Veteran music journalist Vernell Hackett, a longtime chronicler of Nashville’s top music artists, died on Aug. 14 in Chicago, after suffering from cardiac arrest. Hackett was 77.

Born Vernell Dell Boswank, she grew up in the small Texas town of Riesel, and graduated from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. 

Though she initially had plans to pursue a career in crime reporting, her passion for music led her on a path to becoming a top music journalist. She and her husband Ken relocated to Buffalo, N. Y., to live closer to his family, before relocating to Nashville. Hackett worked for booking agent Tandy Rice at Top Billing International, where Rice represented artists including Dolly Parton, Jim Ed Brown, Jerry Clower, Porter Wagoner, Jeannie C. Riley, Tom T. Hall and others. 

Hackett was known for her heartfelt and vivid storytelling, her deep connections with artists and songwriters, and her passion for music and creativity. Hackett’s work in journalism included time as an editor of Country News, Country Rhythms and American Songwriter magazines. Hackett was a co-founder of American Songwriter magazine, and she served as the publication’s editor-in-chief for over a decade. She also freelanced for many publications, as well as radio syndicators.

During her career, Hackett also worked in public relations, including time as part of the Country Music Association’s communications department. In the 1980s, Hackett worked with a young rodeo cowboy by the name of Chris LeDoux, who also dreamed of being a country music singer. LeDoux went on to earn the top 10 Billboard Country Airplay chart hit “Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy” in 1992, while his song “Cadillac Ranch” reached the chart’s top 20 in 1993. LeDoux passed away in 2005, and Garth Brooks honored LeDoux’s memory with the song “Good Ride Cowboy.”

Hackett also represented artists including bluegrass artist Dale Ann Bradley, Americana duo Jesse and Noah, nitty gritty dirt band founding member John McEuen, and singer-songwriters Ryan Murphey, Joni Harms and Randy Huston.

She was also an author, writing books including a biography of Carrie Underwood. She also penned the book Ghosts, Gangsters and Gamblers of Las Vegas, with her longtime friends and colleagues Liz Cavanaugh and Michelle Honick.

Beyond music, Hackett was a champion for animal rights, working with rescue shelters and supporting the Robyn’s Nest shelter. Many years ago, after Hackett asked that friends bring dog food in lieu of gifts to her birthday party, a longtime tradition was started, which ultimately resulted in thousands of pounds of pet food, as well as monetary donations, being made to Robyn’s Nest.

“Vernell was my close personal friend for decades. Sometimes, we would talk two or three times a week,” The Oak Ridge Boys’ Duane Allen said in a statement. “The last week of her life, she sent a beautiful poem that was suitable to hang on any wall. She was always positive. I sent her a funny video of a very small dog singing and a big dog hitting the small dog with flip-flops. Vernell and I had three things in common. She loved the Lord, her friends and animals. I look forward to seeing her in Heaven, rejoicing with our many mutual friends, and I can imagine that there will be many of our four-legged friends to keep us company.” 

Musician Michael Martin Murphey added in a statement, “Vernell Hackett was the kindest, most down-to-earth journalist and human being I’ve ever known. She had a sense of what the common, everyday country music fan is looking for in a story…Vernell went out of her way to support me on my journey.”

“Very sad to hear about Vernell’s passing; she was always so very kind to us, and we feel privileged to have known her through the years,” said David Bellamy of The Bellamy Brothers said in a statement. “We send prayers and condolences to her family and loved ones.” 

Hackett is survived by her nephew Glen Boswank (Nashville, Tennessee) and niece Katy Prewitt (Kaufman, Texas).

Dolly Parton says she and her team are in early talks with companies that produce “avatar performances,” as she continues working through health issues that have sidelined several appearances this year.

“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” Parton, 80, told People in an interview published Friday (Aug. 21), referring to her late husband, Carl Thomas Dean, who died in March 2025 at 82 after nearly 60 years of marriage.

She said the avatar performances, which she did not describe in detail, are still in the “early stages of development.”

Parton framed the current stretch as difficult but not unprecedented. “It’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health,” she said, recalling being “down for several months with female issues” in the early 1980s.

