It was all in good fun … or, was it? Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
Month: February 2026
The Band Perry has entered “Season Two” with original member Kimberly Perry and her husband Johnny Costello now making up the GRAMMY-winning group. Drawing from the energy of their RIAA Diamond-certified hit, “If I Die Young,” they created an obsessive and thrilling anthem titled “PSYCHOLOGICAL.”
Perry tells Country Now that even after all these years, stepping into this new chapter of The Band Perry is so exciting that it keeps her up at night. She explains that a lot of writing and listening to new songs went into figuring out the direction for their sound, and together with Johnny and their team, they agreed that “PSYCHOLOGICAL” was the perfect choice to mark their bold reintroduction to fans.
“It is the next installation of my favorite subgenre of Band Perry Country Music, which is the psycho girl love song,” she shared. “So it just felt like all things nostalgic, Band Perry, but also coming back in 2026 and wanting to not just harken to our past and obviously celebrate that, but also to really embrace where country music is headed and to be a part of that story as well.”
The writers on the song, Clara Park, Grace Tyler and Colton Venner, trusted the husband and wife to bring this song to life and they couldn’t be more honored to get to tell the story. The artists recap a dizzying portrayal of infatuation and obsession as Kimberly Perry’s distinctive voice cuts through a moody piano backdrop to tell a story of a love that’s both unhinged and intense.
A punchy country-rock production bursts with a bold energy, while the singers spiral over the feeling of losing yourself in an attempt to try and fit the perfect mold for someone else. The narrator reshapes themselves by listening to different music, drinking Jack even though they hate it, cutting off friends, and even joking about faking their own death, all to see if their love interest would take notice.
“‘Cause you make crazy seem rational/ I’d say obsession feels natural/ You’re all I want, any hoop, any obstacle/ Boy, you make going psycho logical/ In my head, yeah, you mess all my common sense up/ I know I’m crossing lines that I shouldn’t/ I’m out of my mind, but I don’t need no hospital/ Boy, you make going psycho logical,” they sing on the chorus.
Perry says that even though the chaos of this true story was technically inspired by a moment in the songwriter Grace Tyler’s real life, not her own, she can heavily relate to the narrative and she feels fans will too.
“I’m just so excited because it was a very true story for Grace. She was like, ‘Hey, I had met this guy and then we knew each other very shortly, and then I got a song and I wrote about it.’ I’m like well, I’m a married woman who’ve also been in that season of relationships before finding Johnny, thank God my love story improved…but to also I feel like it was something that I could legitimately and wholeheartedly sing from my perspective. It felt like a really magic crossroads of those two things with this song.”
She also notes that it holds a similar energy to previous death-related tunes, “Better Dig Two” and “If I Die Young.” According to Kimberly, “PSYCHOLOGICAL” originally had a line about the woman winding up at her love interest’s vacation with his family on spring break. However, she wanted to tap into those earlier releases to sing about faking her own death because she felt it was something she would do in her own life.
“I could attest to that,” Johnny joked.
Kimberly explained, “Well, I mean, I wrote ‘If I Die Young’ to just see how everybody would react when I put it out because I’m still living. So yeah, I just feel like it is relatable and for better or for worse, I mean, I have a ring on my hand, so the psycho girl did work out for me to be that devoted/delusional. I think it’s a fine line between the two. And I think that these are real life things that I’ve done and would do again if you ever left me. So don’t ever do that,” she told her husband.
Set to impact country radio on February 17, “PSYCHOLOGICAL” marks the band’s first new music in nine years. The track sets the tone for how they plan to move forward while still carrying on the legacy of The Band Perry and, most importantly, maintaining its original standing as a family band. With her husband by her side, she is fulfilling her dreams of embarking on this musical journey together and is even open to the idea of bringing their son into the group one day as well.
“I just feel like I’ve gotten to live so many seasons with The Band Perry. It’s been one of the great loves of my life since I was a teenager…[I], of course, enjoyed those seasons with my brothers and we love the hell out of every minute that we were on stage together. To get to come back in season two with my husband in the band, which has always been a dream of mine to have my person in the band with me, to be building this legacy for our son. And if he ever wants to come and play drums in a few years, he’s welcome to, it feels like such an important thing to keep intact.”
