Could Luke Combs be formulating an exit strategy for his music career already? Luke’s first single, “Hurricane,” came out almost ten years ago, but his career started several years before that. Now that he’s achieved almost everything one can achieve in country music, and he has a wife and three young children, Luke may think there’s more to life than work. On Bert Kresicher‘s “Bertcast” podcast, they talked about how Garth Brooks walked away from country music while at the very top of his game, and whether Luke has considered a similar move. “That day is rapidly approaching. That will happen at some point. I think you have to accept that, and I think it’s okay to not want that to happen…” He added that he wasn’t sure exactly what form the decision to walk away would take. “I wonder if I want to do the slow decline thing and be okay with it. Which I would be if that’s what I decided to do. Or do you just (cut it off and) hit delete? And you’re just kind of like, ‘I’m out for a while.’ And I’m just gone for the next five years.” Check out the complete episode of the podcast here. 

Garth Brooks continues to cement his status in music history. The legend has officially secured his tenth diamond award following the latest certification for his “Triple Live.” The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) officially pronounced the 2018 collection’s status yesterday as 13X platinum, which blows past the ten million-unit threshold required for diamond status. This makes Garth the only artist in history to have ten diamond-certified albums. Coming in a distant second: The Beatles, who have six. The Beatles are still the highest-selling artist in music history, with 207.5-million overall albums sold. Brooks is in second, with 200.5-million.

We can’t imagine any country artist not wanting to play the Super Bowl halftime show, but put Luke Combs down as one who’s come out and said he’d do it if asked. On the “Zach Sang Show” podcast, he was asked if he’d ever been approached to play the world’s biggest stage. “No, never have. Never have. Gosh, like, how does that even happen? I don’t even really know how that even happens, you know?” He would go on to say it’s long overdue for a country act to play the Super Bowl, pointing out, “How many of the top 100 streaming songs in all of music are country? A very high percentage, I think, now. Way more so than in history.” Then, he said what every country fan is thinking. “Super Bowl, come on, dude. We’re all waiting…make the call. One of us is ready.”

Ella Langley‘s “Choosin’ Texas” was a career record, but she’s already looking forward. At her recent appearance at SXSW, the singer unveiled a brand new song, “Something Simple.” It’s unclear if the song will appear on her upcoming album “Dandelion” or if it’s something separate from that; we’ll find out when the album drops on April 10.

@robertjw1x Unreleased new song from Ella Langley at Spotify top 20 event in Austin during SXSW #somethingsimple #ellalangley #stubbsbbq #sxsw2026 #atx ♬ original sound – Robertjw1x

Fans of Dolly Parton can breathe a huge sigh of relief. For the first time since last summer, the singer has made a public appearance, and while doing so, gave an update on the health issues that have kept her on the sidelines. While Parton has issued occasional videos reassuring fans that she was OK, this was the first time she showed up in person in almost a year. On Friday, Dolly delivered a keynote address on opening day for Dollywood, celebrating the park’s 41st anniversary. “I’ve not been touring, as you know; I’ve had a few little health issues, and we’re taking good care of them,” she said. “I just kind of got worn down and worn out, grieving over (late husband) Carl and a lot of other little things going on. I just got myself kind of where I needed to build myself back up spiritually, emotionally, and physically. But, all is good. It didn’t slow me down.”