She added that public scrutiny feels more intense now than it once did: “I think because we live in a 24/7 world with social media, everything gets magnified in ways it wasn’t years ago. I used to joke that I was the Queen of the Tabloids, but now I guess I can say I’m the Queen of Social Media AI! Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’.”

The interview followed a string of missed appearances. Parton postponed a planned Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, first pushing the December 2025 dates to September 2026 before canceling the run entirely in May.

She also appeared only virtually for several 2026 engagements, including the Academy of Country Music’s Poet’s Award at the ACM Honors and, most recently, the dedication of Dollywood’s new NightFlight Expedition ride on Aug. 14.

Parton has not toured traditionally since 2016. In March, at her first in-person public appearance of 2026, she told a Dollywood crowd she had been “worn down and worn out” from grief and needed to rebuild herself “spiritually, emotionally and physically,” while maintaining that her health issues hadn’t slowed her down.

There appears to be some bad blood among the past and current members of family country group The Band Perry.

The trio launched in 2010 as a sibling trio, consisting of Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry, and earned hits including “If I Die Young” (a Hot Country Songs and Adult Contemporary No. 1) and “Better Dig Two” (No. 1 on Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay). The group went on hiatus in 2023, and Kimberly launched a brief solo career, before The Band Perry regrouped with Kimberly, brother Reid and Kimberly’s husband, Johnny Costello. Soon, Reid left the band and it transitioned to a duo with Kimberly and her husband, who released singles including “Psychological.”

Now, Neil Perry is telling his side of the story behind how the group’s lineup shifted.

On Aug. 11, Neil Perry released a series of posts on Instagram, promoting music under a new moniker called Wolves of June. The first video joined the recent “Netflix doc” online trend, as Perry was seen sitting in a chair in front of shelves of awards that The Band Perry had previously won, and the clip is emblazoned with the words, “Preparing for my Netflix documentary about how The Band Perry went from three siblings to my sister and her husband.” The post included the caption: “June 2024 took the old life. Wolves of June is what came next…”

Another Instagram post from Neil Perry gave more details, as he wrote, “June 2024 took something from me. Something I had spent my entire life building. A band. A business. A family. A name. My sister wanted her husband to become a member of the band, taking my brother’s place. I made it equally clear that I was not okay with that…weeks later, I was terminated. The day after my birthday…Then I watched a story emerge that didn’t resemble the one I lived.”

That post from Neil Perry included a scene from the series Succession, as well as clips from two interviews that Kimberly Perry and Costello did to promote The Band Perry as a duo, in which she appears to say that her brothers supported her continuing on with the group. Neil Perry wrote: “I explicitly asked my sister not to misrepresent my support for the current version of the band.”

He went on to add, “By May 2024, none of us were consistently on speaking terms, and Reid had stopped engaging in both personal and business matters. Kimberly came to me about bringing the band out of hiatus, and we initially agreed that moving forward with Reid was not something we were prepared to do. Kimberly reached out to him, and he confirmed he was not interested. I was then presented with three options: move forward as a duo, hold auditions or have her husband step in. I was fine with the first two, but soon understood Kimberly wanted to move forward with the third. We ultimately decided not to proceed.”

Those plans quickly shifted, however. Neil Perry’s statement continued, “A few weeks later, Reid rejoined the band through conversations I was not part of, and I was given three days to decide whether I would continue under those circumstances. At the end of that three-day window, I asked for a conversation the following week, and was told I was out of time. I was approached again a month later, but I could not move forward under those circumstances. At that point, I understood that continuing to tour was no longer realistically an option for me and I would soon be forced out by the 2/3 partnership agreement. What I did not agree to was losing my financial interest and access to the resources and business I had spent my life helping to build.

“Shortly after the band signed a label deal, my brother left the band. What remained is my sister and her husband.”

The Band Perry’s 2010 self-titled album reached platinum status from the Recording Industry Association of America, thanks to hit singles including “You Lie” and “If I Die Young.” Their follow-up album, 2013’s Pioneer, included hit singles “Better Dig Two” and “DONE.” They issued the pop-leaning album Coordinates in 2018 before announcing their hiatus in 2023.

