Kenny Chesney drunk dials Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie’s new country duets CD, Tuskegee, will be in stores March 27th, and he recently shared a funny story about meeting and recording with Kenny Chesney. Lionel told us, “Kenny is about the most expressive brother I’ve ever met in my life. He holds nothing back. And I didn’t know this when I first met him, but I should have known right after the phone call.” Lionel says he thought All Night Long would be a good song for him and Kenny to sing, so he left him a message and told him to listen to all the songs and pick his favorite and then call him back.
“Well the next morning,” says Lionel, “I woke up and there was a voicemail.” Doing his best impersonation of a drunk Kenny Chesney, Lionel says what he heard on the voicemail was, “Lionel! Oh my God, Lionel! Oh my God, oh my God. My Love … (singing) My looove just thinkin’ about … oh Lionel, I love you. I love you Lionel, I love you … (singing) my looove … Lionel, I love ‘My Love’, I love you … I love you … Lionel … love you.”
“The next day,” Lionel tells us, “He called me on the phone and he said, ‘Oh I’m sorry Lionel, I drunk dialed you, but I had to tell you how much I love you.’ I said, ‘I know how much you love me Kenny.’” And apparently the love for Lionel runs deep in Kenny’s family. When he showed up at the studio he told Lionel that in his entire career his mother has never come to the recording studio with him, but when she heard he was going to be singing with Lionel she said, ‘I love Lionel Richie. I’m coming to the studio.’ Lionel says, “And his mama walked in and said, ‘I love you Lionel, I love you.’ And Kenny said, ‘I love Lionel, too.’ And his mother said, ‘I love Lionel and I love ‘My Love’. So Kenny and his mama love me.”
By the way, Lionel tells us “If anyone ever tells me that I’m lying, I have the drunk dial tape. He sang the whole song all the way through.” Lionel actually considered putting the voicemail on the deluxe package of Tuskegee, but he decided to save it for a future project because he saysTuskegee is just volume one of many to come in this country duets series.
In related K-Chez news he has signed on to perform at the ACM awards - Also scheduled to perform the show's co-host Blake Shelton, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts, Chris Young and The Band Perry have also lined up performance slots. They join previously announced performers Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan Eric Church, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert and Tim McGraw on the bill.
Blake and Reba host the 47th Annual ACM Awards coming up Sunday, April 1 on CBS at 8:00 p.m. ET
Taylor Swift Tops Billboards list of "Top 40 Moneymakers"
Billboard Magazine has counted up just how much cash music's biggest stars have earned over the past year to compile its "Top 40 Money Makers" list, and Taylor Swift comes out on top.
Taylor's sold-out Speak Now tour helped fill her coffers with 29.8 million bucks, while sales of her albums and digital tracks were in the millions. Songwriting royalties also added to her total, because she wrote all the songs on Speak Now herself -- not sharing the money with anyone.
Overall, Billboard estimates that Taylor earned $35,719,902 in the U.S. over the past year -- and that's not counting her lucrative endorsement deals, merchandise sales or overseas earnings, which the publication didn't make part of its equation.
Country superstar Kenny Chesney came in third with 29.8 million bucks coming in, and Jason Aldean was ninth with $13.4 million. Overall, country stars took 11 of the chart's 40 positions.
Country Artists on Billboard's "Top 40 Money Makers" List:
34. Sugarland, $5.6 million
28. Zac Brown Band, $6.5 million
27. Keith Urban, $6.6 million
26. Lady Antebellum, $6.7 million
21. Brad Paisley, $8.6 million
19. Tim McGraw, $9.3 million
18. Rascal Flatts, $9.6 million
15. Toby Keith, $10.4 million
9. Jason Aldean, $13.4 million
3. Kenny Chesney, $29.8 million
1. Taylor Swift, $35.7 million
