"American Idol" will begin its new season sometime in January on Fox. 

Blake Shelton thinks Simon Cowell has too much time on his hands

Simon Cowell has way too much time on his hands, or so says Blake Shelton. 

Blake visited 'Access Hollywood' tonight to discuss 'The Voice' and the conversation turned to Simon Cowell and his long-running beef with 'The Voice'.  

Blake seemed amused more than anything. 

“Every time I turn around the guy is mouthing off,” the country superstar told Access Hollywood’s Michelle Beadle. “Don’t y’all wish you had time to sit around and bitch and moan like that guy does? Every time I turn around, he’s mouthing off about our show. It’s like, ‘Do your own show! Come on! Put something together there and do your thing. We’ll just do ours and we won’t mouth off about you.’ I wish I had that much time. The guy must just have more free time than he knows what to do with.”

And Blake has no problem whatsoever with the other reality competitions, whether it’s “X Factor,” “American Idol” or something else. 

“There’s room for all these shows,” Blake said. “That’s what frustrates me when I hear the bickering. I’m like, ‘We’re all doing pretty good. High five!’ But I think the thing that the other shows probably took notice of was — the four of us on ‘The Voice’ — we’re not judges.”

If these two shows go at it any more, this may turn out to be a pretty interesting season. 

Fans can watch more of Blake's interview over on Access Hollywood. 

John Rich takes on Clay Aiken over "racist" Republican tweet

John Rich is known for being an outspoken person and isn't afraid to tell it how he sees it. When it comes to politics, John seems to be doubly outspoken and last night on Twitter he took on Clay Aiken for a tweet Clay sent about the lack of African Americans attending the Republican National Convention in Florida.

Clay's original tweet said: 

Playing drinking game with my brother now. We drink every time we see a black person on screen at the RNC convention. #soberasamormon

— Clay Aiken (@clayaiken) August 29, 2012

John Rich quickly chimed in and said: 

"@clayaiken:@cowboytroy We drink every time we see a black person at the RNC//CLAY! You should be ashamed for racist comments like THAT!WOW.

— John Rich (@johnrich) August 29, 2012

Turns out Clay's tweet sentiment has a Twitter history and had already been bashed after an African American councilman and NAACP member recently made a similar tweet and added the hashtag #negrospotting. 

I wasn't aware of this history, but John Rich was. He later said: 

LeAnn Rimes takes her Twitter fight to her attorney

Well this isn't a good progression of the Twitter fight I told you guys about the other day. 

A couple of days ago I had a post about the strangest email I had ever gotten about LeAnn Rimes. Seemed LeAnn had been battling some fellow twits for some time and the fight had made it to real life after LeAnn had gotten the phone number of one of her twit-emies and called her. The girl recorded the conversation and put it up on YouTube. I had both sound-only videos posted in that blog post. 

It wasn't long before those "videos" were removed from YouTube (you can still hear some of the audio here), as I figured they would be, but I'll tell you they contained LeAnn and the girl trying to talk over each other but never really yelling. There was some cussing on LeAnn's part and a bit of talking about LeAnn's husband's ex-wife, Brandi, but nothing I'd call horrible or out of line. It was all just kind of surreal and silly. I personally thought it was silly and off the wall and actually kind of stupid but still entertaining to listen to. It's not every day you get to hear a celebrity have at it with a noncelebrity. It was almost like listening to a tame episode of Jerry Springer. 

LeAnn, however, wasn't quite so amused and has handed the info about the taped conversation and I suppose the alleged Twitter harassment over to her lawyer. 

Update on Randy Travis: He was simply defending his girlfriend from her husband

As I posted about earlier today, Randy Travis was in a scuffle early this morning in a church parking lot in Texas. According to TMZ, Randy was extremely intoxicated and was taken to the hospital. 

Now People.com has further details that at least make the incident sound less like a sad country song and more like a guy defending his girlfriend from her estranged husband. 

