Katie & Company

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Jelly Roll and Shaboozey on the Power of 'Amen' Mar 17, 2026

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Jelly Roll and Shaboozey are still feeling the impact of "Amen," as the GRAMMY-winning song continues to climb the Country charts and forever links the two superstars in the history books.

Both artists made time recently to connect with Katie Neal for the 'Superstar Power Hour,' sharing their mutual admiration for each other, the value they place on authenticity, and their plans for future collaborations.

"I think God really favored us," shares Shaboozey, "and rewarded us that day for making a choice to look at each other and be like, 'look, man, I see you.' You know what I mean? 'I see you as one of me, and I see you like I see myself and, and everybody else.' I think we made something from that place, and really God rewarded us on a Sunday, and gave us a GRAMMY for a song called 'Amen.'"

"I feel like every time I perform that song, it renews and restores my faith and restores my purpose," he adds. "From the start of it to like us winning the GRAMMYs, to about to have a Country number one, it's just honestly God just answering my prayers. I ask God every single day to just help guide me and making sure I'm making the right decisions, and I'm making the right kind of music, and I have the right message, and I think it's just like kind of this weird full circle moment that the song is just called 'Amen,' and that's just God being, 'Amen, your prayers are answered. Here you go.'"

Shaboozey heaped high praise onto his collab partner, which Jelly Roll was quick to give right back to the singer. "Getting to hang out with Shaboozey is like, he is the ball of joy that y'all see in these interviews, or that you see on the streets, or when you see him on stage," gushes Jelly Roll. "He has got the best temperament of any human I've ever met under every circumstance. We've toured the world together now. I've seen him in all different environments, climates, and time zones, and, he is who he is, man."

To hear more from the "Amen" duo about future plans and "cry headaches," listen to the full interview with Katie Neal above.

Kane Brown Levels Up for New Music Mar 10, 2026

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Kane Brown is feeling more like himself these days than ever before, thanks to a new outlook on music, more time in the gym and in the ring, and less time gaming. The "2 Pair" singer recently joined Katie Neal in the studio to talk about it all for the 'Superstar Power Hour.'

"My last album, just to be completely honest with you, I felt like it was a little rushed," Kane admits. "But now I'm like, more motivated than ever."

Brown shares he found that spark in the gym, sharing that challenging himself physically has helped fuel his artistry. "It was, a lot of working out, and just kind of getting that competitive grind again," Kane says. "I don't play video games no more. I think that could be another big thing about it."

"With the working out and the stages of working out, getting into boxing, bringing my competitiveness back, and then not having anywhere else to put it, it's made me like wanna put it towards music since I don't game."

It all makes for a new and improved Kane Brown, ready to spill all that energy into his music. "When I say level up, I think you'll see a different light when I'm performing and my artistry, cause I'm trying to bring like, I'm trying to dance and do all that stuff that's just not done," he shares. "I feel like for the last decade I've kind of tried to fit in the box of what everybody's wanted me to be in and I've tried to please the wrong people, and not really be me and not really get to do my, or like please my fans and just show them, you know, I'm excited and I found that light again. So I think that's what people is gonna see, the difference in the music."

To hear from Kane Brown on family life, his newly announced bar in Nashville, and more, check out the full conversation above.

Shinedown Shines on 'Searchlight' Mar 05, 2026

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It's been an historic entry into Country music for the band Shinedown, which has already found success across multiple genres because of their authenticity and sincere songwriting, and now have been firmly embraced by the Country music community.

Shinedown singer Brent Smith recently joined Katie Neal inside our Nashville studios at the Hard Rock Cafe to talk about how Country crept into the recording of their single, "Searchlight," how it felt to debut the song at the Grand Ole Opry, and much more.

"I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and when we were cutting the song, we were demoing it out, I think it was a bit more of a Rock ballad," shares Smith. "I just said, 'hey, listen, I'm gonna cut this with just the acoustic. Let me kind of re-sing it." The different approach from Brent rang very "authentic" for him, and the song began to ask for something different. "It was a different approach, but it was very authentic. It was very real, and it felt honest. So the song then asked for a banjo which in turn asked for a lap steel... and then a fiddle was brought in. And look, it's a very Country-esque Rock song, but for me when I heard it I was so enamored by the fact that it kind of is a style that we haven't done per se, and it was a bit more of a true homage to Country instrumentation and just the simplicity of the lyric and the way that it was sung. It made sense, and Country is starting to embrace it."

It doesn't hurt that the band got to debut the song at the Mother Church of Country Music, singing it as part of the venue's 100th anniversary, and introduced by Carrie Underwood. "It was a very, kind of, out of body experience, especially when you walk into that circle," Smith admits. "You can feel the weight of the moment because of who stood in that circle."

The Country connection is something that seemed inevitable for Smith and Shinedown, given the influence he was raised around. "I grew up, my granny had Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and probably out of all of them, Randy Travis was probably the loudest growing up," he says. Even now he's looking forward to meeting a few of the genre's heaviest hitters, praising artists like Ella Langley and HARDY. "I gotta give a lot of credit because I'm such a fan of his songwriting and again a very versatile individual, I haven't had a chance to meet him, but I hope I get to, I'm a huge fan of HARDY and just how he kind of is just this songwriting juggernaut for a lot of different styles."

To hear more from Brent Smith of Shinedown, check out the full interview above.

