After nearly calling it quits just a few short years ago, Country duo Dan + Shay has found new perspective, purpose and passion behind their career and the sky’s the limit.

While appearing on the 'Superstar Power Hour' with Audacy’s Katie Neal this week, the pair chatted about some of their newfound dreams which, for Dan Smyers in particular, includes writing a musical.

“I’m a super-fan,” Dan said when asked if he’s ever done theater. “Before I die, I want to write a musical,” he added before taking his aspirations up a level and sharing he’d like to reach EGOT status (an an acronym used for individuals who win an Emmy, GRAMMY, Oscar, and Tony Awards).

“We’ve got a GRAMMY, so we’ve only got three more to get the EGOT,” he laughed. “We got nominated for an Emmy doing The Voice, so we got close, but we didn’t quite get there.”

While the ambitions are bigger than ever for the pair in their mid-thirties, they both admit it stems from a different place than earlier in their career. Their new perspectives shine bright on their 5th studio album, 'Bigger Houses,' which came after a near falling-out for the guys following their 2021 arena tour. They shared their experience in a candid YouTube video where they discussed the darkness they faced individually and as a band just a few years ago, and what pulled them through.

"I was in the lowest low of my entire life," Dan recalled in the video. "Came off the road and I was like, 'Man, I f***ing hate music. I'm ready to quit.'"

Shay Mooney boldly added, “I could feel the separation and I think there was little things between you and I that we never talked about and it was affecting everything. Not just our band — our marriages, everything. I was in a really dark place."

Hitting rock bottom ultimately helped the duo rise together with a new appreciation, spirit, and motivation for music and the result of it all glows in 'Bigger Houses.'

“I feel like that album kinda got us back to the fundamentals and the basics of Dan + Shay and appreciating and loving music,” Dan expressed to Katie. Shay added, “I think we’ve also grown up a lot as people, our friendship has gotten closer… I feel like we’ve learned a lot of things because we’ve made a lot of mistakes.”

After putting it all into practice since the release of Bigger Houses in 2023, the guys say they’re ready to keep the momentum and good vibes going into a new project which they both look forward to creating in 2025.

“I couldn’t be more excited to get back to writing again,” said Shay. “I’m really looking forward to getting back in the studio because we’re intentionally giving ourselves the time to be creative and get into the studio and be like, ‘hey, what do we want to create?’ And just enjoy that process... our fans deserve that — for us to give it everything we have.”

Hear so much more about new music, what Bigger Houses and meant to them, plus their best holiday card tips and tricks by checking out Dan + Shay’s entire conversation on the Superstar Power Hour with Katie Neal above.

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Katie Neal

CMA 'New Artist of the Year,' Megan Moroney, has a lot to celebrate this holiday season and she’s making the most of it with her very own Christmas EP, 'Blue Christmas… Duh.'

The project, which Moroney admits was “just for fun” follows a successful year for the 27-year-old who spent a majority of her days on tour with Kenny Chesney, while also promoting the release of her sophomore album, 'Am I Okay?'

“I think they love it, which makes me really happy” Moroney said when asked how she felt fans reacted to the album which released in July. “I’m proud of these songs and I love them too. They’re so fun to perform live.”

Moroney will have plenty of opportunities to relish in the joy of playing each song live as she embarks on her headlining 'Am I Okay?' Tour in 2025. “I’m really excited to just be on a proper headlining tour again,” she shared. “I’m really excited to be with my fans every single night and get to play 90 minutes of all my songs… I feel like there’s less pressure at shows that I headline because I get to kind of do whatever I want.”

The Georgia native continued on to share how she’s currently in the planning stages for her headlining show and has big plans to make it all about the fans — something she learned on tour with Kenny Chesney.

“His [Chesney’s] shows are literally a celebration of No Shoes Nation [his fan club] and that’s how I want my shows to feel,” Moroney expressed. “One thing that I saw that’s kind of crazy to me is that he’s in a stadium, he could have crazy production, but he doesn’t because his songs are that good and he’s that good of a performer. It was kind of a reminder to focus on the songwriting and make sure the songs are good.”

Megan plans to work on writing some of her future hits during downtime she’ll get over the holidays while hinting that album three is on her mind. “When I’m moving a thousand miles an hour, I don’t have as much mental space to be creative,” she said, sharing she’ll be writing a lot over her down time before the new year.

