John Anderson, the Country Music Hall of Fame singer known for hits including "Swingin'," "Seminole Wind" and "Straight Tequila Night," has died. He was 71.
Anderson died on Wednesday, Oct. 21. His death was announced by his family in a statement shared on his official Facebook page and acknowledged by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
"It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and best friend," the family wrote. "To the world, he was a gifted country music singer whose voice and songs touched countless lives. To us, he was so much more."
The family described Anderson as "the heart of our family," and asked for prayers as they mourned his death.
Born Dec. 13, 1954, in Orlando, Florida, Anderson grew up in nearby Apopka before moving to Nashville after high school to pursue a career in country music. He signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1976.
Anderson rose to prominence in the early 1980s with a traditional country sound influenced by artists including Merle Haggard and George Jones. His early hits included "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal" and "Wild and Blue," followed by "Swingin'," which earned him the Country Music Association's Single of the Year award in 1983. He also received the CMA Horizon Award that year.
After a period of declining commercial success in the late 1980s, Anderson returned to the charts in the early 1990s with "Straight Tequila Night," "Seminole Wind" and "Money in the Bank."
Over his career, Anderson recorded 20 Top 10 country hits, including five No. 1 singles, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2024.
"John Anderson was a one-of-a-kind song stylist who proved that fresh innovations were best born from time-honored traditions," Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a statement.
Young praised Anderson's distinctive voice and his ability to draw inspiration from traditional country music.
"He was already a diamond then, and a diamond he always will be," Young said, referencing Anderson's 1981 recording of Billy Joe Shaver's "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday)."
In their statement, Anderson's family said his impact extended far beyond his music.
Behind his countless roles in film and television productions, actor James Woods has experienced his share of "takes" and "wraps" just as endings and new beginnings have occurred in his creative and personal life.
Now, during what he's referred to as his lifeâs "second act" after his notorious Hollywood blacklisting and then later the Pacific Palisades fires in January 2025, which still has him and his wife Sara displaced due to their homeâs smoke damage, Woods seems to have settled into a life of songwriting serenity.
His third album, "The Killerâs Wife," is what became a concept record released under his own label, Breakheart Music. Created in collaboration with musical artist Bob Wayne and four-time Grammy winner Shooter Jennings, the album draws on Woodsâ early years as an actor on the road. At its heart is a true story that he initially treated as fiction: his past relationship with a young woman and mother whom he later discovered was married to a serial killer. That extraordinary saga inspired both the albumâs title and its featured song.
"Iâm not gonna reveal her privacy and her story. I have no way of knowing where she is now or anything, but I heard that she has a fine life, and she carried on, and she overcame this incredible moment in her life. But I always thought about this question. It intrigued me. Why didnât he murder her?" Woods explained to Fox News Digital, describing the inspiration behind the album.
"And knowing her, I thought, âThereâs something about her unbelievable purity of spirit that I think was more powerful than his satanic evil.â And considering the state of the world, I thought, well, now weâve got an epic, literally spiritual battle for the survival of the species, really, as a big idea behind the album."
Woods describes "The Killerâs Wife" as "a musical parable into the dark heart of evil and the glorious triumph of good."
Other songs on the album explore that theme in different ways. "The Hearts of Men" came to Woods as he was reading Matthew 24:12 in the Bible, a passage that speaks of the hardening of human hearts as wickedness spreads. "One in the Chamber," which Woods calls his favorite track, came to him at the last minute and speaks to the need to be prepared for the violent times in which we live.
"Bob does it like a beautiful ballad â itâs so pretty â and everybody said, âThis song is so beautiful.â And then you realize what itâs about as youâre singing it, you know, and thatâs what I love about our music and why people are really responding to it," Woods said. "It has just such a unique flavor."
A serendipitous encounter at Dan Tanaâs, the iconic West Hollywood restaurant, brought Woods and his wife, Sara, together with Jennings and his wife, Misty Swain. Tana, who died last year, was a close friend of Woods. The two couples were the only diners in the restaurant before the dinner rush, and the chance meeting led not only to an unlikely friendship but also to a remarkable musical journey for everyone involved.
