"You can see that she's hurting," Brianna Chickenfry says of Bunnie Xo. Continue reading…

Riley Green and Theo Von decided to break down one of the country star’s biggest hits: “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.” As you might imagine, it was quite entertaining. The country music star has plenty of No. 1 hits to his name, but the one that really helped put him on the map is a song that explores the perfect world where grandpas – and grandparents in general – never passed away. It’s an emotional song, and a heart-string-tugging tune that many can relate to. But have you ever stopped to think about what would actually happen if grandpas truly didn’t ever die? Theo Von has, and he decided to do a deep dive into it when Green joined him on his This Past Weekend with Theo Von podcast. In classic Theo fashion, he delivered a comical line in a completely deadpan way: “What if Grandpas never did die? You ever think about that? There would be some side effects of it.” Riley Green couldn’t help but smile after that question. The country singer admitted that their would be some side effects, or drawbacks, to that, as well as to many of the other things he mentions in the hit song: “Everything in that song, there are side effects to. If every road was named Copperhead, it’d be really hard to get anywhere. It’d be confusing. If coolers never ran out of beer, people would have alcohol poisoning. If high school home teams never lost, everybody would be .500 at the end of the season. There are problems, if you want to pick apart the songs that I write, we can.” Theo Von was then quick to point out that he wasn’t trying to pick apart anything, and that “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” was one of his favorite songs. But he couldn’t help but notice that there’d be some issues that would arise: “It’s one of my favorite song. I do think, if they never died, first of all, inheritance would never start. That’d piss some people off.” Green countered by saying there would be some positives, like grandparents having a longer time to pass down things like work ethic. And that wasn’t the only time that “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” came up in conversation. Later in the interview, Green said that he’s always caught off guard when fans starting fighting each other at his concerts… mainly because of the songs they choose to throw hands during: “It’s always girls. Girl fights are always way more serious than guy fights. And I’m always surprised too at the song they get in a fight during. There’s been a couple videos I’ve seen of people getting in a fight during ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died.’ Or I’ve got a song called ‘Jesus Saves.’ I’m like… how do you emotionally go to (trading) blows?” How could you fight another person when “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” or “Jesus Saves” comes on? Theo Von had a few ideas, and you can hear what else he had to say in the latest episode of his podcast. This Past Weekend with Theo Von – Riley Green Oh, and if you want to get out there and hear “I Wish Grandpas Never died” performed live, make sure to check out Riley Green’s tour schedule for the next couple of months. Riley Green Tour Dates July 16th, 2026 – Green Bay, WI – Resch Center#~• July 23rd, 2026 – Salt Lake City, UT – Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre#~• August 6th, 2026 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater#/• August 7th, 2026 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center#/• August 8th, 2026 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live#/• August 13th, 2026 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion#/• August 14th, 2026 – Hartford, CT – The XFINITY Theatre#/• August 15th, 2026 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheatre#/• August 21st, 2026 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford#$*^ August 22nd, 2026 – Grand Forks, ND – Ralph Engelstad Arena#$*^ #Justin Moore ~Drake White $Mackenzie Carpenter •Hannah McFarland *Adam Hood /Zach John King ^Not A Live Nation ShowThe post Riley Green Says He Can’t Believe That Fans Will Fist Fight During An Emotional Song Like “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Moore says the anxiety of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to his struggles with alcohol addiction, and he tried to stop on his own for a few times before getting help. Continue reading…

We’re a little over halfway through 2026, and thanks to a report from Luminate (their 2026 Midyear Report, to be exact), we now know that two genres are surging in popularity more than any others: Latin and country music. It’s been pretty evident that country has been on the rise in the past couple of years. You’ve probably heard the phrase “country’s cool again” thrown around a couple of times. All of the arenas and stadiums packed with fans seeing country acts supports that sentiment, and now, the numbers are even aligning with country music’s increasing popularity. Luminate says that though two genres still reign supreme in the United States, there’s two other categories that are really blowing up: “In terms of genre: The combination of R&B/hip-hop remains on top in the U.S., but its dominance is being challenged by genre diversification, as other styles experience growth. Latin and country music are surging thanks to artists like Bad Bunny and Ella Langley. Certain AI-generated tracks are also growing in popularity.” All good news… well, except for that AI-generated part. We’ll get to more on that later… Luminate finds that there’s a post-2020 trend of country music listenership going up and up. Luminate’s vice president of music insights and industry relations, Jaime Marconette, told the AP that genres like country and Latin were already growing prior to the pandemic, and that period of time helped aid an acceleration: “R&B/Hip-Hop remains a massive commercial force, but its historic dominance is leveling off as the streaming landscape diversifies. The genre was an early adopter of streaming, commanding nearly 30% of U.S. audio consumption by 2022, but the post-pandemic era has seen accelerated … growth from genres like Country and Latin.” I’d imagine it wouldn’t be a stretch to say the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show seems to be paying off, in terms of rising listenership. The country and Latin genres might be growing, but they are still a ways away from other “Genre Goliaths” like hip-hop, rock, and pop (not that far beyond pop, actually). That being said, country can claim that they have the two biggest albums of the 2026 thus far: “In the first half of 2026, the R&B/hip-hop genres accounted for nearly 180.3 billion streams in the U.S., followed by rock with 137.2 billion, pop with 87.8 billion, country with 63.8 billion and Latin with 63 billion… Albums may be a good place to see the growth of both Latin and country in the U.S. The top albums of the year, so far, are Morgan Wallen’s ‘I’m the Problem’ with 2.035 million album equivalent units, Ella Langley’s ‘Dandelion’ with 1.638 million and Bad Bunny’s ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ with 1.543 million.” Look at Morgan Wallen and Ella Langley dominating the most listened to albums portion of the report. And I know I mentioned we’d get to the AI-generated stuff… I’d rather not point it out, but there was another country song that got a lot of plays. It happened to be from the same “artist” who put out “Walk My Walk” last year, which shot up to the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s country digital song sales chart. Breaking Rust is still at it, and one of the AI-artist’s song racked up almost 20 million streams: “The most-streamed AI-generated song in the U.S. is country act Breaking Rust’s “Livin’ on Borrowed Time,” which accounted for 19 million streams. In all countries except the U.S., it earned 13.4 million streams.” I don’t know how you feel about it, but in my opinion, 19 million streams of an AI-generated song is 19 million streams too many.The post Report Shows That Country Music (and Latin) Are Surging In Popularity In 2026 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Elle King is opening up about her recent autism diagnosis and she's very excited about what's to come. Continue reading…