Luke Combs once got a pretty special thank you gift from fellow country star Garth Brooks. On an episode of Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard, Combs recalled being surprised with a new vehicle after performing at an event that was honoring Brooks.

“This was last Christmas and my wife was out somewhere. I was feeding my son at the dinner table in our house, and I can see like the gate,” Combs said during the interview. “And my manager’s pulling up in this Bronco. It’s just the same as his, this blue — the Raptor package. And he would never show up at my house unannounced, so I was like, ‘Man, this is kind of weird that he would show up.’ So he walks in and I’m like, ‘Well, I guess he’s giving me a Christmas present…’ So he comes in and he throws me the keys to this thing and I’m like, ‘Are you giving me your car, dude?’ Like, ‘What is this?’

“He’s like, ‘No, man, Garth [Brooks] bought you this,’” Combs recalled. “I was like, ‘What?’” Combs says, at the time, he didn’t know Brooks very well. “This is like a $90,000 car, dude!” Combs said.

In 2022, Brooks was honored by the Nashville Songwriter Awards during a ceremony held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. During that event, Combs had taken the stage to honor Brooks with a performance of Brooks’ 1995 hit “Beaches of Cheyenne.”

“His team asked me to come and be one of the people that sang a song at this thing. Mine was actually ‘The Beaches of Cheyenne,’ which it was a hit, but it wasn’t like a superhit. So, he was like, ‘Yeah, this is for you coming and singing that one song.’ … I guess he had called my manager the following week, or his manager or something, [and asked] ‘What does Luke like?’ And he’s like ‘Oh, he likes cars…he has a Bronco and he likes Fords and stuff.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I’m gonna order him a Bronco Raptor.’ Well, I guess they were on hold or something, so it took like a year to get it in. So I didn’t talk to him from that night until that thing showed up at my house. Obviously, I called him and then I had it painted.”

“I called him and was like, ‘You didn’t have to do this, dude,’” Combs said, adding, “I drove 20 minutes and was there for less than an hour, dude. But he was like, ‘Yeah, but you could’ve went out and booked your own show that night and made this much money’ … and I was just kinda floored by that.”

Shortly after that event in September 2022, Brooks stated on Twitter (now X), “I never felt like a songwriter until tonight when Luke Combs sang the sh$@t out of Beaches of Cheyenne! Thank you @NSAIofficial for yet another unforgettable moment in my life and career!! love, g.”

Earlier this year, Brooks appeared at one of Luke Combs’s performances, joining Combs at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival to perform Brooks’s “Friends in Low Places.”

By now, you’ve heard about the five artists who are slated to receive Kennedy Center Honors in December – Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor, KISS, Sylvester Stallone and George Strait. At a press conference announcing the honorees, President Trump said he was “98% involved” in the selections and that he’ll host the televised ceremony on which these artists are saluted.

While Trump’s involvement will make many view these selections through a partisan lens, we’re asking you to put that aside and simply tell us what’s your favorite song associated with this year’s honorees. We give you two choices for each honoree.

For Crawford, the Tony-winning star of The Phantom of the Opera, you can choose between his two most famous solos in that show: “The Music of the Night” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”

For Gaynor, you can choose between her two top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: her discofied remake of The Jackson 5’s “Never Can Say Goodbye” and her Grammy-winning No. 1 smash “I Will Survive.”

For KISS, you can choose between their rock anthem “Rock and Roll All Nite” and their image-broadening ballad “Beth,” the band’s first top 10 hit on the Hot 100.

For Stallone, you can choose between Hot 100-topping hits from two of his Rocky movies: Bill Conti’s “Gonna Fly Now” and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” Both songs were Oscar-nominated for best original song. (Fun Fact: Stallone is this year’s only Kennedy Center Honors recipient who is associated with two No. 1 Hot 100 hits.)

For Strait, you can choose between “Amarillo by Morning,” a 1983 hit that has long been a fan favorite, and “Check Yes or No,” one of his record 44 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

What’s your favorite of these 10 songs associated with this year’s Kennedy Center Honorees? Vote!

JADE isn’t holding back when it comes to speaking up about her beliefs — and that includes calling out those who choose not to do the same about important issues.

In an interview with The Guardian, the former Little Mix star shared her belief that it’s impossible to separate pop music from social and political developments. In her case, that’s meant standing up for the LGBTQ community and advocating for Palestinian people who have been suffering for years amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, to name a couple of the causes she’s championed.

“I don’t think you can be a pop artist and cover your eyes,” she told the publication, before name-checking another star whose approach she disagrees with. “I saw Matty Healy say that he doesn’t want to be political, which I found disappointing.”

The piece comes a couple of months after The 1975 frontman made headlines for his comments during the band’s 2025 Glastonbury set. Though Healy has previously referenced politics in songs such as 2018’s “Love It If We Made It,” the rocker had told his crowd at the time, “We honestly don’t want our legacy to be one of politics … You can go out into the world and there’s loads of politics everywhere. We don’t need more politics. We need more love and friendship.”