Sara has even become Breakheart Musicâs art director, creating all three album covers and every photograph used in the releases.
During dinner, Jennings asked Woods whether he had ever considered writing lyrics, telling him to send some along if he ever did. That night, Woods went home and wrote "Misty Morning" in the Notes app on his iPhone in just 20 minutes. Then he heard nothing from Jennings for nearly a month.
"I thought and said to Sara, âOh, what an idiot. I just ruined a good friendship.â And then all of a sudden, I got this song back (âMisty Morningâ), which is like one of the most beautiful songs ever. And my whole life changed."
Jennings described Woodsâ first album, "Hear the Thunder Crack" released in October 2024, as an "expansive poetic journey" and told Woods that it was, in fact, the actorâs autobiography.
Wayne later came on board at the suggestion of Jennings, to sing on Woodsâ second album, "Tombstone Opera," which Woods described as a kind of "Sergio Leone revenge tale." The project marked another chapter in his second act, one that continued even after the Palisades fires.
Both albums reached the Top 10 on Apple Musicâs country album charts and have sold several thousand physical copies.
Like its predecessors, "The Killerâs Wife" was recorded at Hollywoodâs iconic Sunset Sound studio and follows Woodsâ steadfast rule against using Auto-Tune or artificial intelligence. In addition to writing the lyrics, Woods lends his own voice to the songs performed by Wayne, adding spoken-word passages layered throughout the music.
"It is unusual to have a spoken part, but in this album, it really serves a lot of the songs," Woods explained.
The record is available on CD and vinyl through jameswoods.com. The vinyl edition, custom-made by Memphis Record Pressing, features translucent colors and sand-like, opaque elements evoking the seaside, along with a bright-red blood splatter representing the places where the serial killerâs victims were buried.
"One of my favorite things about working with James Woods is how cinematic his writing is. With âThe Killerâs Wife,â he really found such a unique way to unfold this mini-opera, and paired with Bobâs amazing musical structures, this album explores so much sonic space that we hadnât in the beginning," Jennings said.
For Woods, now 79, this musical chapter follows a remarkable acting career that included roles in Oliver Stoneâs "Salvador" (1986), Martin Scorseseâs crime drama "Casino" (1995), and Rob Reinerâs "Ghosts of Mississippi" (1996), among many others. Woods left MIT during his senior year in 1969 to pursue acting.
Numerous award nominations and accolades followed.
After being effectively sidelined by Hollywood around 2018 because of his outspoken conservative views and public support for Donald Trump, Woods found a new project in the book "American Prometheus," the biography of Robert Oppenheimer. The project eventually became Christopher Nolanâs Oscar-winning film "Oppenheimer," released in 2023, and helped put Woods back on the map as a producer.
Although Woods was reportedly advised to remain "invisible" during the filmâs release â he wasnât even invited to the Producers Guild Awards â he eventually discovered something unexpected. What initially felt painful also helped him realize that he no longer cared about the Hollywood world as much as he once had.
"Itâs important to understand, I loved being an actor. I loved my years in the film and television industry," he said, recalling roles such as his performance in 1979âs "The Onion Field." Whether based on real events or fictional stories, he explained, such projects often addressed the cultural and political issues of the day.
"And at the same time, I understood that my role as an actor was to take another personâs words and directorial concepts, knowing I was there to serve that."
"Those masters, not the people, but the story," he clarified.
Acting, as he has been quoted as saying, "is now a DEI exercise."
Simply put, Woods said he has turned toward "happier things" and spending time with talented musicians, whom he describes as true "magicians" and among the most jubilant people he has ever been around.
"I have this observation I made once. I thought, you know, whenever you look at statues anywhere in the world, they usually celebrate one of two kinds of people: warriors and poets. And I thought, you know, if you got a choice to do one or the other, Iâm tired of being a warrior for a cause, getting in the political fray. I want to celebrate art and poetry and music and things I love, and things other people love," he said.