Okay, still sounds like a sad country song, but defending someone's girlfriend is at least better than being drunk and butting into some stranger's argument. 

From People.com:

"We got a phone call at around 10 or 10:30 [Thursday] night about a personal family issue occurring between an estranged husband and wife. The wife was reportedly the girlfriend of Randy Travis," Officer David Tilley, of the Plano, Texas, Police Department, told PEOPLE on Friday morning. 

"Randy intervened and reportedly an assault took place between Randy and husband. There were no injuries reported," said Tilley.

The beleaguered country singer was cited for a Class C simple assault, "which is a minor misdemeanor offense similar to a traffic violation," Tilley told PEOPLE. 

Afterward, he says, everyone refused transportation to the hospital. 

As for speculation that Travis might have been under the influence of alcohol, Tilley said, "There was no indication that he was intoxicated on the report. I'm not sure where these stories are coming from. It's nothing more than what we run into on a regular basis." 

A rep for the musician could not be reached for comment. 

 

So Randy Travis is in trouble again

Unfortunately it appears that his DUI arrest two weeks ago and the possibility of facing a few years in prison WASN'T rock bottom for Randy Travis. 

Dang.  

TMZ is now reporting that a very intoxicated Randy was in a fight in a church parking lot of all places early this morning in Texas. And here's the kicker, the fight appears to be one that he got involved in that didn't even have anything to do with him. 

From TMZ:

Law enforcement sources tell us ... cops responded to the church around 1 AM after receiving a tip about two men fighting in the parking lot. 

We're told Travis was taken to the hospital after the fight. One source tells us Randy appeared to be "extremely intoxicated."

We're told the fight was over a girl. 

TMZ later learned that Randy was cited for "simple assault" and that police believe Randy was the primary aggressor. Cops also say this was a family argument that Randy butted into.

Anyone else starting to think that maybe Randy needs some prison time in order to save him from himself? The only good thing about this whole incident is that it doesn't appear that Randy drove himself to the scene of the fight. 

UPDATE: Apparently I missed the part that said Randy was hospitalized after the fight, probably due to the extreme intoxication. 

The fact that this is Randy's second police incident in a church parking lot is pretty significant. I hope he finds what he appears to be searching for soon before it's too late. 

UPDATE #2: Randy was actually defending his girlfriend, probably not drunk, and didn't go to the hospital. Oh, and it was 10 p.m. not 1 a.m.

Blake Shelton pisses off the turtle lovers of the world

Before you read and get mad at Blake, the tweet mentioned appears to have been meant as a joke. I know some people like to read the first paragraph or two, form an opinion, and skip the ending. I don't want anyone getting mad at Blake without reading clear to the end or at least realizing his original tweet was meant as a joke.

Wow, I'm gone for a day and look what happens, Blake Shelton has officially made enemies of the turtle lovers of the world. 

So yesterday, Blake took to his Twitter and tweeted a fateful tweet:

Does anyone know if the Eastern Box turtle is protected in Oklahoma? If so I didn't just swerve to the shoulder of the road to smash one...

Okay, before I move on I have to make a confession...my husband is a swerver. He has a major snake phobia for some reason (I have a feeling his brothers used to torture him with snakes as a child) and if we're driving down the road and there's a snake, he will purposely swerve to run it over. 

I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it and bitch up a storm every time he does it with me in the car. Other animals he won't do that, just snakes. Another confession....I lived in Arkansas as a child and one of my fondest memories were the wild turtles that were everywhere. I had more than a few I "saved" and kept as pets until I got bored and my mom would turn them loose. So running over a turtle on purpose kind of gets me in the memory center of my brain and makes me cringe.

Okay, confessions are now over -- back to Blake. So he tweeted the tweet and the turtle lovers of the world started to attack. You have to feel kind of bad for Blake when this happens because 99.5% of what he says he's just joking and being an ass just for the sake of being an ass and to get a laugh. He enjoys that. I get it and I think most of his fans get it.

Turtle lovers apparently didn't get it.