While Megan’s focus is on new music, fans can celebrate the holidays with three new Christmas songs from Moroney featured on her holiday EP, 'Blue Christmas… Duh.' “Because I’ve embraced the color blue so heavily this year, it’s like, what other color would Christmas be?” She shared when talking about finding a title for her Christmas EP. “I didn’t want to just name it ‘Blue Christmas’ because I didn’t want to go over people’s heads. I just wanted to be like, ‘Duh! Obviously it’s a Blue Christmas.'”

As she mentioned, there’s been a lot of blue from Moroney this year who really leaned into the color and made it synonymous with her sophomore album for Country fans all over the globe. So will there be a new color for a new album?

“When I created, ‘Am I Okay?’ and the world around that, everything felt very blue and I’ve definitely leaned into it — I think I went really hard with the blue,” she laughed. “But, blue is my favorite color, so I kind of want this era to last forever.”

Hear more about Moroney’s plans for the new year, her vacation with Kenny Chesney and holiday album by checking out her entire conversation with Audacy’s Katie Neal on the 'Superstar Power Hour' above.

Blake Shelton has seen a lot of success throughout his more than 20 year career, but the Oklahoma-native says he’s never had more fun than he is right now. After stepping away from the spotlight following 24 seasons on The Voice, multiple hit albums and #1 songs, Blake Shelton is back and he’s living his best life.

“I’m having the time of my life right now, just in my personal life and my music life,” he shared with Audacy’s Katie Neal while co-hosting the Superstar Power Hour,. “[Music] has kind of been of been off the radar for, I guess a couple of years, as far as releasing any new music or anything. It’s exciting, I kind of feel like a new artist again sticking my neck out there. I’m having a blast with it.”

Shelton shared he wasn’t always sure he’d return with new music, but after spending time with one artist in particular — Post Malone — his passion for the craft was reignited. “I credit him for really firing me up again about wanting to get in and make another record and get some music out there,” Shelton shared of his new friend Post.

“I don’t know how he does it. I’ve never been around a more infectious, happy person in my life as Post Malone. I hope everyone gets a chance to shake his hand one day because you’ll have a better day because of it. He’s just the happiest, most gracious guy I’ve ever met in my life. I don’t mean one of, I mean thee.”

Sharing he hopes Post will continue to stick around the genre, Blake shared he’s happy to have some space on the radio alongside artists like Post with his new single, “Texas.” Despite being weary to record the song, Shelton shared he’s more than happy for following through with it as it’s led to some of his greatest memories in the studio.

“I thought, ‘My gosh,’ this song is really special,” he said of the first time he heard it. “I was a little bit nervous about it for me, in fact I told Scott [Hendrix] (producer), I said, ‘I don’t know that I could see myself doing that song…’ but then the more I thought about it, the more I came to maybe that’s exactly why I should go in and record the song.”

He continued, “It’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had in the studio making a record and that’s just because the song is fun. That’s all it’s really meant o be anyway.”

According to Shelton, there’s lots more new music to come as he has plans to release an entire album in the coming year - but he plans on maximizing his time in the creative stages to make sure it’s exactly what he wants. “I have a record ready to go,” he shared. “I would like to keep lookin’ and playin’ with it for the next few months and recording some more things because I feel like I’m just now figuring out — especially with ‘Texas’ — what I want the sound to be like…. just kind of where I want to move to with this next step.”

While fans anxiously await new music, they have the opportunity to pass the time by seeing Shelton in Vegas for a six-night residency in February 2025 where Shelton says he hopes to treat fans to some of the older classics.

“If people are going to travel to come see me, they’re probably fans that… [have] been following along with me for a long time,” he said. “I think maybe the best thing I can do is dig out some of those old songs that I just don’t do anymore for whatever reason that I know were big records at the time — back in the freakin’ ‘90s or whenever they came out,” he laughed.

Tickets for all six shows at Las Vegas’ Colosseum at Caesars Palace are available now. To hear more about Shelton’s plans for the residency, new music and stories behind the classics check out his entire interview with Audacy’s Katie Neal.

Words by Monica Rivera, Interview by Katie Neal

A new year is upon us and Keith Urban is looking forward to sharing his enthusiasm for one of his favorite holiday traditions with fans across the Country.

