Morgan Wallen‘s Still the Problem Tour added another headline-making moment to its run on Friday night (June 5), when the country superstar grabbed a cellphone out of a security guard’s hand mid-performance and flung it across the stage at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium.

Video of the incident, posted to TikTok by user jcroo419 and rapidly circulated on social media, shows the guard holding up a phone while recording Wallen perform — reportedly at the request of a fan who had passed the device forward in the hopes the guard would hand it to the singer.

Instead, Wallen gestured toward the phone, walked away, then returned, removed it from the guard’s hand and dramatically launched it across the stage. “I get it… security should be doing security things, but…,” the user captioned the clip. Billboard has reached out to representatives for Wallen for comment.

The phone-throwing came at the end of a turbulent week on the road for the I’m the Problem tour. Just days earlier, Wallen experienced an onstage meltdown during his Denver show, when his piano appeared to malfunction during a performance of “Sand in My Boots,” forcing him to finish the song a cappella. He then walked back to the piano, shoved it about a foot, and flipped it over — breaking it on the stage.

The next day, Wallen posted a TikTok video addressing the moment, showing himself at a new piano. “Hey, I just want you to know that right now this piano is working,” he said. “That’s what they told me last night, too.”

Wallen also abruptly canceled his Saturday show in Pittsburgh, citing high winds and stage safety concerns rather than the swirling “nonsense” speculation about his behavior.

“My team walked on the bus and told me they had been consulting with local officials and that I should cancel my show in Pittsburgh tonight,” he explained in a video posted to his Instagram Stories. “They said that there was going to be strong winds in the area… I’ve been seeing a lot of nonsense about me that is simply not true, and I just wanted to clear the air.”

The Pittsburgh phone moment is the latest in a string of headline-grabbing incidents tied to Wallen’s chart-dominating 2026. His current album I’m the Problem, released in May 2025, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the largest streaming week ever for a country album, and produced the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “I’m the Problem.”

He had previously topped the Hot 100 in 2024 with “I Had Some Help” featuring Post Malone, which spent six weeks at the summit. One Thing at a Time (2023) spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, one of the longest-running chart-toppers of the streaming era.

The Still the Problem Tour continues across the U.S. throughout the summer.

Shaboozey has found his “Cowgirl.” And yes, it’s Ciara Miller.

The “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” rapper’s outlaw era gathers pace with the release of “Cowgirl,” and its music video featuring Miller, the star of Bravo’s Summer House.

Directed by Logan Meis and Shaboozey, the music video follows Miller, a fearless gunslinger who strolls into a dodgy saloon in a forsaken nook of the Wild West. Our hero is no wallflower. Giving no s— about anything, she proceeds to out-drink, out-arm wrestle, out-shoot, out-do anything the other cowboys can muster.   

At the top of the clip, an explainer. The action takes place five days after the death of Sheriff Lee. The “Cowgirl” is venting, in a haze, in a rage. No doubt haunted by the death of her partner, the town Sheriff.

The lively song is the followup to the April release “Born To Die,” the first lifted from Shaboozey’s forthcoming concept album The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales.

The forthcoming collection is a Western portrait, a country tale told with Americana, hip-hop, and pop, recounting a “tragic, mythic story of vengeance, love, and transformation,” reads a statement. It’s said to unfold like a Western film, told in chapters with narration, skits, and cinematic transitions.

The main character is Cheri Lee, a woman shaped by violence and driven by loss. On her travels, she falls for an outlaw, which provides her with entry into the world that she’s trying to destroy. It’s complicated, and the story takes a bloody turn, leaving our hero with some big calls to make.

The Outlaw Cherie Lee is due out July 31 via EMPIRE, and is successor to his breakout 2024 project Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going. Shaboozey is responsible for one of the biggest hits of the streaming era with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which set a new benchmark by spending more time at No. 1 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart than any song before it and spending 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. The success of “A Bar Song” also cemented Shaboozey’s place in music history, making him the first performer to reach the top 10 simultaneously on Country Airplay, Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay, and Rhythmic Airplay charts. Additionally, it became only the second song by a Black artist to lead both the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs chart.

Watch the “Cowgirl” music video below.

It looks like Shaboozey is a Summer House fan.