"So, I want to talk about happier stuff. I want to talk about the creation of art. And I want to talk about how we create art, because I love what weâve created, and I think the people who are hearing it are loving it ⦠and I want to celebrate it," he continued.
Zach Bryan is getting candid about his relationship with alcohol, revealing that he once drank as many as 15 beers a day and was intoxicated when he wrote nearly every hit song of his career.
The country star, 30, opened up about his sobriety during a conversation with Matthew McConaughey that was released alongside his latest EP, "Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs."
Bryan detailed how his drinking eventually led to severe panic attacks that left him fearing he was going to die.
"When I got in the throes of drinking f---ing 15 beers in a day and I kept going with that cycle, I started getting these really, really severe panic attacks where my whole body went numb, and I thought I was going to have a stroke and die," he told McConaughey.
"I’d curl up for days at a time, and I went to a doctor. And, like I said, I still didn’t believe it. I told the doctor, ‘Man, I’m just hungover. I’m fine.’ And the doctor was like, ‘No, man. You have a really severe thing going on here.’"
"[My doctor] said, ‘I think you have a pretty bad panic disorder. And if you quit drinking, that might help you a little bit.’ So I tried it, and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah.’"
Before giving up alcohol, Bryan said he relied on drinking to manage his stage fright.
"So I used to get on stage. Here’s my routine. I used to think this was the perfect routine. No show could ever go bad if I did this: work out, shower, play my guitar, listen to Bon Iver, drink four beers," he recalled.
"It eased my pain. All the stage fright I had was gone after I drank three or four beers, and I’m like, ‘I can do it.’ Then I would drink after the show, too."
Bryan said he would wake up the next day facing another performance and repeat the same cycle.
"I’d wake up the next day with another show, and I’d think, ‘Well, to get rid of this panic in me, to get rid of this stage fright, there’s one choice. Let’s do what we’ve always done,’" he said. "I’d drink two or three more beers. And I thought I was never going to get out of that. I thought that cycle was forever."
The singer-songwriter said his managers had questioned whether he had tried performing without alcohol, but he viewed drinking as part of his routine.
"They would always be like, ‘Hey, have you tried not drinking before a show?’ Like, I can’t. It’s my routine. It’s my lucky socks," Bryan said.
"For a long time, I danced with that. Years, I danced with that. And it worked, you know. I was playing a good show. I was paying my bills. I was doing everything. I employed 100 or 200 people. I was like, ‘This is fine.’"
Bryan said performing sober is more intimidating at first, but ultimately more rewarding.
"I will say now that I’ve quit drinking, stages are more scary," he admitted. "But once I get on stage, it’s a lot more enjoyable. So much better. It feels like flying. It’s more fun. It’s the best feeling in the world."
Bryan said the realization that he was responsible for his own struggles came after years of denial.
"I used to be so terrified of that," he said of performing sober. "And that denial is what got me there. That denial is what brought me to those panic attacks. I was the issue the whole time."
The Grammy winner also said he had convinced himself that alcohol was essential to his songwriting process.
"Every hit I ever had, I was pretty much drunk when I made it," Bryan said. "And so I had the issue of thinking I was never going to have a good song again if I wasn’t under the influence."
He described the belief as a "real curse" that made him feel as though he had to repeat the same rituals in order to create music.
"This is the first project I’ve ever done, this ‘Young Manhood’ thing, that I didn’t drink a lick," he said. "I wrote every word sober and I sang every word sober. And I’ll say it took that to prove to me that I could do it."
Bryan admitted that he once dismissed sobriety and didn't recognize that his own drinking had become a problem.
"I always thought sobriety was a joke because it’s people who couldn’t control themselves celebrating not being able to control themselves," Bryan said. "When I was drinking a lot, I always thought, ‘Why can’t you control yourself?’ I never realized I had a problem."
The singer said his perspective changed during a solo 30-day motorcycle trip across the country.