Urban is set to help fans across the nation Rock into 2025 as he headlines and co-hosts New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash live from Music City’s Bicentennial Mall and the nostalgia is already strong for the Australia-raised singer-songwriter.

“I’m not a resolutions guy, but I love New Year’s Eve, I love the countdown,” Urban told Audacy’s Katie Neal during his recent appearance on the 'Superstar Power Hour'. I’ve always loved the countdown, it’s a big deal to me. I think it’s because … I quit school when I was 15 and Ive been playing in bands right away… so from the age of 15, I’ve always played in bands and we’ve always played on New Year’s Eve because back in the day, you’d earn like, triple your fee if you played New Year’s Eve…. I’m not used to celebrating New Year’s Eve anywhere but on a stage, so it feels really good to be back on a stage.”

The five-hour, star-studded celebration will air across multiple time zones (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT,10:30 PM-1:30 AM, ET/PT) on December 31st via CBS and Paramount+. Featured performers include Jelly Roll, Kane Brown and more in addition to Urban who is promising some high voltage performances of songs from his newest album, 'HIGH', which Urban says has resonated with fans in a special way.

“I’m feeling it’s the whole record people like instead of just a handful of songs — that’s a really good feeling,” he shared. “I haven’t had that maybe since, Ripcord, to that degree. So, that’s an amazing feeling. I think the songs are really connecting with everybody.”

Nashville’s Big Bash is just the start of a big year of live performances for Urban, who is set to kick off touring in addition to finishing up dates for his Las Vegas Residency.

“I love touring, like, love it,” he shared. “I should’ve been touring in 2024 because I did an album in ’23 that was called '615'… and I ditched that record and ended up doing this album called 'HIGH,' but it meant I had to push off touring into ’24. I feel for like, two years, I’ve been waiting for 2025 to happen so I can get touring.”

Touring isn’t the only thing Urban is looking forward to in the new year as he’s also working on a passion project of bringing a run down Nashville music studio that’s near and dear to his heart back to life. “I’m sort of bringing back to life a really great studio here in town,” he revealed. “Now that I’m pretty much off the road, I’m down there every day and that’s really, an extraordinarily exciting project for me… this is a studio where I made a lot of records over the years. It finally became for sale, so I jumped on it.”

Reviving the studio has Urban a bit outside of his comfort zone as he learns about building codes, treating mold and more, but it’s all worth it for the 57-year-old who says the studio will turn into a second home for him. “I know more about mold remediation then I ever want to know ever again,” he laughed. “I’ve learned about industrial air conditioning units and power and plumbing — I’ve just learned way too much about all these things — but it’s been riveting because at least it’s a studio. It’s an amazing studio and I’ll probably just live there once it’s up and running.”

Hear additional details about the studio project, touring and more by checking out Keith’s entire conversation with Audacy’s Katie Neal on the 'Superstar Power Hour.'

Photo: Borman Entertainment

After being around music her whole life and dreaming of her own success as a musician, Ella Langley, is finally experiencing the success she deserves after years of hard work, determination and finessing her talent.

The 25-year-old recently joined Katie Neal at Audacy’s Nashville Sound Space located at the Hard Rock Cafe and dug deep on her Alabama roots, long-awaited success and the song that finally broke through for her.

“I don't remember a day not thinking about wanting to do this [music],” she shared before admitting, “I didn't know how it was gonna happen.” 2024 has been the year “it happened” for the Alabama native who has experienced next-level success with her single “you look like you love me,” featuring Riley Green.

“This song, what it’s doing is insane,” she said of her debut single before admitting she never thought it would even make an album. “I wrote the song with Aaron [Raitiere] at first and we didn’t write it as a duet - we wrote it as just a song for me to play around the bonfires at writers rounds to make everyone giggle.”

After being encouraged by members of her team to submit it for consideration on her first album, Langley still didn’t think the song would resonate. “I loved the song, I just never imagined it coming out because it’s a little bit of a risk.” After one of her team members at the label submitted it anyways, Ella was surprised to get a call from her agent raving about the tune and was finally convinced to move forward with releasing it.

Originally written as a solo, the song quickly turned into a duet when Ella was invited on tour with her longtime friend, Riley Green where she asked him to jump on the tune with her. “I just asked him, I said, ‘What would your opinion be on writing a second verse for this song and then I’ll put it out on my album?’”