The Grammy winner — who’s getting ready to release his fourth studio album, The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales, in July — has revealed the release date for his upcoming single “Cowgirl,” while teasing that Bravo star Ciara Miller will join him in the music video.

He shared a short preview on social media, offering a glimpse of the video’s Western-inspired aesthetic while the song’s chorus played in the background. In the clip, he and Miller dance together, dressed in coordinated cowboy and cowgirl attire.

“They say behind every outlaw is a cowgirl twice as dangerous. ‘Cowgirl’ out 6/5,” reads the caption on Shaboozey’s Instagram and X posts. On Instagram, he collaborated on the post with Miller, who later shared it to her Stories and confirmed the news with the simple message: “I’m the cowgirl.”

The video perfectly fits the theme for Shaboozey’s upcoming The Outlaw Cherie Lee album, which comes out July 31 and is the follow-up to his breakout 2024 project Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going. Over the past two years, he’s delivered a string of hits, starting with his monster single “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which set a new benchmark by spending more time at No. 1 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart than any song before it and spending 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. The success of “A Bar Song” also cemented Shaboozey’s place in music history, making him the first performer to reach the top 10 simultaneously on Country Airplay, Pop Airplay, Adult Pop Airplay, and Rhythmic Airplay charts. Additionally, it became only the second song by a Black artist to lead both the Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs chart.

Miller has also been making recent headlines, as her Summer House castmates Amanda Batula and West Wilson confessed back in March to having a secret relationship behind the backs of West’s ex-girlfriend (and Amanda’s alleged best friend) Ciara and Amanda’s ex-husband Kyle Cooke. The illicit relationship drew the ire of Summer House fans and loud support for Miller, with HAIM’s Alana Haim even appearing on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live wearing a “Team Ciara” T-shirt last month.

Watch Shaboozey and Miller dance to “Cowgirl” together below:

Zac Brown Band lead singer Zac Brown and jewelry designer Kendra Scott have tied the knot.

According to TMZ and later confirmed by People, the couple wed on May 25, exchanging vows in an intimate ceremony with family and friends held at Canaves Epitome Resort in Santorini, Greece.

The couple made their red carpet debut in 2025 at the American Music Awards and became engaged on July 24, 2025.

“We are so happy and grateful that we found each other,” Brown and Scott told People after the engagement.

In December, Zac Brown Band launched their Love & Fear limited engagement at The Sphere in Las Vegas, becoming the first country group to headline a show at the venue.

Speaking to Billboard in July 2025, Brown called the run of Sphere shows, as well as their 2025 album Love & Fear, “2.0 for our band. There’s some bands, they keep going for a while and then they kind of get tired, they stop. But my passion and my creativity is as good now as it’s ever been, and I just want to keep pushing the envelope of what our band is capable of and bringing our fans along for the ride… This is our chance to show that we’re not slowing down. We’ve actually got our foot on the gas.”

In July, Zac Brown Band is set to embark on their Love & Fear Tour, which will visit cities including Boston, Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

The three-time Grammy-winning band has earned 14 No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits including “Chicken Fried” and “Highway 20 Ride.” They have also seen five albums reach the pinnacle of the Top Country Albums chart. Love & Fear featured collaborations with Dolly Parton, Snoop Dogg and Marcus King.

Zac Brown Band is also set to perform during the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest, to be held June 13, 2026 at the White House in Washington, D.C.

At press time a spokesperson for Zac Brown Band had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.

Dylan Gossett is returning to Australia and New Zealand this December for The Headed Out Back Tour, his second run through the region following a breakthrough year that has established the 27-year-old Texas singer-songwriter as one of country music’s most in-demand live draws.

The six-date tour opens at The Ice Cream Factory in Perth on Dec. 3 before heading to Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane (Dec. 5), the Sydney Opera House Forecourt (Dec. 6) and Festival Hall in Melbourne (Dec. 8). The New Zealand leg follows with shows at Auckland’s Town Hall (Dec. 11) and Waipara Winehouse in North Canterbury (Dec. 12). Artist presale begins Tuesday, May 26 at 12 p.m. local time, with general on sale opening Friday, May 29 at 1 p.m. local time.