With Johnny’s rock background, he fits perfectly into The Band Perry’s signature blend of country and southern rock that, in his opinion, can often evoke a bit of head banging.
“There’s some really fun moments. And I think there’s the element that Kimberly keeps telling having a family band, there’s a level of being family that you just…on stage, there’s a little bit of like, ‘oh, I know where you’re going with this.’ It’s what a seasoned band gets over time as well, but you’re just like, “Oh, I know where you’re going with this setup. Okay, cool. I’m going to hit this out of the stage.” It just makes a real fun element playing live music.”
The duo is currently playing their full catalog out on the road, making sure to highlight “all the hits that everybody loves,” along with a few deep cuts from the band’s earlier albums.
“I feel like I’m just really trying to take so much care about being recognizable and really championing what brought us to the dance in the first place and also just loving and being perfectly honest with where we are now, what we’re thinking about, what we love to sing about, and how we love to play on stage,” Kimberly added.
Beginning this weekend, they will embark on the Psycho Rodeo Tour with their first stop being three back-to-back nights across Colorado from February 13-15. They will return to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry next Friday, February 20 and then continue the trek through August.
The post The Band Perry On Entering ‘Season Two’ With Obsessive New Anthem ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL’ appeared first on Country Now.
Country Now
Jelly Roll’s journey is more than just numbers on a scale; it’s about battling inner demons and finding strength in vulnerability. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
Jelly Roll’s journey is more than just numbers on a scale; it’s about battling inner demons and finding strength in vulnerability. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
Popeyes officially boarded the AI train with an ad taking aim at a competitor. However, folks on social media felt the chicken chain was on the wrong track.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon
The Alaska Legislature on Wednesday approved a 30-day extension for the state of disaster covering the fall 2025 storms that battered the state’s west coast.
The extension allows the state to continue spending money from its disaster response fund as it continues cleanup and repair efforts from two storms in October. Hundreds of Alaskans were displaced by the disasters, which devastated coastal communities.
The Alaska Senate approved the extension in a 19-0 vote on Monday, but the extension nearly failed in the Alaska House after members of the House’s Republican minority caucus raised procedural issues on Wednesday and said members of the majority were not following state law.
The extension was included in Senate Concurrent Resolution 12, which retroactively approves extensions issued since October and allows the governor to spend more from the state’s disaster response fund.
“Doing this as a resolution is dangerous, I think it’s a mistake, and I’m not even certain that it’s legal,” said House Minority Leader DeLena Johnson, R-Palmer.
Johnson and other Republicans said that under their interpretation of state law, legislators would need to approve the spending via a bill, not a resolution.
A legislative attorney, writing in a Feb. 2 memo to Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said, “when the legislature means to take action having a binding effect on those outside the legislature, including extending a disaster declaration, the legislature must enact a bill in a special or regular session rather than using the less formal resolution process.”
Johnson was rebutted by House Rules Chair Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak and a member of the House’s majority coalition.
“This is not new money,” she said. “This is money that has been (in the fund) and is being allowed to be appropriated out. … it’s been agreed upon that maybe this wasn’t the optimum way. Nothing’s perfect. We’re moving forward. We are trying to do the best we can as quickly as we can. Time is of the essence, so I ask you to ask yourself: Do you want to be right in how it is done, or do you want to do the right thing when there’s a question?”
The House vote was 22-18, with Rep. Will Stapp, R-Fairbanks, joining the 21 members of the House’s coalition majority in support. All other members of the House Republican minority voted against the resolution.
As debate opened, Rep. Nellie Unangiq Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, became choked up as she described the disaster, which devastated her district and resulted in the largest peacetime evacuation in state history.