Neil Perry also launched a new Instagram page for Wolves of June, which includes his performances of his new alt-pop song “TNT.”

Multiple reps for The Band Perry had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment by press time.

Two decades after studying at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and relocating to Nashville, Mississippi native Charlie Worsham has forged a career as an award-winning artist/songwriter/musician. He’s a multi-hyphenate artist in his own right, but is also a first-call session player, touring bandmate, and essential thread in the fabric of country music’s current landscape.

His new album, Once Upon a Second Time Around, out Friday (Aug. 7), is his third full-length solo project, following 2013’s Rubberband and 2017’s The Beginning of Things, as well as the 2023 EP Compadres, but also launches a new independent era: The album is out on ONErpm after he spent years with Warner Records Nashville.

Concurrently with releasing his own music, Worsham has lent his prowess on guitar, mandolin, banjo and songwriting to albums by Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Ella Langley, Kacey Musgraves, Kip Moore, Sam Williams, Luke Combs, and Dierks Bentley. He’s been part of touring bands for Vince Gill and Bentley, as well as briefly joining Old Crow Medicine Show. Early in his career, he played in the country group Kingbilly, where one of his bandmates was Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne.

“When you move to town, you need a little piss and vinegar, a little bit of an attitude, which I [had]. I had the great fortune of moving into a house and band with all these great musical big brothers I never had. Chief among them, John Osborne. The biggest difference from 21-year-old me to now is I’ve learned to let go of so much and in letting go, my hands are free to pick up the really beautiful parts.”

Two decades in the industry have helped Worsham, 40, arrive at a moment where he’s redefined for himself what constitutes success.

“It’s very easy to have blinders on as a young artist in town because the definition of success can be so narrow. What’s great in this moment is I have that proverbial seat at the table. I know enough to know now that what I was really tightly clinging to and what felt like anger was really fear that I wouldn’t have this permanent spot in town in this community,” he says. “I think the biggest shift is that I have freedom to expand my definition of success…Any day I wake up and I’m collaborating with people that challenge me and inspire me to be better and I’m being creative, that’s the dream.”

His experiences are woven into his new album. Guiding him as a mantra was “The impossible takes longer,” a saying he found in a book of quotes from Nobel Laureate honorees.

“It feels that way sometimes, like, ‘How do I get to this place, but bring my bluegrass heart that I have and this Southern rock heart that I have and all these things are starting to take shape?”

Worsham co-wrote around half of the album’s dozen songs, though he also worked with Sony Music Publishing’s exec vp of creative Josh Van Valkenburg, who played a key role in finding several of the album’s cuts, including “Family Man,” written by Josh Jenkins, Ben Stennis and Matt Rogers, and “They Never Do,” which was an older song written by Lainey Wilson, Dallas Wilson and Josh Nix.

“She’s a sister to me in that regard, she’s just been at it for a long time and had to be patient for the world to catch up,” Worsham says of Wilson, who previously recorded with Worsham for a song on his Compadres EP. “She did me a great kindness by singing on this.”

He adds, “Josh [Van Valkenburg]  also found songs that I had written and kind of forgotten about,” Worsham says, including the album’s title track. “I was writing for a record I thought would be a Warner record. Technically, I had not parted ways with Warner until the middle of this process. The day I wrote that song, I needed to write for my heart and then I immediately disregarded it and didn’t think it would see the light of day.”

Songs like “Powers That Be” and “Family Man” center on Worsham’s balancing act between his musical duties, his roles as husband and father, and his podcast, Mississippi on the Map, which highlights his home state’s contributions to musical culture, as well as the 50 Years From Home with Gill. 

“I’m still working on the balance. Part of that is self-induced, and part of it is just the nature of being a multi-hyphenate, which for a long time I felt worked against me,” he says. “[In] this independent season, it kind of works for me. I’m learning to sort of double down everywhere I can on doing the thing that only I can do. That means injecting a little bit of music nerd into things. That means injecting a medium dose of Mississippi into all things, telling stories,” he says. “And the balance part is definitely a challenge. But I’m better than I was last year. I’m better than I was the year before that at it. And so it’s an ongoing process and I am so grateful. I still love getting out on the road. But also coming home has never been sweeter.”