Bryan said he spent much of the trip stopping at bars and drinking himself to sleep. When he reached a Pilot truck stop outside Seattle, he bought a 40-ounce Budweiser and sat on a curb beside his motorcycle.
"I’ll never forget this as long as I live," he said. "I went into this Pilot and I grabbed a 40 [ounce bottle of] Budweiser, and I’m sitting on the curb with my motorcycle in front of me, and I’m drinking it. And I’m thinking, ‘What the hell was all that worth? Why did I do any of that? I feel emptier than when I left.’"
Bryan said he realized he had spent the previous 30 days chasing a "big romantic movie moment," only to find himself alone in a parking lot.
"I’ve got nowhere to go home to, no one to call," he recalled thinking. "That’s when I said, ‘Man, why am I drinking right now? What am I celebrating?’"
"It changed me a lot, that parking lot," he said. "That was the moment I realized, when I went and got that 40, I was like, ‘Man, it’s f---ing 3. You’ve got an issue. Why do you want to drink a 40 right now in the Seattle Pilot parking lot?’"
Bryan previously announced in November 2025 that he had been sober for two months, writing that he had used alcohol to cope with a "perpetual discontent" and a "consistent black hole" inside him.
During his conversation with McConaughey, Bryan said sobriety has helped him feel more creative, energized and content.
Country music star Randy Houser spends a lot of his life on the road, but when the shows are over and the tour bus stops rolling, there's usually one thing on his mind.
"When I get off the tour bus, I'm literally looking for some water to get on," Houser told OutKick OutDoors in an exclusive interview.
For the Mississippi native, that love of fishing started long before the hit songs, sold-out shows and life on the road.
"Growing up in Mississippi, that's about all we had. We had bluegill, catfish and bass," he said.
These days, Houser's fishing adventures have taken him a little farther from home. He's traded the freshwater lakes of Mississippi for the turquoise waters of the Bahamas, where he's developed a particular fondness for fly fishing.
"I spend a lot of time bonefishing in the Bahamas. That's kind of my thing now, as I enjoy fly fishing for bonefish and permit and things like that," he explained. "I spend a lot of my time doing that in the winter."
And while getting away from the demands of touring is certainly part of the appeal, Houser's connection to the water runs deeper than simply needing a vacation.
"I think that stems from all the time I spent on the water as a kid," he said.
It's also a passion he shares with his wife and children, who frequently join him on the water.
But one of Houser's most memorable fishing experiences wasn't about the size of the fish or the destination. It was about the people he shared it with.
More than just fishing
The country star recalled a three-day bonefishing trip to Blackfly Lodge in the Bahamas with the Navy SEAL Foundation, where he spent time alongside active and retired Navy SEALs.
"I'm a huge supporter of our military and military families and personnel," Houser said. "To get that time with those guys and get them in a space where they're on the water and can relax, and just to hear stories that they wouldn't normally talk about in a different situation, was just priceless."
For Houser, the opportunity to connect with those men away from their everyday responsibilities made the trip unforgettable.
"I got to hear just personal experiences from those guys," he said. "I'll remember it forever. It was really cool."
Now, Houser is preparing to bring his love of music and fishing together in a big way.
Country music meets bass fishing in Nashville
On Friday, Oct. 30, he'll perform alongside his friend and fellow country star Riley Green at The Pinnacle in Nashville as part of The Champions, a new professional bass fishing tournament hosted by World Bass Enterprises.
The tournament, held on Old Hickory Lake, brings together top anglers from the Bassmaster Elite Series and Major League Fishing's Bass Pro Tour to compete for a record $3.25 million purse, including $1.25 million for the winner.
For someone who grew up fishing for fun in Mississippi, Houser said it's remarkable to see just how far competitive bass fishing has come.
He recalled learning that a friend's son was competing on a college bass fishing team and thinking about how different things were when he was growing up.
"I thought, wow, what a dream," he said. "If I was in high school, I'd have been thinking, 'Lord, you mean I can get a scholarship to go fishing?'"
Houser compared the difficulty of becoming a successful professional angler to making it as a professional golfer, noting the tremendous skill, sponsorships and resources necessary to compete at the highest level.