“Today, months later, 340 of our neighbors remain without permanent houses. Mr. Speaker, we are Yup’ik. Our people have lived in this delta for thousands of years. We know storms. We know water. We know loss,” she said. “We have lived on this coast for thousands of years, and we’ve survived ice ages, epidemics, colonization. We’ve survived by adapting, sharing, by refusing to abandon our homes, but you can’t really live when your home floats 10 miles out to sea, when your fuel tanks that heat your home in winter are submerged in salt water.”
On Jan. 28, Gov. Mike Dunleavy requested permission to spend $20.5 million from the disaster response fund, up $5.5 million from a prior request.
When federal money is added to that tally, the total amount is $39.25 million.
More spending is expected.
Last week, the director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has estimated at least $125 million in state and federal costs related to the storm disaster.
“The declaration allows state agencies to continue their emergency response and to extend state funds as needed,” said Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage and co-chair of the House Finance Committee.
Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna, took issue with the fact that after Dunleavy declared a state of disaster in October, the Speaker of the House and Senate President approved subsequent 30-day extensions without consulting legislators.
“I think we should have called ourselves in (to special session), or the third floor should have called us in (to special session) to take up this very important issue,” Ruffridge said.
“What precedent does this set for the presiding officers to make the decisions before us on our behalf?” he asked. “What power do we give the executive by allowing disaster declarations to continue without (the House) or the (Senate) taking up that order of business?”
Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, said he worries that failing to follow proper procedure could leave disaster relief vulnerable to legal challenge.
“We put the reliability of that relief at question if this is not done right,” he said.
The day after the vote, Ruffridge said members of the minority have drafted a bill that would fix the problems they see, and that bill is being reviewed by legislative attorneys.
House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, said legislative attorneys have reviewed the majority’s plan.
“We have had our legal department tell us that this passes muster,” he said during the debate.
After the vote, Kopp’s office was unable to provide a legal memo to that effect but said he had received verbal advice.
Josephson, wrapping up debate, said the majority was working in good faith with Dunleavy to get the money out the door quickly.
“Given the urgency of the matter, we’re trying to cooperate with the executive branch,” he said.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is using his book tour and 2026 reelection campaign to further build out a national fundraising network that could prove quite useful in a potential 2028 run.
The governor held a fundraising event over lunch while visiting Massachusetts for his book tour last month, two people familiar with the planning for it confirmed — making it at least the third fundraiser he attended in the last year in the deep-blue state with deep-pocketed donors who have long bankrolled presidential contenders. One of the others was held at the home of Jewish philanthropist and New England Patriots president Jonathan Kraft in April, details of which have not previously been reported. Shapiro attended another on Nantucket, a summer fundraising mecca, in July, according to an attendee and invitations obtained by POLITICO.
They add to an extensive list of networking events for the possible White House aspirant who’s long been a prolific fundraiser within and beyond Pennsylvania.
He amassed $23 million in 2025 with the help of $2.5 million from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; $1 million from a Soros family PAC, $500,000 from James and Kathryn Murdoch, the left-leaning son and daughter in law of Rupert Murdoch; and over $120,000 from Kraft and his father, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. That’s helped him build a $30 million war chest to unleash this year against his likely GOP opponent, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who raised nearly $1.5 million last year and had $1 million in the bank to start 2026.
His book tour side-hustle comes as several of Shapiro’s would-be rivals for the Democratic nomination in 2028 take donor meetings across the country as they navigate their own reelection bids and start laying the groundwork for White House runs.
Shapiro routinely dismisses talk of 2028 in public, keeping a laser focus on his reelection bid and on his efforts to help Democrats down the ballot.
“No one should be looking past these midterms,” the governor recently told reporters in Washington, D.C., who were peppering him with hypotheticals.
Sources say he is just as disciplined behind closed doors: Shapiro has kept his pitch focused on his leadership in purple Pennsylvania and how Democrats should be centering pocketbook issues in the midterms, while declining to engage with questions about his future beyond 2026, according to two people who attended donor events with Shapiro last year.
“The smartest thing Shapiro and other folks on the ballot in 2026 can do right now is say ‘I’m running for reelection right now and I’m in the middle of the fight.’ [It] makes ‘26 a nice little audition for their eventual 2028 runs,” said Alex Hoffman, a Democratic strategist and donor adviser.
