Big Mama Thornton exuded uncompromising intensity. Her voice conveyed struggle and defiance, fury and hurt, like few others. She was a Black, gay multi-instrumentalist who refused to let a racist society or a rapacious industry confine her.
"I would like to be remembered as a man who had a wonderful time living life, a man who had good friends, fine family-and I don't think I could ask for anything more than that, actually."
Graceland is located in south Memphis, about a 15-minute drive from Beale Street downtown and just 10 minutes from Memphis International Airport. Arriving by train? Memphis Central Station, served by Amtrak's City of New Orleans, is around 15 minutes away. Visitors can park in Graceland's secured lot (for a fee), or hop on the free hourly shuttle linking the estate with Sun Studio, where Elvis first recorded "That's All Right."
A Missouri judge known for dressing up as Elvis Presley in the courtroom has been removed from office by the Missouri Supreme Court, ending a nearly two-decade judicial career amid concerns that his behavior undermined the integrity of the judiciary. The decision last month by the state's highest court was a rejection of a previously negotiated disciplinary agreement. The state supreme court ordered Judge Matthew E.P. Thornhill, a St. Charles County, Missouri, judge, off the bench effective immediately, Legal Newsline reports.
Maybe we ran into an old acquaintance at the supermarket and said "Let's catch up sometime" or told our friends we would "check out" the boring-sounding show they spent the past five minutes recommending? That's what country-music superstar Jelly Roll appeared to do after the Grammys last week when, in response to a question about the state of the country, he said he had "a lot to say"
During Elvis's production, Luhrmann was able to negotiate and unearth the oft-mythicized footage of Presley in the early 1970s during his Las Vegas residency, which was sitting in a Kansas City salt mine for decades. The excavation yielded extraordinary results: Luhrmann's team found 59 hours of film from ten concerts, in addition to new, reflective interviews from Presley, who often eschewed communicating outside of press conferences.
He is the first artist to surpass 150 million monthly listeners on Spotify and, at a time when fewer records are being bought than ever, he ranks among the 30 best-selling artists of all time, surpassing, for example, Bruce Springsteen and U2 with an estimated 236 million records sold. He has won 16 Grammy Awards and has had nine number-one hits in the U.S.
Cher presented Record of the Year at the 2026 Grammy Awards, and the whole situation was rife with snafus. To begin, the ceremony chose to present her with her Lifetime Achievement Award at the beginning of the segment. That made Cher think she was done with being onstage once host Trevor Noah presented her with the trophy, so she tried to leave. Grammys president Harvey Mason Jr. then had to shoo her back to the microphone to actually unveil the Record of the Year award.
The lineup has been announced for the 2026 Rock the Country traveling festival tour, with Kid Rock, Creed, Jelly Roll, and Blake Shelton among the headlining acts playing various dates on the eight-city run. The festival will make two-day stops in Bellville, Texas (May 1-2); Bloomingdale, Georgia (May 29-30); Sioux Falls, South Dakota (June 27-28); Ashland, Kentucky (July 10-11, 2026); Anderson, South Carolina (July 25-26; Hastings, Michigan (August 8-9); Ocala, Florida (August 28-29); and Hamburg, NY (September 11-12).
The smell of vinyl seats baking in the summer sun, the crackle of AM radio cutting through static, and dad's off-key humming as the family station wagon rolled down another endless stretch of motorway. If you grew up in the 60s or 70s, these sensory memories probably just transported you back to childhood road trips that seemed to last forever. Those journeys weren't just about getting from A to B. They were rolling classrooms where we learned geography from road signs,