JADE, however, thinks that Healy needs to re-examine why he’s able to make such a statement in the first place. “It’s very easy for someone who’s white and straight and very privileged to say that,” she added to the publication. “Good for you, hun!”

The now soloist is currently gearing up to release That’s Showbiz Baby!, her long-awaited debut album about the highs and lows of finding global fame on The X Factor all the way back in 2011. JADE’s brazenness concerning the issues she’s passionate about translates into the songs on the album; on one track, “IT girl,” she gets brutally honest about how restricted she felt by the music industry during her time with Little Mix.

“We all know what it’s about,” she recently told Billboard of the track. “It’s got a certain cheekiness — I’m a laugh-at-my-trauma kind of girl, and I really enjoy writing music that ruffles people’s feathers because that’s what art should do. Those are my experiences, and now that I’m on my own, there’s nothing holding me back from telling that truth.”

That’s Showbiz Baby! arrives Sept. 12.

Jimmie Allen has been judged liable for sexually assaulting and secretly filming a woman in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2022, accusations the once-rising country star denied but forfeited his right to defend by flouting multiple court-imposed deadlines and orders in the lawsuit.

A Monday (Aug. 18) ruling in Tennessee federal court holds Allen liable by default for battery, assault, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress. The civil claims had been scheduled to go to trial this summer, but a pattern of disobedience by Allen and his lawyers earned them a premature judgment instead.

“The defendants throughout have failed to comply with case management discovery deadlines and even failed to comply with specific orders of this court,” wrote Judge Aleta A. Trauger. “For these reasons, the plaintiff’s motion for sanctions and judgment against defendants Jimmie Allen and Aadyn’s Dad Touring Inc. is granted.”

Aadyn’s Dad Touring is the company that employed Allen’s bodyguard, Charles Hurd, who allegedly helped the singer pursue the anonymous woman at the center of the case. Judge Trauger says the plaintiff’s lawyers can now put in a request for financial damages from both Allen and the touring company.

The case is one of two civil sexual assault lawsuits brought against Allen in 2023, derailing the singer’s promising career after a run of No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. He was subsequently dropped by his label, BBR Music Group, as well as his booking agency, publicist and management company.

The first lawsuit accused Allen of sexually harassing and abusing his day-to-day manager over a period of 18 months from 2020 and 2022. Allen denied the claims and countersued his ex-manager for defamation; that case was settled in 2024.

The second lawsuit brought against Allen is the one at issue in Monday’s ruling. That case, filed by a woman going by the pseudonym Jane Doe 2, says she met Allen on a flight to Nashville in May 2022 and began to regularly text and FaceTime with the singer.

Doe claims she met up with Allen in Las Vegas the following July. While the two had consensual sex, the woman says Allen ejaculated inside her without a condom despite her explicit and repeated protests against this.

After Allen allegedly “passed out” following sex, Doe says she discovered that he had surreptitiously set up his cellphone to record the entire encounter without her knowledge.

Allen denied assaulting Doe and said she consented to the video recording, countersuing her as well. But things didn’t go so smoothly for Allen as the litigation progressed, with the singer cycling through various lawyers and blowing past deadlines for producing evidence and sitting for a deposition.

In December, Judge Trauger axed Allen’s counterclaim as a penalty for his failure to produce the cellphone used to record the sexual encounter. And in March, he was ordered to pay nearly $6,000 to Doe’s lawyers for canceling a mediation session at the last minute.

The final straw came earlier this summer when, with the case’s June trial date fast approaching, Allen still hadn’t paid that $6,000 sum or hired a new local Tennessee lawyer to replace yet another attorney who was leaving his team. Doe’s counsel moved for default judgment in May, saying Allen had already been given his fair share of warnings.

“There are no alternative sanctions to judgment that this court has not already attempted — e.g., extensions, discovery orders, the payment of costs, and the replacement of counsel,” wrote Doe’s attorney Elizabeth Fegan. “There is no reason to believe that entering similar orders would magically now result in defendants’ compliance.”

Allen’s lawyers did not respond to the default judgment request, leading Judge Trauger to cancel the trial date and grant Doe’s motion on Monday. In a comment to Billboard, Fegan says, “We are pleased that the court entered judgment in her favor and look forward to proving her damages.”

“Jimmie Allen’s abuse has had a profound impact on Jane Doe 2,” adds Fegan. “The court’s ruling makes clear that Allen cannot simply ignore the serious consequences of his actions.”

Allen’s reps did not return requests for comment.

The news comes as Allen has been attempting to mount a country comeback. On Aug. 6, he released his first new song, “Beer 99,” to the country format since 2023 and quickly followed up on Tuesday (Aug. 12) with “Country Boys Never Learn.”

Allen has also announced a 14-city tour that kicks off Sept. 5 in Dallas and concludes Nov. 29 in Rochester, N.H.