Blog Posts by Chris Willman

Godhead, or gimmick? A lot of Josh Groban fans have been waiting with bated breath to find out which it would be, ever since it was announced that the operatically voiced star would be working with Rick Rubin, the Beastie Boys' one-time Svengali. Rubin, of course, has been involved in the reclamation of many an artistic reputation in recent years, producing albums for legends like Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. But Groban's previous albums with David Foster reliably sold millions apiece without any need for image rehabilitation.

Illuminations pulls off a neat hat trick: Mom will still love getting it for Christmas—and it will be blasting the tinsel off trees across America come Dec. 26, as is the music industry's fondest hope. But Mom's blogger son may be giving Groban a chance this time, too. It's not just the Nick Cave cover, either. There's an un-self-conscious austerity to the musical grandiosity this time that, per the title, puts Groban's gifts in a whole new light. And Rubin

Where were you when JFK got shot? Where were you when you heard John Lennon died? Where were you when those planes hit the Twin Towers? Where were you when you first had the chance to legally download the same version of "I Am the Walrus" you already ripped to your computer eons ago?

One of these things is not like the other. But in one of the most misleading ad lines ever, Apple yesterday devoted its home page to the message: "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget." Today is, indeed, a day that shall live in infamy, at least among Apple fans, who are used to product announcements living up to the hype. The backlash against the company for the hilarious hyperbole is so great that whoever came up with those taglines is probably being taken to the marketing woodshed as we speak... unless it was Steve Jobs himself, of course.

The Beatles' catalog coming to iTunes has been many years in coming, of course. But it's less of an event to the rest of the world than it is to the

Should Michael Jackson's "latest" posthumous song, "Hold My Hand," be credited to Michael & the Blowfish?

The newly released song, which duet partner Akon recently completed, is the first official single from an upcoming collection of previously unheard Jackson material (following the release of a teaser track, "Breaking News"). A rougher version of "Hold My Hand" was leaked in 2008, before Jackson's death, and it didn't set the world on fire at the time. Then, as now, some observers wondered why Jackson would want to record a song with elements that remind folks so much of the mid-'90s Hootie & the Blowfish smash of the same name.

The two songs are hardly dead ringers for one another, but they don't just share a name—the words of the title are sung by Jackson and Akon in roughly the same rhythm and phrasing, if not exactly the same note pattern. Maybe this eventually occurred to Jackson and would go some way toward explaining why the tune was never completed in his lifetime.

(The

'Twas the night after CMAs, and all through the house, lots of hungover stars were creeping, even though it was hotter than Taos...

"Nothing like a Christmas special and it's 85 outside," said Brad Paisley, addressing the crowd at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena Thursday night. That was a slight exaggeration of the current Tennessee heat wave, but temperatures have been reaching the balmy high 70s in Music City this week, which, as Paisley indicated, didn't exactly put everyone in a Perry Como mood. Nonetheless, ABC and the Country Music Association were shooting a special called CMA Country Christmas, scheduled to air on Nov. 29.

Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles hosted the occasion, which also featured performances from Reba McIntire, Leann Rimes, Sheryl Crow, Rascal Flatts, Martina McBride, Darius Rucker, Kellie Pickler, and Little Big Town.

It made sense for the parties involved to shoot the special the night after the CMAs. After all, they already had the arena rented out and full of

The stars arriving at the 44th CMA Awards offered a split decision in who they thought was most likely to prevail at tonight's CMA Awards, with Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert seen as being in a dead heat. But in that, they were nearly unanimous, that youth is likely to prevail, one way or another.

Well, actually, we did find someone rooting for Keith Urban, one of the guys who's a relative veteran in the Entertainer of the Year category. And that's Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott.

"Honestly, we feel like we haven't earned it," Hillary Scott told Our Country. "We have a lot more to prove before I feel like we'll be deserving of that award. I do love that that category this year is kind of turning over a new leaf with newer, younger acts... But then you still have the great Brad Paisley and Keith Urban in there, and in my opinion, one of them will take it home. We toured with Keith up in Canada for three weeks, and it was one of the most inspiring experiences we ever had. So I hope

Taylor Swift was annointed queen in Nashville this week—not by the CMA Awards, which mysteriously undernominated her, but at the BMI Awards, where she broke several records. Not only was Swift the youngest person, at 20, to be named Songwriter of the Year, but she also become the first BMI writer to have the Country Song of the Year for three years in a row, with "You Belong With Me" following "Love Story" and "Teardrops on My Guitar" in that line of succession.

If anything, Swift might inspire some other hit Nashville songwriters to ditch BMI and have their songs licensed through a different performing rights organization. Because all the songs from her newly released Speak Now album will be eligible next year, or the year after, which makes her pretty much a shoo-in for Songwriter of the Year in 2011 and 2012, too. So if you're another songwriter with a competitive streak hoping for the top prize any time soon, you just might be wanting to take your chances at the ASCAP Awards

The much-anticipated Country Strong movie doesn't open until Dec. 22 in Los Angeles and Nashville and January 7 in the rest of the nation. So, by normal standards, it'd be a little early to be having a splashy premiere. But experience shows that if you can tie anything country-related to the highly rated CMA Awards, you should... which is how it came to be that, two nights prior to the ceremony and almost two months prior to the national release, the studio debuted their film in front of hundreds of Nashville luminaries at the Green Hills Cinemas, with leading actors Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, and Leighton Meester leading the red carpet brigade. And Our Country was on the scene.

Before the screening, though he hadn't yet seen the film, guest Luke Bryan expressed great faith in McGraw's ability to keep things real in a film centered around several fictional country music singers. "With Tim's involvement," said Bryan, "I imagine he was stepping in and going, 'Hey, guys, it don't go

Quick.Which music star says this in his new autobiography: "You can't alwaysget what you want. But if you're lucky, you get what you need"?

If you guessed Keith Richards, guess again. It's actually Justin Bieber! (See p. 36... we wouldn't lie.)

Whetherthe 16-year-old pop superstar knows he's quoting the Stones, orbrilliant minds just think alike, is anyone's guess. But Bieber's First Step 2 Forever: My Story just barely preceded Richards' Life into bookstores, and we couldn't help but compare and contrast these two high-profile memoirs.

We'renot quite ready to wonder aloud if the 66-year-old rocker is Bieber'sreal grandpa, but amid the obvious differences, we couldn't help noticea shocking number of similarities. Here's how they align and differ oneverything from girls to God:

FEMALE FANS

Bieberstarts his book by addressing "the greatest fans in the world," saying"every one of you is 'My Favorite Girl' for a different reason"-noteven allowing for the possibility of any male fans.