His out-of-state networking is already paying off. Shapiro raked in over $700,000 from prominent donors in Massachusetts alone in 2025, including $260,000 from construction magnate John Fish and $50,000 from telecommunications tycoon Robert Hale. He also hauled in cash from Hollywood bigwigs and tech titans, including $100,000 from Sony film executive Tom Rothman and $200,000 from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen.
But the governor’s expansive donor pool is also drawing scrutiny. Garrity has called on Shapiro to return over $2 million his campaign has taken over the years from billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who is referenced repeatedly in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Hoffman gave $500,000 to Shapiro last year. Shapiro also received $50,000 from New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, who is also mentioned in the Epstein files, as is Robert Kraft. Both Hoffman and Tisch have issued statements distancing themselves from the late convict.
“Stacy Garrity should stop playing politics with the Epstein files. Donald Trump is mentioned in the files over 5,000 times. Is she going to ask him to rescind his endorsement?” Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder said in a statement. Bonder declined comment on the governor’s fundraisers.
He’ll need to keep building out that network. Shapiro has benefited from what longtime Pennsylvania Democratic strategist Neil Oxman described as “institutional donors” in the state who’ve given to successive Democratic governors. But of “the thousands of people who raise money nationally, he probably knows a fraction of them. He has some [national] recognition, but he’s not Gavin Newsom. He’s not the Clintons.”
Shapiro also won’t be able to use the gobs of money he’s raised for his state campaign account to fund a run for federal office, leaving him at an initial disadvantage against other potential 2028ers who are already squirreling away millions of dollars into federal leadership committees, super PACs and congressional campaign accounts that can be converted when the time comes.
“That’s why sometimes it’s hard to run for office when you have to run for another office,” Oxman said.
A version of this article first appeared in POLITICO Pro’s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
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Fetterman on ICE, Israel and identifying as a Democrat | The Conversation
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Being Stephen “tWitch” Boss’ widow has not been an easy road.
But now, years later, Allison Holker has found love again.
Not only did she build a new relationship, but they’re now taking things to the next level.
She’s engaged!
She’s engaged!
From 2013 until his tragic death in 2022, Holker was married to Stephen “tWitch” Boss.
They did not divorce. Boss died by suicide.
Everyone moves on — or doesn’t — at their own pace.
Holker and tech executive Adam Edmunds didn’t debut their relationship until September 2024.
Now, things have moved to the next level.
On Thursday, February 12, Holker took to Instagram to share the exciting news.
“We’re ENGAGED!” she shared in the post.
“It was the most romantic night of my life!” she gushed.
Sometimes, engagement announcements come within a few hours of a proposal.
In this case, they waited nearly a week to share the happy update. The proposal came at the celebration for her February 6 birthday.
‘The whole night was magic’
“I am so in love with you Adam,” she raved in her lengthy Instagram caption.
“Baby, I am forever grateful for you and the impact you have had in my life and my kids’ lives,” she expressed.
“I am a better person because of you,” Holker affirmed. “You helped me find me again and showed me how to love.”
She wrote: “Every morning I wake up I feel safe knowing you are my person at my side.”
Holker added: “You and your kids coming into our lives has been the biggest blessing.”
“You surprised me with a surprise birthday party and then surprised me and all our guests at the party with a surprise proposal party,” Holker revealed.
“The whole night was magic,” she gushed, “and you had every detail thought out to make it even more special.”
Holker gushed: “Thank you for bringing all the people we love together to celebrate our love. Thank you for bringing in Clinton Kane to sing our song I guess I’m in love. Thank you to Troy, April, and Kat who helped bring your vision to life.”
She continued: “I love you all and appreciate you so much. Thank you for seeing me for all of me and loving me for it!”
Holker concluded: “Adam, I will always support you, hold you and love you! You are my everything Adam.”
Allison Holker Engaged Over 3 Years After Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss’ Death was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
Behind the upbeat sound of ‘No Tellin’ lies a powerful story of resilience and healing. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs