Katie & Company

Kane Brown is feeling more like himself these days than ever before, thanks to a new outlook on music, more time in the gym and in the ring, and less time gaming. The "2 Pair" singer recently joined Katie Neal in the studio to talk about it all for the 'Superstar Power Hour.' "My last album, just to be completely honest with you, I felt like it was a little rushed," Kane admits. "But now I'm like, more motivated than ever." Brown shares he found that spark in the gym, sharing that challenging himself physically has helped fuel his artistry. "It was, a lot of working out, and just kind of getting that competitive grind again," Kane says. "I don't play video games no more. I think that could be another big thing about it." "With the working out and the stages of working out, getting into boxing, bringing my competitiveness back, and then not having anywhere else to put it, it's made me like wanna put it towards music since I don't game." It all makes for a new and improved Kane Brown, ready to spill all that energy into his music. "When I say level up, I think you'll see a different light when I'm performing and my artistry, cause I'm trying to bring like, I'm trying to dance and do all that stuff that's just not done," he shares. "I feel like for the last decade I've kind of tried to fit in the box of what everybody's wanted me to be in and I've tried to please the wrong people, and not really be me and not really get to do my, or like please my fans and just show them, you know, I'm excited and I found that light again. So I think that's what people is gonna see, the difference in the music." To hear from Kane Brown on family life, his newly announced bar in Nashville, and more, check out the full conversation above.

It's been an historic entry into Country music for the band Shinedown, which has already found success across multiple genres because of their authenticity and sincere songwriting, and now have been firmly embraced by the Country music community. Shinedown singer Brent Smith recently joined Katie Neal inside our Nashville studios at the Hard Rock Cafe to talk about how Country crept into the recording of their single, "Searchlight," how it felt to debut the song at the Grand Ole Opry, and much more. "I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and when we were cutting the song, we were demoing it out, I think it was a bit more of a Rock ballad," shares Smith. "I just said, 'hey, listen, I'm gonna cut this with just the acoustic. Let me kind of re-sing it." The different approach from Brent rang very "authentic" for him, and the song began to ask for something different. "It was a different approach, but it was very authentic. It was very real, and it felt honest. So the song then asked for a banjo which in turn asked for a lap steel... and then a fiddle was brought in. And look, it's a very Country-esque Rock song, but for me when I heard it I was so enamored by the fact that it kind of is a style that we haven't done per se, and it was a bit more of a true homage to Country instrumentation and just the simplicity of the lyric and the way that it was sung. It made sense, and Country is starting to embrace it." It doesn't hurt that the band got to debut the song at the Mother Church of Country Music, singing it as part of the venue's 100th anniversary, and introduced by Carrie Underwood. "It was a very, kind of, out of body experience, especially when you walk into that circle," Smith admits. "You can feel the weight of the moment because of who stood in that circle." The Country connection is something that seemed inevitable for Smith and Shinedown, given the influence he was raised around. "I grew up, my granny had Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and probably out of all of them, Randy Travis was probably the loudest growing up," he says. Even now he's looking forward to meeting a few of the genre's heaviest hitters, praising artists like Ella Langley and HARDY. "I gotta give a lot of credit because I'm such a fan of his songwriting and again a very versatile individual, I haven't had a chance to meet him, but I hope I get to, I'm a huge fan of HARDY and just how he kind of is just this songwriting juggernaut for a lot of different styles." To hear more from Brent Smith of Shinedown, check out the full interview above.

How did Miranda Lambert's kangaroo lead to a chart-topping hit from Ella Langley? The ACM and CMA award-winning artists told us the origins of her smash, "Choosin' Texas," and also gave us a look at her upcoming album, 'Dandelion,' during this week's 'Superstar Power Hour' with Katie Neal.

