Country music stars are sharing their favorite Christmas Traditions.  Keith Urban, who's from Australia where they celebrate Christmas in the summertime, remembers Christmas cards with Santa riding a surfboard and says he still loves to go to the beach on December 25th.  Jordan Davis and his wife started a tradition of taking his wife and kids to Nashville's historic Belcourt Theatre to watch "It's a Wonderful Life".  Dierks Bentley and his family take a drive each year to look at the beautifully decorated homes like he used to do as a kid in Arizona.  At Kicks96, we love sending and receiving Christmas cards from our listeners and look forward to fresh music releases in the new year and the start of the 2025 concert season!

A judge is denying Garth Brooks' request to dismiss a sexual assault lawsuit from federal court in California. Brooks had argued the case was “duplicative” of the defamation and extortion lawsuit he previously filed against his accuser in federal court in Mississippi last September. Brooks’ attempt to have the California suit dismissed was met with criticism from the lawyers for the former hair stylist and make-up artist who alleges Brooks raped her in Los Angeles in 2019. The lawyers last month called Brooks' original Mississippi lawsuit a way “to preempt” their client’s proposed California complaint and “deny her access” to California’s anti-SLAPP statute, a law that safeguards against frivolous claims designed to muzzle someone’s right to free speech. (The woman, who sued anonymously as a Jane Roe, resides in Mississippi.)

See our original write-up here. 

photo credit: Freddie Everett/ Public Domain 

U.S. Department of State  

Only one country artist racked up more miles on his private jet than President-Elect Donald Trump and numerous other celebrities.  That's according to a year-end list compiled by Ranker, which used data from CelebrityPrivateJetTracker.com.  Luke Bryan came in 7th place with about 373-thousand miles flown in 2024.  That's ahead of President-elect Donald Trump, Kylie Jenner, and even Bill Gates.  Number one on the list, with nearly 613-thousand miles flown, is American businessman Eric Schmidt.  Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Diddy, and Travis Scott round out the top five.

**UPDATE 12/13/24

Morgan Wallen was sentenced to seven days in a DUI education center yesterday after throwing a chair from the rooftop of a Nashville bar.  The CMA Entertainer of the Year pled guilty Thursday (12/12/24) to two misdemeanor counts of Reckless Endangerment.  The charges were reduced as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.  He was also ordered yesterday to spend two years under supervised probation, one year for each of the misdemeanor charges for reckless endangerment. Following the completion of his probation, Wallen will be eligible to have his charges dismissed and expunged. The hearing lasted just 10 minutes and Wallen was quickly escorted from the premises without a statement.

**UPDATE 12/11/24

Morgan Wallen did not appear in court yesterday, but his lawyer went before a Nashville judge regarding his charges from April. Wallen’s lawyer appeared briefly and filed the paperwork on Tuesday with the Davidson County judge. Now Wallen’s case will head to the Circuit Criminal Court.

12/10/24 - Original Post

Morgan Wallen's chair-throwing case will now be presented to a Davidson County Grand Jury.  The CMA Entertainer of the Year is accused of tossing a chair off the roof-top of Eric Church's lower Broadway bar, Chief's, back in April.  It narrowly missed some Metro Nashville police officers who were standing on the ground below.  An investigation identified Wallen as responsible for throwing the chair through video surveillance footage. The footage showed Wallen lunging and throwing an object over the roof. Wallen is charged with 3 counts of Reckless Endangerment and Disorderly Conduct.  He was expected to appear in court this Thursday (12/10) but today the case will be bound over to a grand jury instead.  The Davidson County Grand Jury is expected to be impaneled sometime in January. 

photo credit: Andrew Wendowski

Taylor Swift wrapped up her nearly two-year long, record-shattering international tour yesterday in Vancouver, British Columbia. Swift’s tour sold a total of $2,077,618,725 in tickets. That’s two billion and change — double the gross ticket sales of any other concert tour in history. Swift racked up 149 shows across five continents, making the Eras Tour the highest grossing concert tour of all time that boosted local economies every where she went.

The Eras Tour became the first tour to gross $1 billion as of last December (2023) — with a year still to go, according to Pollstar who predicted it would bring in $2.2 billion by the time it was over. Swift raked in millions outside of the concert ticket sales too.  Her concert movie set a box office record for concert films on its opening weekend in October 2023, making more than $95 million. By January of 2024, it earned more than $261.6 million globally, all of which helped boost her to billionaire status.

Full performance of Taylor ending the VERY LAST NIGHT of The Eras Tour with “Long Live” x “New Year’s Day” x “The Manuscript” on the piano ???????? #VancouverTSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/X5jGUQzjOJ

— Taylor Swift Updates (@SwiftNYC) December 9, 2024

photo credit: iHeartRadioCA

There was definitely more than one reason to watch some football on Thanksgiving Day.  Both Lainey Wilson and Shaboozy landed a major halftime performance.  Lainey (with surprise guest Jelly Roll) scored the Cowboys/Giants game in Texas while Shaboozy went north for the Bears/Lions match. Check out both performances below:

photo credit: Broken Bow Records