Blog Posts by Chris Willman

Here's what you didn't know about Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert's wedding: It was fraught with feedback and public peeing.

Here's what you didn't know about Trace Adkins after his devastating house fire this month: It has turned him into Rain Man.

These and other tidbits came out backstage at the 40th annual CMA Music Festival, which wrapped up Sunday with a late-night Taylor Swift performance. Swift, Brad Paisley, and other performers came backstage at LP Field to talk to the media about the festival as well as anything and everything else going on in their lives. If you want to hear some of the stars' previously untold secrets, read (and watch) on...

Shelton talked about prospects for having everyone on board for a second season of his hit series The Voice. "I'd love to do it again," he said. "Whether or not they get all four of us back, I think that's still up in the air a little bit. But I think everybody involved wants that to happen. The reality of it is, you've got four

How hard is the CMA Music Festival on artists, between the multiple live shows and the fan meet-'n'-greets that are required of the most popular country acts throughout the week? Demanding enough that some of them require medical attention—or even an operation—afterwards. 

"As you're standing there signing autographs through Fan Fair," explains Steel Magnolia's Josh Jones, "your face starts to cramp up, and you get perma-grin after a while. We might need a grin-ectomy after a while."

Not that they have to force those smiles, mind you: The lips do just tend to curl up when you're soaking in all that devotion. There's a massive exchange of energy in the give-and-take between country music aficionados and artists at the annual June gathering formerly (and to some people's minds, forever) known as Fan Fair.

You'll get a strong sense of that from watching Ram Country's video documentation of Steel Magnolia's week at the CMA Festival, which follows the red-hot duo from a breakfast

Backstage at Nashville's LP Field, when we learned that Scotty McCreery was about to duet with Josh Turner on "Your Man," I had one question for Turner. You guys aren't going to attempt to, like, harmonize, are you? Because if two voices that low could actually find a way to blend, it might throw the earth off its axis.

"No, I don't think you're going to hear us do any bluegrass harmonies," Turner assured me, acknowledging the absurdity inherent in the question. "We're going to be trading lines." 

The same went for the night's other Idol-meets-an-idol duet, which had Lauren Alaina alternating high notes—rather than offering any glass-shattering dual lines—with Martina McBride on the power ballad "Anyway."

Of course, these were songs that McCreery and Alaina already sang on their own on American Idol. And in McCreery's case, it may be forever the cover he's most associated with, since "Your Man" was his legendary audition song, and the tune that, fairly or unfairly, got him pegged as a

In country music, it is possible to have a bigger night than winning American Idol. (Or at least a comparable one.) That would be making your Grand Ole Opry debut, which season 10 winner Scotty McCreery and runner-up Lauren Alaina both did Friday night, facing one more milestone together using the buddy system.

I talked with them backstage after their performances, and while their hair wasn't quite standing on end, you could practically sense electricity still shooting from their pores. There is normally a distinct difference between how nervous Scotty and Lauren do or don't get before singing live. On this historic night, though, the two of them were of one anxious accord.

"Oh, I get nervous before every performance, and this was no exception—if not double-nervous," McCreery told me—even though, from his stage demeanor, you would have thought he was the calmest, most implacable guy in the South or the western hemisphere. "Once I get on stage, the nerves go away," he explained, "but

From "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" to "What heels made your knees buckle under?"—that was the story of Shania Twain's collapse on the way to the stage at the CMT Awards. No, this wasn't staged to have one more triumph-over-adversity obstacle to overcome for the finale of her reality show. Twain was obviously legitimately flustered after getting herself upright to present an award, and still dismayed about experiencing "one of life's most embarrassing moments" by the time she made this video back at her hotel room:

"I'm trying to get all this adrenaline out because I just made a fool out of myself," she told the camera. "I'm here to tell you that I don't need a stunt double, because I did my own stunts for the Thelma and Louise video clip"-referring to a taped parody sketch with Taylor Swift that opened the show-"and I didn't need a stunt double to wipe out on my way to the CMT Video Awards stage to present best male video of the year" (to an absent Blake Shelton, who later

Shania Twain held a press conference in Nashville today to announce a Las Vegas residency that begins in 18 months (give or take a week). That's all and well, but we were on the scene to ask her: On behalf of all of us who need a post-Up! fix, will she be spending any of that year and a half in a recording studio?

Yes, and sooner rather than later. But as to when you'll get to hear it, don't count on her being any less perfectionist without ex-husband Robert "Mutt" Lange as a producer than she was with him.

"I was petrified of writing a new song without Mutt," she admitted. That scenario was "a whole new world for me. It had been many, many years since I had written by myself, so that was really scary."

The break in the logjam was "Today is Your Day," a song that will premiere on her OWN reality series June 12 and be available for downloading immediately after.

"This song really every day cheered me up," she said, so "I thought, well,, maybe I should share it in the series. Nathan

Lady Gaga loves the '80s. And music critics mostly like her loving the decade, although a few are in hate with the new record's retro tendencies.

"Born This Way is her Eighties arena-rock move," writes Rolling Stone in a four- (out of five) star rave, noting that the new album "has all the electro-sleaze beats and Eurodisco chorus chants that made her the Fame Monster. But the big surprise is the way Gaga pillages the Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar and Eddie Money records of her childhood... The whole album thumps like the soundtrack to a lost Eddie and the Cruisers sequel, one where Eddie gets crucified by Roman soldiers, while Gaga stands under the cross weeping and sending dirty texts to the DJ."

The Washington Post also was reminded of '80s movies, but did not enjoy the flashback. "At its worst, it sounds like reheated leftovers from some '80s movie soundtrack," the paper grouses. "For an information-age superstar who's managed to squeeze us all into a global group-hug, shouldn't Gaga be

Even though Britney Spears has been on GMA and Jimmy Kimmel this year lazily performing songs from her latest album, it's been eons since anyone saw her attempt actual choreography. With her U.S. tour starting in less than a month, fans are inevitably wondering whether the mother of two still has it in her to do any serious hoofing.  

If her two performances at Sunday's Billboard Music Awards are any indication, ticketholders for that tour should continue to set expectations low, since her moves weren't anything that would win her a spot on So You Think You Can Wiggle. As for whether she's gotten over her addiction to lip-synching, you're still much more likely to hear Kurt Cobain sing live this year than you are Britney.

Both of Spears' highly touted appearances on the Billboard Awards amounted to extended cameos, really. The three-hour telecast opened with Spears joining Rihanna nearly minutes into "S&M," entering with her wrists cuffed together with very long chains, just as