This week we traveled to Chiefs in Nashville, where Eric Church performed for an intimate room of fans during our 'Totally Private' show. But first, the "Record Year" singer made his way to the Hard Rock Cafe and into our studios for a talk with Katie Neal, powered by Spirit Airlines. Church is currently on the road with his 'Free the Machine Tour,' supporting his album, 'Evangeline vs. The Machine,' a very deliberate outing for the GRAMMY-nominated singer. "For me in a world that's very fabricated, it's very AI driven, it's very machine-driven, we wanted to, you know, when you come see us play, everybody that's on stage, we're all playing music and there's no tricks," he shares of the show. "We're playing music, and that's what I grew up on, and it's been fun to see over the course of the tour people gravitate to that." Eric is a veteran in this Country music game, and he shares he's willing to impart his wisdom unto his openers when asked, like with Ella Langley. "It was kind of fun to be the old guy in the room that, as we kind of talked about advice and where she's going and stuff, I've been there and, it was fun to just hang out with her." "When you go from where she is and where I've been, and you're struggling, you're struggling, you're struggling and you find something that that kind of is like a rocket ship, things change quickly," Chruch admits. "All the outside noise becomes pressured noise, and kind of what I said to her was, 'you gotta keep it about the music and what you wanna do long term,' because you're gonna have a lot of opportunities to do things that take it away from that, and that's just normal, and that's great, but, the farther you get away from your anchor there, the harder it's gonna be to get back to that." It's always been about the music for Chief, who has caught his own rocket a few times since the start of his career. The year's testament to the power of music for Eric is a massive collaboration he did with Tim McGraw, HARDY, and Morgan Wallen, called "McArthur." "It's just it reminds me a lot of of the stuff that I grew up on with message and with the quality of the songwriting, and just what the track said and the way they tie in," he says of the song. "It's a great song and I'm happy to be part of it." "The great thing about Country music, you think about the Opry, you think about what we are, it is, as far as I'm concerned, format wise, a family-based, we take care of our own format. I said this song does that, it lays it out that it's about lineage, it's about remembering where you came from. It's about legacy, and I think it's a really important song for Country music." To hear much more from Eric Church, check out the full interview above.

Earlier this month, Rascal Flatts performed for an intimate room of fans during our 'Totally Private' show at the Hard Rock Cafe Nashville, powered by Spirit Airlines. But first, Gary, Joe Don, and Jay joined Katie Neal for a hilarious talk about touring, collabs, and a goat that got the better of them. Life is a highway, and for Rascal Flatts, life on the road has evolved quite a bit over the years. The rider has gotten shorter for the trio, and no longer includes farm animals to prank their fellow Country friends. "We had all kinds of animals," shares Gary, admitting to getting a goat while on tour with Darius Rucker. "We put it in Darius Rucker's dressing room, but the joke was on us because it ate all the furniture, so that we had to pay for the furniture." Things were simpler before social media, but the band still stays stocked with food on the road. "I have chicken wings and hot dogs in my room every night," Gary adds. "My friends are just rednecks and they're just like, 'You gotta be kidding me. Free hot dogs.'" To hear more from the group about their collab with the Jonas Brothers, amazing meet and greet stories, and more, check out the full conversation above.

Don't go packing away the pink just yet, because another another album is almost here from Megan Moroney and the sky is bright for 'Cloud 9.' The ACM and CMA Award-winning singer was recently in our Nashville studios with Katie Neal, as she took us inside the tint, title, and topics of her third project during the 'Superstar Power Hour.' 'Cloud 9' arrives everywhere on February 20, and the title track has been living in the mind of Moroney for a minute. "I had the title for a while and I got to a place like the 1st quarter of last year where I was just like, really happy," she shares. "I was happy with how my career was going, I just felt lighter, and so I had met up with ERNEST and I was like, 'I have this title 'Cloud 9,'' and he always has like the really cool chords and he starts playing something. The whole concept of the song is that you're above cloud 9. I think it's a true love song." "I feel like it's probably my first because my other songs like 'Am I Okay?' it's like crying and dying, and then like 'Third Time's the Charm,' I consider a love song but it talks about dying alone, but 'Cloud 9' straight up, it's a long way down to cloud 9 so we're cloud 10, 11, 12." Just like with the green and blue of her first two LPs, this era has it's own color, with pink presenting itself early on in the process for Megan. "I wrote a song called 'Medicine' and when I wrote that song, it was so pink. I thought 'Medicine' was gonna be the title of my third album because I thought, 'Megan Maroney Medicine, MM3.' I thought I was like doing something there." "But then once I wrote 'Cloud 9' I was like, 'oh no.' I could immediately see the cover. I saw music videos. I saw the tour design and I was just obsessed with it." 'Cloud 9' features two massive collabs with Kacey Musgraves and Ed Sheeran both featured on the project, along with more revealing and vulnerable music that has become a calling card for Moroney. "I said this whole album with my chest," she admits. "I know I've got the best fans in the world and they make me confident enough to where they're gonna get behind my songs, and they know that it's coming from an honest, authentic place, and that just has given me more confidence as a songwriter to not give a crap what people are gonna say about it." To hear more about the collabs on 'Cloud 9,' the making of the album, and her upcoming tour, check out the full 'Superstar Power Hour' interview above.

The Band Perry is back making music under that moniker for the first time in nearly 9 years, as Kimberly Perry and Johnny Costello lead the new lineup for the group, debuting the track, "PSYCHOLOGICAL," just in time for Valentine's Day. What was once a sibling trio is now a husband and wife project, as Kimberly and Johnny are set on continuing the story of The Band Perry after a hiatus for the band and solo projects for its members. "I keep saying like this, if you loved The Band Perry season one, you're gonna love 'PSYCHOLOGICAL,' first song of season two," shares Kimberly. "You know I love my psycho girl love songs." "I do feel like this is evolution for The Band Perry, me as the narrator," she adds. "I think there's evolution in the fact that we're not trying to kill a man out here. We're like, are we deluded? Are we devoted? There's a fine line between the two." "It's just a very tongue in cheek hilarious turn of a phrase, talking about the girl inside of me that has always been 150% deep diving into my crushes and obsessions." The band has also dove in deep to the latest incarnation of the group, with a tour aptly titled, the 'Psycho Rodeo Tour,' and an album in the works. "I think playing the blend of all the OG The Band Perry hits, the songs that brought us to the dance in the first place, and like blending them perfectly with this new body of work that we've been working on," Perry notes as what she's most excited about for the upcoming set of shows. "We've only put out two full LPs, two full albums of Country music, so it definitely feels like the third installation of The Band Perry music." "We are about, I would say 1/3 of the way through recording," the duo says of their upcoming album with producer Dann Huff. "I think it's really fun to be in a band with your husband, The Band Perry's always been a family band. This is our version of it with this project, and the love songs hit a little different, you know. Right now we've been writing a lot together to get to write those and think about how we're gonna bring those to life in the studio and on a video and on stage is a new element that I haven't gotten to really explore yet, so that's been really fun." To hear more from The Band Perry, check out the full conversation above.

Jason Aldean opens up about his latest number one, talks about his duet with his wife, and details the piglet and puppy friendship happing inside his house. It's all during this week's 'Superstar Power Hour' interview with Katie Neal, powered by Spirit Airlines.

Nothing raises the bar quite like an award for 'Album of the Year.' So it goes for Cody Johnson, who is hard at work on his next project after winning the CMA Awards' top prize in 2024 with his LP, 'Leather.' Cody came by our studios in Nashville at the Hard Rock Cafe to talk with Katie Neal about what's next, the success of his song, "The Fall," and his massive remodeling project at home. Along the way he shared some details about the upcoming album, which finds Johnson once again trying to outdo himself and only himself. "When you win, 'Album of the Year' with 'Leather' before the 'Leather Deluxe' comes out, your back's against the wall as far as expectations," he admits. "I think I don't ever focus on trying to be better than anybody else. I really just wanna, if I can just constantly beat myself and if my next song is better than the last song, and my next project is better than that project, and my next performance is better than the last performance, then that's what keeps me motivated and driven." "I took like a half and half approach to this record," Cody continues. "Some of this stuff is like so stone cold Country, or it's like so left Motown, or it's like really leaning Rock, or it's really leaning Bluegrass. I don't have a radio agenda with those songs. It's just I recorded these songs because I love these songs and I wanted you to hear me sing these songs, so you can take about half of that and put it over here for 'this is who I am.'" "Then you're gonna hear certain ones on the record where you're like, 'OK, that's gonna be huge, that's gonna be a big song' and you're gonna hear that one on the radio. Trying to whittle it down. I'd like to get it down to about 16, I've got about 20 tracks and it's pretty hard because once you invest the time in the studio with them and you kind of get to know them, it's really hard." Although Cody is "emotionally attached to all of them," he'll trim down the tracklist after listening sessions with friends, seeing which get the most play while riding around. The project also incudes a few collabs, which Johnson revealed to Katie. "I know that me and Luke Combs, we cut one together, we finally got on it." "Brothers Osborne. That was kind of a last minute deal," he says. "I heard this song and I was like, 'man, this sounds like John and TJ.' And they had happened to be reaching out at the same time of like, 'hey, when we do our next project, would you do this song with us?' I was like, 'yeah, absolutely. Would you do this with me on my project?' So it's kind of a trade-off." "There's a couple of collabs that haven't happened yet. It's still just a lot of cell phone conversation," explains Cody. "As a matter of fact, I got a call right before I walked in here and I had to say, 'hey, I'm walking into Katie. I'll holler back at you,' but that person is in to do the collab so far. So there's gonna be some cool surprises on here." To hear much more from Cody Johnson, listen all week on the Superstar Power Hour during Katie & Company, and check out the full conversation above.