The tour is promoted by Live Nation and marks Gossett’s return to the region off the back of his 2025 debut album Westward, released via Big Loud Texas/Mercury Records. The self-written and self-produced record — a thematic exploration of love, family, faith and the pursuit of a lifelong dream — was led by singles “Like I Do,” “American Trail” and “Sweet Lady,” and was followed by a deluxe edition featuring three additional tracks.

Gossett first broke through in 2023 with “Coal,” a single that has since surpassed 500 million streams, cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and the U.K. Official Singles Chart, and earned multi-platinum certifications worldwide. He has since built a catalogue of Gold-certified singles including “Beneath Oak Trees,” “To Be Free” and “If I Had A Lover,” and has sold more than 200,000 headline tickets worldwide.

His festival credits include Stagecoach, SXSW, CMA Fest, Country 2 Country and Austin City Limits, alongside his Grand Ole Opry debut and support slots for Noah Kahan and Morgan Wallen.

Dylan Gossett: The Headed Out Back Tour — Australia & New Zealand 2026

Dec. 3 — Perth, AUS — The Ice Cream Factory
Dec. 5 — Brisbane, AUS — Fortitude Music Hall
Dec. 6 — Sydney, AUS — Sydney Opera House Forecourt
Dec. 8 — Melbourne, AUS — Festival Hall
Dec. 11 — Auckland, NZ — Town Hall
Dec. 12 — North Canterbury, NZ — Waipara Winehouse

The Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines has never been afraid to speak up when it comes to music or politics, and now the 12-time Grammy winner has issued a sharply worded criticism against President Trump.

In a new Instagram post, Maines wrote, “Our democracy is disappearing right before our eyes. This fugly slut is using your gas money to pay the insurrectionists. But don’t worry about it. I’m sure posting selfies will fix everything. My last post that called him a fugly slut got removed. We’ll see how long this one lasts. Repost and help this message live. Named 1M times in the #epsteinfiles.” Maines also included more hashtags: #democracy, #freespeech and, to cap it off, #fuglyslut.

The post also included a photo of Trump, as well as photos of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.

Back in 2003, The Chicks (then The Dixie Chicks) received backlash after Maines spoke out against President George W. Bush during one of the trio’s concerts in London just prior to the launch of the Iraq War. During that show, Maines said, “We do not want this war, this violence and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”

At the time, their single “Travelin’ Soldier” had reached the pinnacle of Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart, but two weeks after Maines’ comments, enough radio stations had pulled the record from their rotations that the song was no longer in the top 40 on the Hot Country Songs/Country Airplay chart.

In 2006, The Chicks released the song “Not Ready to Make Nice,” which addressed the political controversy, and issued their album Taking the Long Way, which found support from audiences and Grammy voters, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and winning Grammys for album of the year and best country album, while “Not Ready to Make Nice” earned Grammys for record of the year, song of the year and best country performance by a duo or group with vocals.

In 2020, the trio rebranded as The Chicks and released the song “March, March,” as well as the album Gaslighter. In 2022, they launched The Chicks Tour, with openers including Patty Griffin, Maren Morris, Ben Harper and Elle King.

When Amazon asked Carter Faith to record a version of Faith Hill’s “Let’s Go to Vegas” to promote the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards’ return to Nevada, she delayed a flight to Europe several days to accommodate the opportunity.

Since their Faith-based names overlapped, Carter felt an affinity for Hill growing up, and the chance to do a song she associated with one of her heroes was too good to pass up.

“When you’re younger, you feel connected to people for random things, and that was one of the things for me,” Carter says. “They asked me to sing that song. I was like, ‘Hell, yeah, I’ll cut it.’”

She had been forewarned that she did not qualify for the ACM’s new female artist trophy. The rules on the Academy’s website indicate that, among several other factors, an artist has to have earned a top 50 single, and Faith had yet to issue a song to radio. So when she found out during her overseas trek that Cherry Valley was a finalist for album of the year at the ACMs, which will be presented May 17, she knew something significant had occurred.

“I don’t have a hit on there, I don’t have a radio song, I don’t play these arenas,” she says. “But I feel like people just really connected with the music because it was different and said something that maybe a lot of people haven’t said in a while. Or ever.”

