Jerry Carrigan, a famed drummer who worked with such artists as Elvis Presley, George Jones, Kenny Rogers, Porter Wagoner and more, passed away last Thursday in Chattanooga at the age of 75. No cause of death was revealed.

Carrigan helped create the Muscle Shoals sound, and appeared on several early FAME records. In 1964 played in the Muscle Shoals back up band, which opened for The Beatles at their first U.S. concert in Washington, DC.

Carrigan is credited with playing on such well-known songs as Waylon Jennings’s “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line,” Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Middle Aged Crazy,”” Rogers’ “The Gambler,” Ray Stevens’ “Everything Is Beautiful,” and more.

Dierks Bentley is dealing with a few bumps and bruises. The singer revealed in an interview that he was in the emergency room yesterday after injuring himself in a mountain bike accident in Colorado.

Turns out Dierks broke some bones in his hand in the accident, but it shouldn’t keep him from the stage, since he isn’t really playing guitar on stage during his current tour. He is worried about one thing. Seems he hurt his right hand, which is also the hand he uses to hold his beer.

Dierks’ “Burning Man Tour” hits Clarkston, Michigan on Saturday.

Thomas Rhett is celebrating a new number one. The singer’s latest single, “Look What God Gave Her” is number one on both the “Billboard” Country Airplay and Country Aircheck/Mediabase Airplay charts this week, making it his 13th number one single.

“Thirteen…what an incredible way to celebrate this chapter of new music,” Thomas shares. “This year has already been beyond anything I could have dreamed of, I’m just so grateful and blown away by the continued support.”

And it sounds like Thomas is already planning his next hit. The singer announced that “Remember You Young,” will be the next single from his latest release, “Center Point Road.”

In other chart news…

Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton’s “Dive Bar” debuts at 16 on the Country Airplay chart, and at 34 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
Luke Bryan’s “Knockin’ Boots” is at eight on the Hot Country Songs chart, Luke’s 28th Top Ten hit.

Gwen Stefani took to social media to share a sweet birthday message to her beau Blake Shelton, who turned 42 last week. Well, apparently that isn’t the only way she helped the country star celebrate his big day.

“People” reports that Gwen threw Blake a pizza party at her house for friends and family, and got him a great gift for his ranch in Oklahoma. “It’s like a ‘Welcome to the Ranch’-type sign,” Blake told the mag. “It was a handmade deal. It’s pretty cool.”

And it seems the pizza bash was Blake’s idea. “[Gwen] said, ‘What do you want?’ I go, ‘Well, there’s a big pizza oven out there, so we need to figure out how to use that thing,’” he said. “So they have a friend who actually owns a pizza restaurant here in town, he came over and knew how to do it.”

Blake added, “I have no idea how to do any of that stuff. It’s either a frozen pizza for me or Pizza Hut.”

ONE MORE THING! In an interview with Entertainment Tonight Blake talked about all the marriage rumors that circulate about he and Gwen noting, “First of all, the rumors stuff, I’m not gonna sit here and say that it makes me mad. It’s funny,” he says. “I’ve learned over the years just to take that for what it is,” adding that the reports are “complimentary.” As for whether they’ll get married, Blake notes, “Obviously, that’s gotta lead somewhere, but I promise you, we won’t break the news in any of the grocery store trash magazines.”

Miranda Lambert is currently working on a new album, and she now says fans can expect it sometime in the fall. “I would call it old Miranda, but a Miranda at a whole new level, if that makes any sense,” she tells the “Chicago Sun-Times” of the record.

Miranda’s albums are usually inspired by changes in her life, and since she just got married that could be a good thing, although she insists it’s “not going to be love song overload or anything like that.”

“I made a career on being a rock and roller and I think fans are going to hear that throughout,” she notes, “And yeah, there is this vibe of being happy that goes through this album. I am really, really happy.”