There's a big 2026 ahead for Bailey Zimmerman, but first the Country star is coming off of the "best holidays" ever, thanks in part to a gift he was able to give his mom. The "Chevy Silverado" singer recently joined Katie Neal to talk about the big surprise, his upcoming arena tour, and more. Last year, Zimmerman's mom landed in the hospital and "almost died," according to the singer. "When she was in the hospital, I was like 'dang, she doesn't really have a home, like a house to come home to,'" he reveals. "I was like 'dang, I really wanna like try to buy this one house for my mom,' so I ended up buying it and then redid the whole thing." "It was so much fun redoing it, and then I got to show her on Christmas," he adds. "This year's just been such a tough year for her, getting to have that to just be pumped about is so nice for her. Then I got her a new car because she comes to Nashville a bunch and she drives all over the place to shows and stuff so I'm like, 'I really just wanted to set her up to where she felt like taking care of because she's always taking care of me.' I just feel like, I have to take care of her because she's always believed in me. She's always done everything she could to make sure I was good and had the best of the best, and now it's my turn to make sure." With all that good energy in the air, it's time to tee up a big 2026 for Zimmerman, who is focused on being better and delivering on tour. "I'm always trying to just continue to get better and continue to, always move forward," he says of his new year plans. "I'm really focused on the tour right now, making sure that just everything is locked in. I went and redid my whole stage and lighting and the way everything is and all the stuff, so I've been working really hard on that." "I'm gonna focus on just making sure that's good to go for the tour, and then making sure I just crush this tour, and then I've been focusing on just writing music and and living life too." To hear about dating, dogs, and the story behind his latest hit, check out the full conversation with Bailey Zimmerman above.

Stephen Wilson Jr. did not take your typical path to being a Country music star, first making stops as a scientist and an amateur boxer, but it did shape him and help pave the way to winning the CMA Award for 'New Artist of the Year.' "I don't think I'm interesting, but it has provided, I guess, a wealth of dialogue and narrative to to pull from," Stephen admits during an interview with Katie Neal. "I've been habitually quiet most of my life, so I got to work a lot of jobs and kind of keep my mouth shut and listen and take notes, and from those learnings that's where the songs kind of came from." "Science is a big part of my process, Having a hypothesis or an idea and then testing it against the world," he adds. "It is pretty much what science is, but doing it in a controlled setting and doing that experiment over and over again and trying to keep your emotions out of the results. That's, I think, what songwriters try to do at the end. You wanna have an emotion to start with because I'm more in the emotion business than I am in the music business, at least that's what I think of it as. So it's got to start with an emotion, but then you kind of got to separate your emotion from it to get to the truth, because then you'll have, they call user bias, and then that'll affect your results." The analytical comes face to face with the creative for Stephen Wilson Jr. in the process, with a heaping dose of talent swirled in the center. "Being a trained scientist has helped me kind of remove my emotion from it, but then the creative side of me and just all the wealth of experiences and emotions that I went through has given me a lot to authenticate an idea from, because it has to kind of start with my own emotion, because if I've felt something, most likely somebody else has." The fascinating science of songwriting is in full swing on Stephen's song, "Gary," which he admits was tested and thought about in a very scientific way. "I tested that one a lot, in a lot of laboratories," he shares. "I had to start with a metaphor that everybody could relate to... I started to basically, you know, think of Gary as a subspecies, a human, like a Gary as an organism, not so much just a name for a person because it was to me more of a stereotype or a garyeotype, so to speak. So if you could classify that organism, how would you do that? And that's how I approach Gary, is almost like how Jane Goodall would approach a chimpanzee or something, kind of like studying the Gary's in the wild because, you know, the Gary's are going extinct." To hear much more of the Wilson Jr. method and his journey to Country music success, check out the full conversation above.

