Snap is back with a new pair of AR smart glasses, and for the first time in years, it’s ready to sell them to consumers. The company plans to sell these new glasses, called Specs, to consumers starting in 2026, CEO Evan Spiegel announced on Tuesday during the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California. […]

If there is one artist who constantly goes out of their way to uplift the community, it’s Jelly Roll. Whether he and his wife, Bunnie Xo, are helping young kids express themselves through music or the “Save Me” singer is visiting prisons, sharing his story of how he turned his life around, this couple goes out of their way to spread joy and uplift the greater Nashville area. Even Bunnie Xo has been extremely open and vulnerable about her IVF process, showing women all over that they’re not alone on the journey. Most recently, Jelly Roll brought smiles to the faces of young children who were there to help their community in need. “In Nashville, they just went through a horrible tragedy… they told me not to talk about this on stage, but I don’t care. I’m too honest not to be honest, right? My old high school had a tragedy earlier this year, Antioch High School. Because of the children in the room, I don’t even want to instill that fear, but y’all know what happened. If you know, you know, and it was really sad. That was my old school.” The tragedy Jelly is referring to is the shooting that happened at Antioch High School on January 25, 2025. At the start of the year,  17-year-old student Solomon Henderson opened fire inside the school’s cafeteria, killing one student and injuring another before he took his own life. The incident happened minutes after 11 am when Solomon confronted 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante with a handgun that was believed to be hidden in the restroom of the school. The gunman took Escalante’s life, and bullets grazed another student, and a third student was injured by falling while trying to protect himself. The gunman fired ten shots in seventeen seconds, and in those seventeen seconds, every high schooler’s life changed at Antioch High School. As Jelly Roll said, he would spare the details of the horrific event because young ears were in the room. He continues his story, sharing with the crowd how another Nashville school uplifted these students during the tragic time. “And of course, I went back as soon as I could to help. But before I could make it, some children at Ruby Elementary School, right here in Nashville, in Hermitage, Tennessee, about sixteen minutes down the street, had a genius music teacher named Mr. K, who has been teaching these beautiful souls that music is powerful. And that music can help people in really dark moments of their lives. These kids, all on their own.. I’m gonna cry… Somebody say something funny, please. But these kids, they sung a song of mine called ‘I’m Not Okay,’ and they sent it to the high schoolers ’cause they said, ‘Maybe the big kids need the little kids to inspire them right now.'” Jelly Roll takes a second to compose himself and to keep himself from crying on stage. After a brief pause, Jelly Roll shares that he invited these students and their music teacher to the stage at the Grand Ole Opry to sing their version of “I’m Not Okay” to the audience. “Well, they sent it to me, and I have been looking for a reason to bring these talented kids on the stage to sing this song. And I think this is as close to God’s house as we could do it right here at the Grand Ole Opry during CMA Fest. If it’s okay, I’d like to bring Mr. K, who I think is a great, incredible, forward-thinking human, and I would like to bring the kids of Ruby Major Elementary School from Hermitage, Tennessee, to the stage.” @shineonjewelss #jellyroll #iamnotokay #messageofhope ♬ original sound – Syrena After Jelly Roll told the Opry audience they were being treated to this surprise, a few crowd members gave him a standing ovation. As the audience roared, the students filed onto the stage and formed a choir to begin singing the song. After the performance, NewsChannel5 interviewed Mr. K, who was beaming and could not say enough kind things about Jelly Roll for allowing his students to make their Grand Ole Opry debut. “The crowd was so into them, and they were so loud. They just started bawling, and then Jelly Roll started bawling. It was awesome.” Jelly Roll created a core memory for these kids and reminded those in the audience and those who later watched the performance that even in the darkest moments, there can be light. Check out the performance before you go. It’s powerful. @stephencrowe922 Part 3 Jelly Roll and school kids sing together at the Grand Ole Opry. #jellyroll #grandoleopry #100grandoleopry @lauramcrowe ♬ original sound – AllAmerican The post Jelly Roll Gets Emotional Bringing Children From Ruby Major Elementary School To Opry Stage: “I’m Gonna Cry” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

