BILL BLOG
Monday May 15, 2023
Monday morning in Nashville with bags packed and ready for another road trip today. This one takes me to Illinois. More on this at the end of today’s blog.
THE WEEKEND
Friday was spent getting home to Nashville with Linda Davis and Lang Scott after our show Thursday night in the town of Bucyrus, Ohio that was great fun. 7- and 8-hour road trips go a lot faster when you’re in the car with folks like that. Lots and lots of laughter during the journey back to Nashville. Our next show together is an informal private gathering in Nashville this Wednesday evening, and then our next official “Evening in the Round” show will be July 6 at Americanaville in Livingston, Tennessee about 2 hours east of Nashville. Complete details are on my website as well as the info you need to get a ticket for the show.
MOTHER’S DAY
I hope all of you took the time to celebrate your Mom yesterday if you’re lucky enough to still have yours. If not, I hope you took time to remember her as I did. I was in Virginia a few weeks ago and my sister Vickie who lives in Newport News, Virginia came to see me and catch a “Hits & Grins” show with Steve Dean & Victoria Venier in West Point, VA. We were staying overnight in the beautiful historic town of Williamsburg and she took me to a local Bar B Que place that was off the hook good. Steve & Victoria joined us as well. Before they arrived, my sister showed me some old family photos including the one you see below of my Mom “Madge”. This was her last job before she passed working at a Walmart shoes store. She was a district manager for them. She raised me along with my Dad, and four other siblings that include my sister Vickie. The picture made me smile and tear up at the same time as we lost her way way too soon. To this day there are things that will trip a memory of her that make me tear up. Could not have had a better Mom.
BINGE WATCHING
Caught up on a couple of movies I wanted to see over the weekend. The first was AIR. It’s the story of how Nike landed Michael Jordan to become the face of the company and the creation of the Air Jordan sneaker line that’s made Nike wealthy and Michael Jordan wealthier. It stars Ben Affleck and his buddy Matt Damon but Jason Bateman is also in this movie and he’s excellent. Every time I see him he seems to quietly star. Ben Affleck wrote the script and it was a very fun watch on the couch with my wife. You’ll find out what a shrewd business woman Michael’s mama has been.
CLIVE
Then I watched the Clive Davis documentary that my friend Victoria Venier told me to watch. THE greatest music man ever is what a lot of folks would tell you. And after watching this, that would be hard to argue. A lawyer by trade, he had no idea he had an ear for hit artists and hit music. In EVERY genre as the head of record labels. He signed Whitney, Barry Manilow, Sean Combs, Alan Jackson, Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Alicia Keys and on and on and on. If you’re into the people behind the music? You’ll enjoy this.
HEALTH NOTES
New York City has now recovered 99% of all jobs lost during the pandemic.
Also in New York…cannabis related emergency room visits are up 44%.
A startling and sad figure here. About 17 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant.
BOYS NAMES
Pop culture, movies, TV shows and characters do influence baby names. Here’s proof.
The fastest rising boys names in 2022 were Dutton and Kayce…taken directly from the hit TV show “Yellowstone” starring Kevin Costner. I’m surprised that “Rip” didn’t make the top 5.
The fastest growing girl names are different. Wrenlee and Neriah are one and two.
The top boys name of the year was Liam, and the top girls name in 2022 was Olivia.
VEGAS MONEY
Adele doesn’t have to struggle with rent money anymore. She’s playing a residency gig in Vegas that will pay her 2 MILLION per night. And she’s doing 60 shows. She’ll take home 105 million. Yep. Pretty sure she’s able to get by for the rest of her life. The girl can sing now. I can’t name a lot of her songs…but I do love her taste in music when she chose to sing a song that Chris Stapleton wrote, “If It Hadn’t Been For Love”.
COW BIRD DOGS
Who knew that cows could lead police to a bad guy? Apparently that happened this weekend when a crook running from cop holed up in a cow pasture. The police show up, cows are gathered, and the police follow the herd when they started walking and they led them to this dude who got arrested on that pasture in North Carolina. The cows apparently did not like some guy hanging around their pasture. Try hiding in a pig pen. Hogs don’t care as much.
PASTA PRICES
Italy is having a crises. Pasta prices are high….REALLY high. They’ve soared up over 17.5% over the past year. That’s higher than the rate of inflation. What the heck would Italy be without pasta?
When I toured Italy with Brent Burns a few years ago we found out how great pasta dishes are. The first night we were in Rome and had 7 course meal in a beautiful restaurant in an alleyway where we saw the Colosseum for the first time at night…all lit up.
The second pasta dishes were on the island of Verona which is an island near Venice that you can boat to. A family style intimate restaurant that was SO good.
And we also had past at an Italian winery in a little hill town in Italy.
Our bill would have been a LOT higher if we were there today.
A STAR IN CEMENT
Blake Shelton with wife Gwen Stefani were in Hollywood over the weekend as they unveiled Blake’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Something he never expected. I think him becoming such a break out star on TV on “The Voice” had something to do with it.
Years ago I did a “live” broadcast in Hollywood covering the ACM Awards. One of the guests my show that week was the “honorary” Mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant who passed in 2009. He gave our radio station WUBE Cincinnati a key to the city. And he gave us an education on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood as he was the guy in charge of the ceremonies when stars got their stars. Nice man. Congrats to Blake.
THEN THERE’S DOLLY
Dolly Parton just released her first ROCK single off her new rock album that’s out soon. Can Dolly rock? She can do everything else seemingly. Here’s her first rock record “World on Fire”. Judge for yourself.
OVERPRICED
A “Money” publication just listed the most overpaid housing markets in the country and five of those cities are in Florida.
Nashville, where I live was listed at #10 where the average listing of a home right now is $420,932 and the value they say is only $296, 827.
Here’s the other 9 cities listed.
Tampa, Deltona, FL, Detroit, Palm Bay, FL, Lakeland, FL, Memphis, Charlotte, Cape Coral, FL, and number one for most overpaid?
Atlanta
TODAY
Back on the road. I’m off to jump in a car with Steve Dean and Victoria Venier as we have a pretty good drive to Canton, Illinois today where we have a “Hits & Grins” show tonight at the Canton High School Auditorium at 7:30 pm.
We are certainly looking forward to playing in their beautiful theater.
Have a great Monday!
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