Carrie Underwood is set to return to open NBC’s Sunday Night Football next month, and this year’s opening may look a little different.

This year, NBC announced they plan to bring some local flavor to the opening, cutting scenes of her singing “Waiting All Day For Sunday Night,” with scenes from each week’s host city, as well as activity around that night’s stadium.

And Carrie, for one, is certainly excited to be back for another year.

“Performing the show open for Sunday Night Football for 10 years has been such a joy and privilege for me,” she shares. “It’s always a fun day when we shoot the new open — our amazing creative team somehow manages to top themselves year after year.”

Sunday Night Football season kicks off September 11^th

• Meanwhile, Carrie is set to kick off her Denim & Rhinestones Tour in October, and she’s hard at work preparing for the trek, which she loves to do. “I think my favorite parts of putting a new tour together is the anticipation. I love rehearsals as well,” she says. “I feel like it’s, it’s like a show with no pressure (laughs), no pressure, no audience and we just kind of get to play music and do all that stuff and it’s fun, and so I really, I enjoy rehearsals.”

Keith Urban is opening up about the role the late Olivia Newton-John played in his life and career.

“Olivia’s one of those people that for so many Australians, particularly, has just always been part of the fabric of life, you know?,” he shares. “She was there in the 70s and kinda has just been there, for all of my life it feels like she’s been there.”

He says he first met her at a songwriters’ retreat, noting, “I was a bit of a fanboy,” adding, “she couldn’t have been more down-to-earth, kind, friendly, warm, funny, everything I thought she would be, she was exactly that.”

Keith also shares that Olivia was there the night he first met wife Nicole Kidman, as they were both being honored for being Australians who had done well in America and Olivia was on hand to introduce him. “I asked Olivia if she would do it for me, so she was the person who introduced me that night, that fateful night when I met my wife,” he says. “So, she also plays that very special role in our past, as well.”

Source: Keith Urban

Dierks Bentley can get excited because a new album is on the way. The singer recently released the new track “Gold,” which is the first single off his upcoming 10^th studio album, which is expected early next year.

“The album is done. I’m just wrapping up some collaborations and some final mixed stuff,” he tells with “Country Heat Weekly” host Amber Anderson. “It’s the 10th, so it’s got to be right.”

He adds, “After my third record, I thought maybe there wouldn’t be albums anymore because of all the streaming and different ways to consume music,” noting, “But they’re still making ‘em. As long as there’s still an opportunity to make an album, I’ll be doing it.”

Source: CMT

Darius Rucker is set to headline the latest episode of “CMT: Storytellers,” debuting August 31^st at 10 pm.

The one-hour, “CMT Storytellers: Darius Rucker,” will have Darius singing some of his biggest hits, including country tunes and Hootie & The Blowfish tracks, while sharing exclusive stories behind the tunes.

“There have been so many nights when someone comes up to me after a show and tells me what a song means to them, when they first heard it or how it became a song at a pivotal moment in their life, played at a wedding or even a memorial,” Darius shares. “The way music connects and how the story evolves for each person differently is perhaps the coolest aspect of music.”

He adds that’s “what makes a show like ‘CMT Storytellers’ so special.”

Source: CMT

Kelsea Ballerini recently revealed that she was taking ballet classes, and apparently she’s using it to get in shape for her upcoming 10-city tour. In an interview with “Women’s Health,” Kelsea reveals that she started taking ballet when she was 10, but gave it up at 14. “But I loved it so much,” she says. “And then my path really shifted to music.”

She explains that her goal now is “to see what my body remembers and then relearn the art of it, because it’s so beautiful.” She notes, “It’s the little micro muscles in your ankles and in your inner thighs, and the (idea) that there’s a string pulling you directly up to the ceiling while your toes are pushing down into the ground.”

Kelsea says she’s also getting ready for the tour by getting in her 10,000 steps a day on “really long, slow walks.” She says, “Just to get fresh air and get sunshine and move my body, but not move my body in a way that I’m feeling like I’m needing (to see) some results.

• Kelsea’s “Heartfirst Tour” kicks off September 24^th in New York.

Source: Women’s Health