There’s just something special about the country music community. North Carolina and many other states are still trying to pick up the pieces after their communities were devastated by Hurricane Helene. The natural disaster moved up through Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia last September, and completely devastated mountain towns in western North Carolina. That’s where much of the relief efforts are still ongoing. Though you might not hear about in the news cycle much anymore, some people are still without homes months later, and many North Carolina residents are just hoping for some sense of normalcy once again. One of the families that was impacted by the hurricane and the subsequent flash flooding was the Pogalz family. They hail from Yancey County in North Carolina, and around six months ago, they watched their home – and thus their entire life – wash away from the rushing water brought on by Hurricane Helene. They recently found out that FEMA would not cover their cost to rebuild, which left the Pogalz family helpless. Ashley Pogalz explained why FEMA declined their relief request to WSOC-TV: “We make too much money for help, and that’s not fair, because the hurricane didn’t ask us how much money we made before it took everything. So why? Why does it matter how much we make? We need help.” That’s where Chase Rice comes in. The country music star partnered up with the Montana Knife Company and a non-profit by the name of We Must Protect, and together, they raised enough money to rebuild the Pogalz family’s home. The family had received some funds from FEMA, as well as some money from their flood insurance, to buy a plot of land. Rice and Montana Knife Company CEO Josh Smith recently met them there to surprise them with the news that their life was one step closer to being back to normal. We Must Protect, which is currently working to rebuild homes in western North Carolina until there are no homes left to be rebuilt (or they run out money), said that they couldn’t have embarked on the Pogalz rebuild without the help of Rice and Smith: “From the first day we met you all, we knew we wanted to build you a house, but our thing is we can’t commit until we have the funding to finish the house. We are so grateful for what Chase and Montana Knife Company did because now we can build you the house that you need.” So now, thanks to some collaboration, a country music star, a non-profit and a knife company, a family that has waited over half a year for help and a home is finally receiving it. Chase Rice, whose hometown was also devastated by Hurricane Helene, is just inspired by the Good Lord stepping in to organize the relief effort from above: “There’s so many different things that came together. I’d say the number one thing coming together was God, putting all these people together to make this family finally have a home.” And Danny Pogalz, the patriarch of the family, is beyond grateful for the hodgepodge of help that his family finally received: “I keep repeating, just unreal. Never thought we would be in this kind of situation to begin with, and now, you know, we got knocked down, but now we’re going to be ahead.” The post Chase Rice Helps Hurricane Helene Victims Build New Home After FEMA Declined Their Relief Request first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

The Willie Nelson stamp of approval. Today, Zach Top is the guest on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast, and he talked all about getting his start in country music, his forthcoming sophomore album Ain’t In It For My Health (which is due everywhere on August 29th), and some of the legends he’s gotten to meet since bursting onto the scene as one of the hottest young acts in the genre. They talked about George Strait and Alan Jackson, who Top has opened for before, and he said the other two legends he’d love to meet that he hasn’t had a chance to yet would be Willie and Hank Williams Jr. While he hasn’t met Willie yet, he did get the stamp of approval from the red headed stranger that Willie really like his cover of his classic heartbreaker, “Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning.” Written by Gary Nunn and Donna Farar, it was released as the third single from Willie’s iconic 1982 album Always On My Mind, and eventually peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. Zach said it’s one of his all-time favorites, which I wholeheartedly agree with, and I love that he’s continuing to bring it to a new generation of fans who have likely never heard the song before. Zach said that he’s friends with Willie’s son Lukas, who is also a very talented artist, and Lukas showed his dad the cover that Zach had been doing out on the road last year. Willie said it was great, and I can’t imagine a cooler moment for a young artist to know that the living legend himself liked the way he sang such a classic song. Also, props to Lukas for doing that for his friend because that’s so real and so kind: “No, that’s another great one. Yeah, huge… I did get, so I’m friends with his son Lukas Nelson, who’s also a great, great artist, great singer. Anyway, he texted me one time, last year, we were doing an old song Gary P. Nunn wrote ‘Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning,’ one of my favorite Willie Nelson songs, we were covering that in our show. And Lukas texted me one day and he’s like ‘Man, I showed your cover to my dad. I just wanted to you know he thought you did really good job on it, and he liked it a lot.’ And it’s like, that’s pretty damn cool. So I would love to get to meet him, obviously.” It just doesn’t get any better… Zach also talked about meeting Chris and Morgane Stapleton, who he’s a huge fan of: “Stapleton was another big one, Chris Stapleton. I hadn’t met him until just at the ACM‘s back in April… anyway I’d seen him a couple times just in passing and kind of done the thing where it’s like, man, am I really gonna be another guy that goes up to him? But anyway, I went up to him, he was super nice, him his wife Morgane. That was that was a cool one, big, big fan of him.” And he recalled how cool it was when Luke Combs came up to him during an award show last year to tell him he was a fan, which is so humble and so on-brand for Combs: “Luke Combs was one that was just like, I saw him at the CMA’s for the first time last fall, and I’d seen him across the room, wasn’t going to go bother him. anyway, he ended up coming up to me and was just cool as can be. Just like ‘Dude, I’ve heard your stuff, love it. You sound great.’ Its’ so awesome, I’ve been a fan of him for a long time.” Between Stapleton, Combs and Top, they’re three of the best, if not the three best, acts in mainstream country right now, so it’s cool to hear about the mutual respect they have for each other and now that I’m thinking about it, I would actually do anything to hear the three of them sing together… no one matches them vocally, and maybe at least two of them will collab one day. We deserve that. And if you’ve never heard Zach’s “Last Thing I Needed Cover,” it’s well past time to change that. Aside from the aforementioned Chris Stapleton, who also does an incredible cover of this song, you can’t beat this: I can never, ever get enough of this one… inject it into my veins. “Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning” The full podcast: The post Zach Top Says Willie Nelson Gave The Stamp Of Approval On His “Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning” Cover first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

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