HARDY is already back in his FGL feels, after a post shared that Florida Georgia Line members Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard went on a hike together and sparked reunion rumors. The "Favorite Country Song" singer recently joined Katie Neal and talked about being anxious for the return of the duo, the success of his latest single, and an update on his daughter Rosie during the 'Superstar Power Hour.' "I drove back from Mississippi yesterday morning and I listened to, 'Here's To The Good Times' and 'Anything Goes,' the whole record all the way through because I'm like, 'I need to get back in the FGL headspace," HARDY reveals. "I don't know. I have no inside baseball. I'm literally just like, I feel like it's coming and I wanna be on the front end of it." "I feel like they're scheming something." While Katie and HARDY talked about the end of the holidays, the singer also shared some updates on his daughter, Rosie, who is quickly approaching her first birthday. "She's like really coming to life now. Like, it's crazy," he admits. "It's just something new every day. She's getting ready to walk and she's starting to say words. It's crazy. Time flies." To hear more from HARDY about songwriting for Blake Shelton, ghost stories with his family, and the success of his hit, "Favorite Country Song," check out the full conversation above.

Dolly Parton on her choice to remake her song, "Light of a Clear Blue Morning," with an all-star set of collaborators, and what's she's looking forward to with turning 80 years old.

To kick off 2026, Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts is keeping Katie Neal company, here to talk about the group's upcoming 'Totally Private' show with Audacy, the 20th anniversary of their album, 'Me And My Gang,' and their plans to see fans on the road throughout 2026. Rascal Flatts is back on the road this month, performing for fans across the country and continuing their 'Life Is A Highway' run. "The tour was so successful last year that we wanted to just keep it moving forward," admits DeMarcus with fresh dates through 2026. This year also marks 20 years since the 'Me And My Gang' album, which features several of the group's signature songs like "My Wish," and "What Hurts The Most." The project was the top-selling album of the year after its release, and Jay still remembers taking it all in on music's biggest night. "The whole 'Me And My Gang' record is kind of our 'Joshua Tree,'" shares Jay inside our Nashville studios. "I think all the stars aligned, came together." "At the risk of sounding, you know, egotistical, that record that year sold more records than any other record in the world," DeMarcus reveals. "We were sitting at the GRAMMYs, and I never will forget during commercial break, Gary leaned over to me and he said, 'Hey, cuz, look at the people that we're sitting in the room with, there's Beyoncé, there's JAY-Z, there's Lady Gaga, Elton John. And I was like, 'yeah, I can't believe this, man. We're sitting in the same room.' And he goes, 'now think about this, we sold more records than anybody in here this year.' That's one of those memories that like chokes me up." "When you dream about being an artist, you hope you make it to the GRAMMYs. You hope you have a hit song. But that's one of the memories that I'll always share with Gary that was uniquely our own. Just between the two of us," he adds. "Well, not anymore." "But sitting during commercial break and having that little moment between the two of us, I'll never forget that as long as I live." To hear more stories behind the songs of 'Me And My Gang' and more from Jay DeMarcus, check out the full interview above.