Time spent at home influenced “Years Go By,” which came from a COVID-era writing session over Zoom with Stephen Wilson Jr., as Worsham and his wife were expecting a child, and Wilson was teaching his son how to drive.

“At that time– and still do–I looked to dads who were farther down the road, like, ‘All right, help me out. What’s some wisdom?’ So it was half that and half co-write,” Worsham says.

The album closes with a reprise of one of the album’s earlier songs, “Wrap My Porch Around,” this time a nod to Worsham’s affinity for bluegrass by collaborating with The Travelin’ McCourys. In doing so, Worsham gives a nod to Bentley, who has often closed out his albums with a bluegrass cut, and Gill, who on his 1996 album High Lonesome Sound included two versions of the title track, one featuring Alison Krauss & Union Station.

“It was very much meant to be a tip of the hat to Dierks, but also to Vince. I’ve gotten to know the McCourys through being with Dierks,” he says. “And sweet Jason Carter, that recording was the last thing he did [as part of The Travelin’ McCourys] before striking out as a solo guy.”

Worsham calls Gill’s genre-blending High Lonesome Sound “monumental for me, because I knew I wanted to come to Nashville. I knew I was a bluegrass kid but I knew I loved ripping an electric guitar and country music. We even cut [“Wrap My Porch Around”] at Vince’s house and I played one of Vince’s acoustic [guitars] on it.”

Professionally and personally, he continues to view Gill as a role model.

“He understands that he has less time ahead of him to make music and be creative and every note matters,” he says. “I’m living another version of that; my kids are growing up faster than I’ll be able to emotionally handle. But I do, God willing, have decades of making music ahead of me. I hope that in the next 20 years, I’ll look back and go, ‘I made twice as much music as I had.’”

Ahead, fans could see a record that leans more heavily into Worsham’s bluegrass proclivities. “This moment where we’re in, where Billy Strings is selling multiple arena nights, it’s just a good time for music to blur the lines and for people to show all their cards and say, ‘This is where my journey has taken me.’”

Ella Langley continues heating up the Billboard Hot 100 as “Choosin’ Texas” reigns for a 16th week, while her album Dandelion remains in the top 5 of the all-genre Billboard 200. Now, Langley is bringing a bit of that Dandelion vibe to a new collaboration with Shiner beer.

On Aug. 13, Shiner will launch the limited collaboration Dandelion Honey Kolsch, inspired by her album. The Kolsch-style beer is brewed with dandelion honey, offering sweet floral notes. The bottle is also inspired by the album, with its label featuring honey tones and emblazoned with dandelions.

Dandelion, Langley’s sophomore album, released in April and contains hits including “Choosin’ Texas,” “Be Her,” and “Butterfly Season,” the latter featuring Miranda Lambert. Langley co-executive produced the album with Lambert and Ben West.

Shiner Beer teased the upcoming Langley collaboration with a video on Instagram, and was recently featured in a viral video clip of Langley from her video shoot for “Choosin’ Texas.”

That viral clip featured Langley holding two bottles of Shiner beer, and then picking the bottom of one of the bottles with the heel of her boot, causing the cap to pop off. Langley then tilts a bottle toward the camera, nods and comments, “Cheers.”

Fans wanting to add more Ella vibes into their lifestyle have several ways to do so; Langley also recently teamed with NOYZ for the perfume Be Her By Ella Langley, a fragrance infused with notes of violet and peony. In recent months, she also teamed with BUM Energy for an energy drink and has collaborated with brands including American Eagle and Boot Barn.

As “Choosin’ Texas” dominates for a 16th week, country songs also take the Billboard Hot 100’s entire top five spots, also including Morgan Wallen’s “Be By Now,” the Langley/Wallen collaboration “I Can’t Love You Anymore,” Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” and Stella Lefty’s “Boston.”

Parker McCollum and his wife, Hallie Ray McCollum, have welcomed their second child together.

