Lainey Wilson was one of a series of witnesses that sat before lawmakers in Los Angeles Friday to plead the case of artists and performers who are being threatened by artificial intelligence, or “AI.” The singer called for passage of proposed legislation that would curb the use of unauthorized AI deepfakes and voice clones, telling lawmakers that “we need to keep humanity in art. We cannot lose that.”

Source: Deadline

Just remember: this woman authored a cookbook. Reba McEntire recently entered a “Hillbilly Chili Cook-off” – and a woman who professes to know how to cook (and wrote a book that would seem to indicate as much) should have a leg up in something like this. On top of that, she had an ace in the hole: boyfriend Rex Linn was one of the judges. However, if you bet on Reba to take top prize in the competition, you’re going home broke.

In fact, Reba came in dead last. She walked away with a booby prize trophy: a chili pepper being flushed down a toilet. To add insult to injury, fellow country star Terri Clark also entered – and finished in second place.

If true, this is huge. Up til now, we’ve been told by Luke Combs that he’s had no direct contact with Tracy Chapman since turning his cover of her 1988 hit “Fast Car” into a massive country and pop hit. While Chapman did congratulate Combs in a statement, apparently they never had any communication either before or after the song took over radio last summer.

That story may not hold true for much longer. “Variety” is reporting that the folk rocker and the country superstar are planning to duet on the song at Sunday night’s GRAMMY awards. No one’s talking on either side, and the Recording Academy isn’t saying anything either – but if it happens, it will be a minor miracle; Chapman has only performed for the cameras three times since wrapping up her last tour in 2009, and the singer had thus far resisted the any suggestions to take advantage of the resurgence of “Fast Car” as an international phenomenon.

We’ll find out Sunday night; the GRAMMYs will air live from 8-11:30 p.m. ET/5-8:30 p.m. PT from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Source: Variety

With the Super Bowl coming up next weekend, we got to thinking about how awesome Chris Stapleton’s anthem was last year.  And then when we found out that his wife, Morgane, was messing with him for weeks before, it made his performance seem that much better.

Check this, all the way leading up to the big show, she kept sending him “Star Spangled Banner Gone Wrong” moments.  Like she was thinking, “Oh, you are about to perform in front of 150 million people worldwide?  Cool cool, here are a few videos of people absolutely bombing to calm your nerves.”

It either speaks to how great their relationship is, or how totally cool Chris Stapleton is.  Because even with her messing with him, he still rocked it.

Meanwhile, CBS Sports just put out a list of the best Super Bowl anthems and Chris didn’t even crack the top ten?  Only two country stars made the list, Faith Hill in 2000 at #10 . . . and Carrie Underwood in 2010 at #6.  Where do you think Chris should rank on this list?  (Whiskey Riff)