No matter how you measure it, Jordan Davis had a massive 2025. The 'Learn The Hard Way' singer released a new album, welcomed a new baby, and played headline shows around the globe, and now he tells Katie Neal, during the final 'Superstar Power Hour' of the year, it's time for something different for 2026. "I'm actually looking forward to a year that's a little lighter than what we've been doing," he shares, "mainly because I think as busy as I've been with touring and making 'Learn The Hard Way,' I really haven't been able to really sit down and write like I've wanted to." "I've either been coming into town and writing for a couple days or bringing buddies out and writing on the road, so I'm really excited for next year to continue writing and making a new record. I feel like I'm really excited to get back to songwriting, and I'm glad that next year is a little lighter so that I can do that." Back here, we're closing out 2025 and starting 2026 in style by giving one lucky listener the chance to attend a 'Totally Private' show with Jordan Davis in Nashville. We had to ask Jordan, if he had his own 'Totally Private' dream show, who would be on the stage for him? "John Prine would have been the guy that I would have given every cent I had to be in a room to just hear stories and listen to him sing," Davis admits. "If I had to say anybody, it would be John Prine. He was why I fell in love with it, why I started writing songs. That would have been my dream living room show." To hear more from Jordan Davis, check out the full interview above.

There's a lot to celebrate in the world of Lady A, as the group returned this year with another collection of Christmas songs, a holiday tour making its way across the country, and a few more family members to join the crew. As guests on this week's 'Superstar Power Hour,' the trio tells Katie Neal that they are in their "baby boom era," as they have welcomed two new additions to the Lady A family in the past year, and one the previous year. "We're in a baby boom era," shares Dave Haywood. "That's our new mood." Amongst all the life changes, the time felt right for the group to do a new holiday album, their first in 13 years, with the goal of taking it on tour to spread the Christmas cheer. "We really wanted to do a Christmas tour because in our entire career we have never," says Hillary Scott. "We've done a Christmas special. We've done 'CMA Country Christmas.' We've done some performances, but, we've always just talked about at some point we would love to tour for Christmas and so we thought, well, if we're touring we might as well freshen it up with some new music and so we got in the room and wrote two new originals and then, found a few of our favorite classics, and reimagined them." After the holidays there's more Lady A to come, as the group shares there is a lot in the works for the next project. "We have a good hefty Dropbox file going of songs, and we're just excited," reveals Hillary. "We're creatively kind of brainstorming and talking right now, and then at the top of the year that'll be the focus of just digging in and seeing what stories we want to tell and, production. We want to just stretch ourselves more than we ever have. We've lived a lot of life since our last project. So, I think bringing in all that inspiration and, just discovering what we want to say and, and how we want to say it." "I think we're definitely excited to explore to get, you know, maybe a little creatively uncomfortable." "I think we've said a lot with the last few records, like we want to get back down back to the sound of kind of our first couple of records, and I think we've done that," adds Charles Kelley. "Now it's like we wanna get to a sound we've never explored and we don't know what that is. I think our voices are gonna be the thread of it, but I would love a risky, like she said, an uncomfortable feeling of production wise that we're not used to and embrace the imperfections, all those things, and so it's gonna be fun." "This is the longest we've been in between records and I just think we're ready to kind of see if we can turn some heads, you know, in a cool way." To hear much more from Lady A check out the full conversation above.

Last month before the 59th Annual CMA Awards, Riley Green made a bet with Katie Neal on Radio Row. Just hours before Country Music's Biggest Night, the "Worst Way" singer vowed to include "Scissor Wizard," the name of his former Alabama barber, in an acceptance speech if he won. However, if he failed to do so he would wear fake eyelashes during his next interview with Katie. As it turns out Riley Green was one of the night's biggest winners at the CMAs in November, taking home 3 awards and thanking a lot of people. Unfortunately though, the Scissor Wizard did not make the cut. So when Riley joined 'Katie & Company' this week for the 'Superstar Power Hour,' he was ready to take his lashes... eyelashes. "I thought that I would maybe not win, and not have to speak, and then that was how I'd get out of it," Green shares as he flutters his new eyelashes. "But then I did and I didn't say it, so I've got on eyelashes." "I feel pretty," he laughs. "I feel 10 percent prettier than I did when I came in." "Do you reuse these?" Riley asks. "I'm not gonna reuse those," laughs Katie, "you can take those with you." "Weird when somebody comes over to my house, there's eyelashes everywhere," he smiles. "Like, 'what have you been doing?' They're mine. I promise." To hear more from the beautiful and hilarious Riley Green about songwriting, his secret acting role, and his new bourbon business venture, listen to the full interview with Katie Neal above.