The country star announced Saturday (Aug. 1) that the couple’s new baby boy was born on July 30. They shared the news in a joint Instagram post featuring a gallery of family photos from the hospital.

“Rocker Tommy Light McCollum! born on July 30th / 8 pounds 7 oz!” the couple wrote. “THANK YOU JESUS for another healthy baby boy! we are so in love with our little fam! mom & dad x 2 here we gooooooo!”

The photo gallery included sweet moments of the family’s first days as a quartet, with McCollum and Hallie Ray posing alongside their newborn while their older son, Major Yancey, looked on.

The announcement drew congratulations from friends, fans and fellow artists. Miranda Lambert was among those celebrating the news, commenting, “Congrats yall,” alongside two blue heart emojis.

The arrival comes just days after McCollum revealed he would postpone tour dates to be present for the birth of his second son.

“Hey everyone. Wanted to share some good news with you all,” he wrote in a Facebook post on July 29. “My beautiful wife is blessing our family with our second baby and it’s looking like he’ll be here tomorrow! I couldn’t be more excited to become a dad for the second time.”

The singer also announced he would reschedule shows in Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska, explaining his decision to put family first.

“Once I step off the stage at Red Rocks, I’m headed straight home to be with the family. Hate having to make that call, but family comes first,” he wrote.

The Omaha concert has been rescheduled for Sept. 10, while the Kansas City show will now take place Sept. 12. Previously purchased tickets will be honored for the new dates.

“Thanks for understanding and for all the love. Can’t wait to see ya’ll soon,” McCollum concluded.

McCollum is currently touring in support of his 2025 self-titled album, with dates scheduled through the end of November.

McCollum first announced Hallie Ray’s pregnancy in December 2025, sharing festive family photos on Instagram. “McCollum party of 4 next Christmas!!!!” he captioned the Instagram post.

The couple married in March 2022 and welcomed their first son, Major Yancey, in August 2024.

When Cole Swindell reached the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts in 2016 with “You Should be Here,” the title arguably became the biggest hit of his career.

He’s had others that reigned for more than one week on each of those lists, but “You Should be There” – with four weeks atop Hot Country Songs and three weeks in the lead on Country Airplay – is the only title to spend multiple weeks at No. 1 on both. Additionally, it was the first of three Swindell singles certified triple-platinum by the RIAA.

“You Should be Here” helped Swindell accept the death of his father, Bill Swindell.

“Hearing that other people needed to hear that as much as I needed to write it,” Cole says, “that’s kind of when I knew that, ‘Hey, this is just part of my story. There’s nothing you can do about it.’”

Ten years later, there’s a sequel. “Girl Dad” documents the major changes in Cole’s personal life as he checks in with his father; even though Bill isn’t present in the physical world, “Girl Dad” assumes Bill’s soul is able to witness his son’s forward motion, and to recognize his own role in it.

“In 10 years, a lot of good things can happen,” Cole suggests. “Even though you’ve been through [some tough] things, you can use those to help other people, and I don’t think I would have been the person I was without going through that.”

Cole has forged a level of professional success that his father never got to see, but he also married the former Courtney Little in California in 2024, and the couple welcomed a daughter, Rainey, last August. Around the beginning of the year, Cole hit the links, and while he was alone on the golf cart, he contemplated his status as a girl dad. Was there a song in that? He thought about how he might tell his father of the changes in his life, and the idea coalesced around the use of a comma. “I met a girl, Dad” would work as the starting point of a chorus; “We’re having a girl, Dad” would clinch it.

Cole had written a number of songs with Michael Tyler (“Somewhere on a Beach,” “Mind on You”) and Ben Stennis (“’Til You Can’t,” “Holy Smokes”), and he felt they would be the right collaborators to finish “Girl Dad.” He texted Tyler, who needed to hear the whole pitch before he was on board.

“I see the words ‘Girl Dad,’ and I’m just thinking, you know, ‘Maybe not a hit song,’” Tyler admits.