Cherry Valley is named loosely for a small community 40 miles east of Nashville’s Music Row. Faith had seen the name on a road sign, and she imagined a place where an upbeat veneer disguises a stream of difficult personal topics among its citizenry. The album explores sex, drugs, religion, hypocrisy and alcohol in a range of styles. The opening title track is a string-enhanced, cinematic outing, but the 15-song project drifts through folk, honky-tonk and traditional pop textures. Despite the wide range, it all holds together like an audio version of Valley of the Dolls: titillating, cheeky and gorgeous.

“Carter and I listened to a lot of older music,” notes producer Tofer Brown (Willow Avalon, Little Big Town). “We just are inspired by The Beach Boys, The Beatles, old country and all that. And we started noticing all these records that we were referring to, they all came out of, like, 1966, ‘67 and that era. The Beach Boys, Nancy Sinatra, and the sonics and the feel and the emotion and the heartbeat behind those records kind of inspired us.”

While the individual songs wander a bit stylistically, they’re united by Faith’s simultaneously bold and fragile vocals and a consistent production team. Brown employed the same studio band on every track; if a player was unavailable for a particular date, they rescheduled at a time when the whole crew could reconvene.

“It was a band of brothers and sisters coming together with the same thesis statement and shooting for the same target,” Brown says. “I think that that really helped with the cohesiveness.”

Faith wrote her first song at age 16 back in North Carolina, instinctively using music to process her emotions over a breakup. Writing became a pursuit, and she enrolled at Nashville’s Belmont University, focused on composition. She secured a songwriting deal with Universal Music Publishing Nashville, then signed with the company’s recorded music division, since renamed MCA, despite her initial reservations about performing.

“I’ve always kind of grappled with the thought of people seeing me sing these songs and being on stage,” she says. “I had such bad stage fright — you know, going up on stage and singing your songs is vulnerable. I think I’ve come into myself as I’ve lived here.”

As the album coalesced, Jessie Jo Dillon, who founded MCA’s Gatsby label, encouraged Faith to align with her imprint. Both Dillon and Brown protected her instincts, supporting her when her artistic decisions veered left of center.

“Me and Topher, we talked about it a lot,” Faith says. “We were like, ‘This should be the record that, if we never get to make another record, that this is something we’re proud of.’ And I really try to do that with every single decision. I just want to do it all up and not play it safe.”

The bigger the risk, of course, the bigger the potential reward, and the gambles in Cherry Valley paid off creatively. It became a critical favorite and obviously impressed ACM voters, sneaking onto the final ballot despite the organization’s tendency to celebrate hits.

Gatsby, meanwhile, isn’t done with Cherry Valley. The company greenlighted an updated version — Cherry Valley Forever: The Deluxe Album — with five new songs, due July 24. None of them were recorded when the original album streeted, though the community theme of the project and the existing variety of the material made it fairly easy to fold in new songs.

“Just like any town can grow, Cherry Valley can grow,” Brown suggests. “We allowed ourselves to be like, ‘Oh, we might be adding a new neighborhood,’ rather than being like, ‘How does this fit so perfectly?’ If you do that, you’re going to lose your mind, and you’re going to overthink things.”

For now, the original package allows Faith to go to Vegas for her first awards-show performance, with Brown behind her in the backing band. She’s aware of her outsider status, even though her ACM nomination suggests she’s as welcome at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as she is in Cherry Valley.

“I’m the new girl,” she says. “I’m nervous, and I don’t know these people that I’m going to be backstage with. I’ve heard about them, I’ve heard their music on the radio, I’ve seen them, and I’m a big fan of them, but I do feel like I’m kind of stepping into a world I’m not super a part of yet. That’s a little scary.”

Meanwhile, Faith does get to make another album. She’s already considering 20-30 titles for the next project, and she’s completely aware that it’ll be a different experience. With Cherry Valley, she recorded her songs not knowing who might hear them. Now, she has fans — in the industry in addition to the general public — who may expect a certain sound or approach. Her new challenge is to avoid becoming overly self-conscious, to continue to be real as she wanders beyond the fictitious Cherry Valley.

“I see a lot of people become caricatures of themselves, and I really try not to do that,” she says. “That’s kind of what I love about my favorite artists, is that they still feel like themselves.”