As the EOTY balloons float behind her, it's clear there's a lot of winning in the world of Lainey Wilson. The 'Entertainer of the Year' is coming off an acclaimed night hosting the CMA Awards, celebrating a trio of GRAMMY nominations including two for her song, "Somewhere Over Laredo," and she's planning her wedding to Devlin “Duck” Hodges. Somehow she managed to slow down long enough to check in with Katie Neal to talk about it all. Never one to rest on success, Lainey tells 'Katie & Company' that she's already hard at work writing the next album. "Honestly, before the deluxe was even out, I was already working on the next project. That's kind of how I do it," she shares. "I want to make sure, because this job comes with a lot of different parts of it, I want to make sure that I'm always keeping the writing, the songwriting at the forefront. So no matter what, I put co-writes in there and try to just have time where I just like brainstorm and think of ideas and think about what direction do I want to go next, what have I not said, what part of me am I discovering that I feel comfortable sharing with other people." "I feel like I'm constantly soul searching, and digging things up, and so it's important for me to be writing while I'm doing that soul searching." 2026 is already set to be another massive year for Lainey, with a headlining slot at Stagecoach, the possibility of new music, and a trip down the aisle with Duck. "I sat down this past weekend and we started kind of trying to brainstorm, so we'll see," she says of the preparations for the big day. "I mean, we gotta get on it, but I told him I was like, 'you gotta come home from the woods long enough for us to plan this thing.'" To hear more about Lainey Wilson's holiday plans and her experience hosting the CMA Awards, check out the full conversation above.

Blake Shelton is our plus one this year at Thanksgiving with 'Katie & Company,' as Katie Neal talks with the singer about his "simple man" holiday wishlist, his latest projects like his show with Keith Urban, 'The Road,' and why Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday. "I grew up in a really big family with lots of cousins and aunts and uncles, so Thanksgiving was the one where, because for Christmas a lot of them would go off and do their own Christmases, Thanksgiving was the one holiday that there would be like 100 people there," recalls Blake. "We would all get together and I just, I love food, honestly. I just, I love food." Though he says it sounds "corny," Blake is most thankful for his family this year. "We're all just healthy, knock on wood, and it feels like everybody's in a good spot," Shelton shares. "I'm really thankful for that. The older I get, the more I realize, if you don't have your health you don't have anything, and so far so good for us right now." Blake is lucky to have Gwen Stefani at home, serving up some of the best dressing in Oklahoma, but in true form he also didn't skip a beat when asked who the "worst cook" was in Country music. "I would say Dustin Lynch," Shelton says. "I've spent a lot of time around Dustin. I had him out on tour with me, and he's actually came out to the ranch and hunted with a group of guys one time, and he really doesn't contribute, in any way. He's more, Dustin's a guy that even when he's hunting, he spent 45 minutes in front of the mirror that morning, getting his camo, making sure the patterns are right, that this green shirt isn't more faded than these green pants and he's just, that's Dustin. So I can't imagine him ever cooking. I've never seen him cook, so I'm just gonna go ahead and throw his name out there. Screw him when it comes to cooking." It's going to be a cold cuffing season for Dustin Lynch, but what do you expect when you're hunting buddies with Blake. A self-described simple man, Shelton also shared what was on his holiday wishlist this year. "I love corn. I love to plant corn. I love bags of corn. I love corn chips, corn tortillas, cream corn," says Shelton. "I love corn on the cob, and so just anything corn. People sometimes will throw like a little stuffed animal corn on the cobs on stage. I had a song on one of my records a few years ago called 'Corn,' and I'm obsessed with corn." Ok, so corn. Check. Anything else on the Blake Shelton shopping list? "You know, you can use corn to make vodka," he adds. "If someone out there wanted to buy me something, or I wanted to buy myself something, it would maybe be in the vodka category." "That's pretty much it, corn and vodka." To hear more from Blake Shelton on leaving 'The Voice,' hangover cures, and more check out the full 'Superstar Power Hour' interview above.

Carly Pearce is gearing up for her fifth studio album, and it sounds like nothing is off limits for the soaring songstress. The "Dream Come True" singer recently joined Katie Neal during the 'Superstar Power Hour' to talk about her vulnerable new track, her family, and why she's making the album she always wanted to make.