But once Swindell shared the actual lines he had in mind for the chorus, Tyler was completely in on it. They wrote it on Jan. 7 at Stennis’ Young Guns Publishing office on Nashville’s Music Row. Swindell knew parts of their personal biographies, but it became even clearer when they were together that they were the right collaborators: Stennis was a girl dad who’d lost his father; Tyler’s dad had passed, and his wife was expecting a girl.

Their first attempts on guitar fell flat, but Stennis turned on his virtual keyboard, using an Emotional Piano program that simulates a baby grand, and they found some chords that fit. Tyler hopped on for a bit and created a repetitive, descending pattern. It set the tone for the rest of the process.

Swindell sang the first line, “I hate the sound of my boots on this gravel,” and they were on their way. Tyler kicked in a phrase about “that dash in between those years” – a reference to a headstone – and they vacillated a bit between the first verse and chorus, making sure to place some of the most important information in the spots where it would have the most impact.

“Knowing the beginning and the end of the chorus really helped a ton,” Stennis says. “All we did was fill in the gaps of Cole’s story, and then try to make it something that a lot of people could latch onto – personal, but not so personal that other people couldn’t tell their story within the song as well.”

The first verse laid out the cemetery setting for the conversation, while the chorus recounted Cole’s marriage and produced a sonogram that confirms the pregnancy.

Verse two would do much of the heavy lifting while maintaining a light tone: Dad brags about his granddaughter in Heaven, her due date is the same month as Grandpa’s birthday, and it ends by comparing the day Cole met his wife to his parents’ introduction. It’s three generations of life compressed into four lines, efficiently making connections that cement the song’s intimacy.

“It should have been complicated, but I think that’s why we felt like we had something special that day, because it flowed out so freely and so fast,” Stennis says. “Those are the days where you know you’re just a conduit. You know that someone else is doing the heavy lifting for you.”

The process was extremely emotional – “A lot of it was venting and grown-man tears,” Tyler notes – and it culminated with a two-line bridge that expressed the ultimate regret: that little Rainey will never know the grandfather who had played such a crucial role in shaping her father’s life. “All I can do is kind of make sure she knows who my dad was through who I am,” Cole says.

Stennis recorded Swindell’s vocal on a Shure SM7 microphone right there in the room. “I do remember saying to Cole, ‘How are you gonna sing this live?’” Tyler recalls. “He’s like, ‘I don’t know. I’ll worry about it when I get there.’”

Stennis hired Blake Bollinger to replay the piano, then added a few light touches to fill out the demo. Swindell, who thought it was likely too personal to be released, introduced “Girl Dad” to Warner Records Nashville in an off-the-cuff manner during a meeting. He was shocked at the reaction.

“There were people, legit, streaming tears down their face for just the demo,” Swindell says.

Finalizing it became a priority. Swindell enlisted producer Sam Ellis (Ingrid Andress, Hunter Hayes), who thought “Girl Dad” was “incredible.” He felt similarly about Swindell’s demo vocal. “You just can’t beat it emotionally,” Ellis says. “[He’s] a little unsure and just learning it for the first time. There’s some real vulnerability.”

Ellis replayed Bollinger’s core piano parts and filled it out further with an array of mostly acoustic instruments. He mixed real drums with programmed percussion, intentionally creating a “heartbeat” vibe, and unintentionally building an other-worldly sensibility to it. That spiritual tone was further enhanced with a spacey introductory electronic keyboard, plus the phrasing in the chorus, which feels almost like a mantra.

During the last half of the production process, Ellis hired steel guitarist Justin Schipper, and got more in that vein. “Justin Schipper’s great at adding those ethereal, tension steel guitar parts, things that don’t really stand out as traditional steel lines,” Ellis says. “He’s one of a kind for doing that.”

Warner Records Nashville released the single – and an emotional video, with Swindell’s boots crushing the gravel at his father’s cemetery – on June 19. It’s at No. 48 on the Country Airplay chart dated Aug. 1, connecting with fans whose stories are similar to his, and with some who have no firsthand experience with the scenario.

“These kinds of songs are why I love country music,” he says. “When you have a story and you can share it like that, and other people connect with it, there’s not anything more powerful than that.”