“@bjkingape: That turtle's life meant something- was your tweet a bad joke? Why would you be so cruel to a living being?”

“@John_F_Taylor: Really what a disappointment u r. Killing turtles with your car then asking if they are protected?”

‏@turtlefeed For someone who supposedly cares so much about animals, I'm not impressed by you. G'night now.

The Blake hate from turtle lovers even ended up catching the attention of Buzzfeed who wrote a detailed account of what was going on, including in the story all the fans who had chimed in to say they too killed turtles on a regular basis. 

In the end, it appears that all the hate was for nothing because Blake wasn't even in Oklahoma when he made his turtle murder tweet:

The best part of all of this is that the dumb asses didn't even look to see that I'm not even in Oklahoma today!! I'm in North Dakota!!

Just to be clear, there are turtles in North Dakota, but I think that's besides the point, according to Blake, the tweet was still just meant as a joke and knowing the things he says on a regular basis, I absolutely believe him when he says that.

That said, as someone who has very fond memories of kidnapping wild turtles as a child to make them my pets, I can see where the turtle lovers of the world were coming from too. 

The good news in all of this is that according to the totally scientific video below, most people don't actually swerve to kill turtles.

UPDATE: Blake made the Herp Report. Fun! And for the record, they call him Blake Shiton instead of Shelton. Oh, this has gotten real folks.  

On a side note, the pod cast at Herp Report is kind of interesting because the guys actually seem to think that Blake's tweet is going to end his career. Seriously? The two guys hearts are in the right place as turtle lovers, but they're sort of delusional I think and obviously have never paid much attention to Blake's Twitter. They really do seem to think that this story is going to blow up and turn into a PR nightmare and it's all thanks to them. 

Funny. 

Charges dropped against Tracy Lawrence

Well there goes the whole courtroom showdown. 

Damn. 

Tracy Lawrence has spent the last month a marked man with misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct hanging over his head stemming from his August 6th scuffle with concert promoter Elmer Cole, Jr. 

Well Tracy can now breathe a little more easily because the charges have been dropped as of Monday.  

After investigating, it was determined that Elmer had thrown the first punch and that Tracy's facial injuries supported that it was a surprise attack rather than mutual combat. Being that Tracy wasn't the aggressor, the district attorney felt there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of anything.

"We're happy about the dismissal," said Dean Henry, Lawrence's attorney. "I know that Mr. Lawrence is going to be happy."

Elmer Cole still faces his disorderly conduct charge and is set to appear in Tiffin Municipal Court on Thursday for a trial.

 

"We're still set for a trial," James Gucker, Cole's attorney said. "Elmer was attacked and that's our position. That's what several other witnesses say."

Despite Tracy's charges being dropped this may not be the end of things since Elmer says that Tracy falsely claimed he had a gun, causing Elmer to be arrested.  No gun was ever found.  

I guess we'll just have to wait and see if either man decides to file personal lawsuits, something Tracy has said before he is considering. 

 

 

Tracy Lawrence talks about his fist fight

Tracy Lawrence was up early this morning to perform a few radio interviews.  

One of the interviews he performed was with Kansas' B104.7 and he finally got around to telling his side of what happened when he got into a fist fight with concert promoter Elmer Cole Jr.

Have to say I can probably see where Tracy was more than a little peeved.   

Tracy says near the end of the interview, "Some people don't need to be promoting shows....We had gotten rained out, we had a lot of problems with the stage, the lightning was really bad, I had to cut my set short.  Randy Houser never even got to perform and the promoter was basically trying to hold us hostage.  He was trying to force Randy to play the next day and Randy had another show. 

He pretty much told us we were on our own, he was not going to get tractors in to pull us out and that if we brought tractors in he was going to sue us for tearing up the road.  So it escalated pretty quick.  

I'm getting prepared to follow-up with lawsuits of my own." 

Tracy and Elmer are due in Tiffin Municipal Court September 1 for a trial.