And he believes Nashville is the perfect place to showcase how much the sport has grown.
"There's a strong synergy between country music, country music listeners and bass fishing," he said.
With Old Hickory and Percy Priest lakes nearby, Houser is familiar with the area's fishing opportunities. He's spent plenty of time fishing Old Hickory himself and expects The Champions to draw a significant crowd, both for the concerts and the competition.
"I think they're going to have a lot more fans than they expected," he said. "Not just for the music at The Pinnacle, but also hanging out at the lake waiting for the weigh-ins and things like that."
Houser is especially looking forward to performing with Green, whom he considers a good friend. The two have spent plenty of time touring together, although their busy schedules haven't allowed for much fishing lately.
They do, however, have plans to do some hunting together once the weather cools down.
Another bonus of The Champions taking place in Nashville? Houser gets to bring his children to the show — something he said doesn't happen very often.
For a man who grew up with a fishing rod in his hands, it's a fitting opportunity to celebrate just how far the sport has come while sharing the experience with his own family.
And once the concert is over and Houser climbs back aboard that tour bus, there's a pretty good chance he'll already be thinking about his next trip to the water.
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Zach Bryan notched another impressive career accomplishment.
Bryan is one of the biggest names in music, and his career has reached rarified air. The country music icon is capable of selling out stadiums wherever he goes, including internationally.
The song, which was released in 2019, has 1,000,455,459 plays on Spotify as of publication. You can give it a listen below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.
"Heading South" follows "Something in the Orange" and "I Remember Everything" for songs from Bryan to reach at least a billion streams on Spotify.
Whiskey Riff reported that only a total of 21 country music songs have ever pulled off the accomplishment.
Pumping out great music that dominates the charts isn't the only thing Bryan is currently doing. He's launching his "Young Manhood & Other Donatable Organs" tour in 2027.
The tour will take the popular singer across America, Canada and Australia. Best of luck to anyone trying to get tickets.
Has Christian Pulisic moved up to lock screen picture material for Megan Moroney? That's the word on the street after the country singer's lock screen on her phone appeared to show the USMNT star.
This is round three of the dating rumors by my count, anyway. There was the rooftop bar sighting in Nashville and her trip to Italy that included her wearing what looked like one of his jerseys.
As someone who isn't up on all the lock screen protocols, I don’t know if a friend makes the cut or not. That said, it seems like it would be reserved for someone of more significance. But what do I know?
Moroney, after performing during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, was leaving the event's after-party when the lock screen was spotted. You can see the picture of her leaving here and assign any significance you'd like to it.
I'd like to shift the focus, if I may, to something else that took place at the fashion show involving the singer. Yes, she made a dream of hers come true by performing a few songs on the runway, and that's great.
But it was a moment on the red carpet prior to the show that grabbed my attention. A heartwarming moment where she gave people a look at the person behind the persona.
It came with a simple story about overcoming an unexpected challenge. She was asked what was the most outrageous thing she's ever done in the name of fashion. Her answer involved another red carpet appearance.
"I’ll tell you what my brain immediately went to. The ACM Awards a few years ago, I had these like sticky underwear on, and they fell off on the carpet," Moroney told E News.
"Then I just took them off and gave them to my publicist. So yeah, I didn’t have underwear on, on the carpet. That’s outrageous."
It's outrageous. It's pushing through a difficult moment. It's human. It's storytelling. It's part of having yourself a huge night. Megan Moroney nailed this red carpet interview.
She then nailed her Victoria's Secret Fashion Show runway performance, even with enormous wings on, and topped it off with some Christian Pulisic fodder for those who spend their days in the celebrity rumor mill.
This is riding a media wave like a seasoned professional.
Now, the two talented performers are, once again, setting the internet on fire.
Koe Wetzel and Ella Langley link up for a performance in Utah.
The two performed at the RedWest Festival in Utah this past Friday, and they linked up on stage to bust out a performance of "That's Why We Fight" for fans in attendance.
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