After the pair continued to have fun with the song on tour and explore the different creative possibilities, it quickly gained traction thanks to social media and there was no turning back. Confident in the song, it was acceptance from Riley’s fans Ella says she was most worried about.

“Honestly, I just thought it was going to go the complete opposite way,” she shared. “I was worried about putting out a song with him in the first place just because, you know, he’s Riley Green — that’s all I really have to say.”

She continued, “Playing shows this past year, there’s a lot of people who didn’t know who I was and so some of the girls in the front row were like, so annoyed at me. I’m like, ‘Woah, I’m just up here trying to sing my song.’ This was before the song even came out, so I was a little worried all these girls were about to attack me because I’m putting out a song with Riley. But, it went such the opposite way and I was like, ‘the girls have my back! Wow!’”

As of a couple weeks ago, the song is now a CMA Winner for Musical Event of the Year earning both Riley and Ella their first CMA Awards and setting them up for even more success come 2025. Hear more of Langley’s story from her childhood to recent fame by checking out her entire interview with Audacy’s Katie Neal above.

Caylee Robillar

Brooks & Dunn have done it again. The iconic Country duo has welcomed a new generation of music fans to their timeless classics with, REBOOT 2, a sequel to their highly-popular album from 2019, REBOOT.

The project, available now, follows the same format as the 2019 release with several of today’s biggest Country stars joining the duo for reimagined versions of their most iconic songs. They include Lainey Wilson (“Play Something Country”), Morgan Wallen (“Neon Moon”), and Ernest (“Indian Summer”) in addition to some out-of-genre artists like Halestorm (“Boot Scootin’ Boogie”) and The Earls of Leicester (“How Long Gone”). On top of already being timeless classics, the collaborations with artists of other genres and generations have brought the magic of Brooks & Dunn’s music to even more music fans across the globe.

Not only is the duo getting in front of new fans at their own shows, but they recently got the spotlight shed on them as newly crowned CMA Entertainer of the Year, Morgan Wallen, featured them as part of his famous “walk out” at a tour stop in Kansas City.

“That’s a trip,” Ronnie said, recalling the experience. “The only hint we got from his people was, ‘OK, Morgan’s gonna walk fast.’ So we were like, ‘OK, we’re gonna walk fast,’” he laughed.

Kix continued, “Theo Von (podcaster) made a great point about Morgan’s walk out. It’s like, he comes, you’re in the hallway, it’s like, ‘Hey dude! So great to see ya, high five, hug it out, c’mon let’s go,’ the crowd’s going wild… everybody going crazy, we’re right there with him and it’s like, ‘OK, you guys are done.’”

He added, “We’re used to going to the stage at that point and I was like, ‘Oh, OK. Back to the dressing room. Thank you, we’ll see you in about two hours. OK, whatever.’”

Come 2025, the duo will get to continue that energy right onto the stage at they embark on their Neon Moon Tour kicking off in Lubbock, TX on March 13. According to the guys, they’re ready to level-up the production after learning some new “tricks” during their Vegas residency, which wrapped in December 2021.

“One of the cool things about being in Vegas for the seven years we were there off-and-on was that we met some serious production people — like, the Cirque de Soleil guys that do all that video and all those effects,” shared Dunn. “So, we get to use them now, which is the cream of the crop.”

It will be quite the change from their touring days in the late ‘90s, early ‘00s when the duo recalls being in charge of all production ideas which resulted in shooting dummies out of cannons and creating “twin tornadoes” on stage.

“We do have a pretty long history of doing some ridiculous, nonsense,” said Kix. “Shooting ourselves out of a cannon was pretty classic… it didn’t last too long because it was really dangerous,” he shared before detailing the dummies that shot out into the front section of the crowd ultimately giving one woman a bloody nose. “It’s like shooting’ a missile into the audience,” Added Ronnie. “This is how stupid we were.”

Many lessons were learned the hard way for the pair, and with that, they’re grateful social media wasn’t around for their climb to success. “We wouldn’t be here,” Ronnie said with certainty when asked if social media would’ve hurt or helped their career in the early days. While the lack of documentation is a relief in many ways for the guys, they also say they believe it would keep them from being able to put together a documentary should they ever have the desire.

“We’d have to have ...