Ella Langley crafting 'Choosin' Texas' Mar 03, 2026

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How did Miranda Lambert's kangaroo lead to a chart-topping hit from Ella Langley? The ACM and CMA award-winning artists told us the origins of her smash, "Choosin' Texas," and also gave us a look at her upcoming album, 'Dandelion,' during this week's 'Superstar Power Hour' with Katie Neal.

"Choosin' Texas" has become an undeniable force, landing at number 1 on the Billboard chart and making history in more places than just Country music. According to Ella, it all started with a line from her executive producer and friend, Miranda Lambert.

Since Langley's first days playing with a full band, the singer had heard the story of Miranda Lambert owning a kangaroo and traveling with it on tour, even getting pulled over with it in the passenger sat. "I just remembered it, and every time I've ever seen her, I wanna ask about it, but I wait, I was like 'this isn't the right time and we're on the red carpet, you can't ask about that right now.'"

After writing with Miranda, Ella finally felt close enough to get the story. "We write one song and I was like, 'Oh no, we're homies, we're good.' I think I could say whatever I want to," remembers Langley. "So I straight up, I was like, 'Did you ever have a pet kangaroo at one time?' She goes, 'I did. I had a pet kangaroo,' and she literally rerouted places on her tour, because there were places that wouldn't have a kangaroo, she brought it out on tour."

"One day she was riding dirt roads and she had a dog in the back and a kangaroo in the passenger seat. She ended up getting pulled over on this dirt road and somehow talked her way out of this ticket," relays Ella. After the cop in the story exclaimed, "she's from Texas, I can tell," likely from Miranda's Texas plates on the back of her car, the phrase stuck with Langley. "That's kind of how I come up with a lot of songs, is it's really just in conversation and I'll say a phrase that I like, or something just catches my ear," she shares.

"When I said 'she's from Texas, I can tell,' you know, talking s*** on her, you know, the melody to my head just 'she's from Texas, I can tell by the way he's two-steppin' around the room,' sing it just like that, and Miranda was walking right behind me and said 'like the girl he went home with one he picked,'" she remembers. "We've all experienced a feeling like that where you're so into somebody and they're not in you, they're into somebody else way more than you and that sucks, so we really wrote to that feeling."

"I'll never forget, I was going to get a snack or go pee or something in the middle of the songs and said that line and we just went right into the porch outside and wrote it."

"The funniest thing people ask me like, 'and did you expect this?' I'm like, 'did I expect to make history? No.' You hope for the best, but you can't predict that," she says of the song's success. "You can love what you do and put out the best of what you got and that's exactly what we did. I think it's just because we put our heart in that song, and that's the theme throughout this record."

The ease of writing 'Dandelion' for Langley has a lot to do with the confidence that comes with her success, knowing she made the right choice that changed her life. "I'm not guessing anymore. I'm not chasing anything. I'm not trying to be anything," she shares. "This record is exactly what I wanted out of it and it is just me, and I feel like this is gonna be my record where everyone's gonna be like, 'that's where the artistry clicked for her.'"

To hear more from Ella Langley, check out the full interview above. 'Dandelion' is out everywhere on April 10.

Eric Church at 'Totally Private' Feb 27, 2026

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This week we traveled to Chiefs in Nashville, where Eric Church performed for an intimate room of fans during our 'Totally Private' show. But first, the "Record Year" singer made his way to the Hard Rock Cafe and into our studios for a talk with Katie Neal, powered by Spirit Airlines.

Church is currently on the road with his 'Free the Machine Tour,' supporting his album, 'Evangeline vs. The Machine,' a very deliberate outing for the GRAMMY-nominated singer. "For me in a world that's very fabricated, it's very AI driven, it's very machine-driven, we wanted to, you know, when you come see us play, everybody that's on stage, we're all playing music and there's no tricks," he shares of the show. "We're playing music, and that's what I grew up on, and it's been fun to see over the course of the tour people gravitate to that."

Eric is a veteran in this Country music game, and he shares he's willing to impart his wisdom unto his openers when asked, like with Ella Langley. "It was kind of fun to be the old guy in the room that, as we kind of talked about advice and where she's going and stuff, I've been there and, it was fun to just hang out with her."

"When you go from where she is and where I've been, and you're struggling, you're struggling, you're struggling and you find something that that kind of is like a rocket ship, things change quickly," Chruch admits. "All the outside noise becomes pressured noise, and kind of what I said to her was, 'you gotta keep it about the music and what you wanna do long term,' because you're gonna have a lot of opportunities to do things that take it away from that, and that's just normal, and that's great, but, the farther you get away from your anchor there, the harder it's gonna be to get back to that."

It's always been about the music for Chief, who has caught his own rocket a few times since the start of his career. The year's testament to the power of music for Eric is a massive collaboration he did with Tim McGraw, HARDY, and Morgan Wallen, called "McArthur."

"It's just it reminds me a lot of of the stuff that I grew up on with message and with the quality of the songwriting, and just what the track said and the way they tie in," he says of the song. "It's a great song and I'm happy to be part of it."

"The great thing about Country music, you think about the Opry, you think about what we are, it is, as far as I'm concerned, format wise, a family-based, we take care of our own format. I said this song does that, it lays it out that it's about lineage, it's about remembering where you came from. It's about legacy, and I think it's a really important song for Country music."

To hear much more from Eric Church, check out the full interview above.

Rascal Flatts at 'Totally Private' Feb 24, 2026

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Earlier this month, Rascal Flatts performed for an intimate room of fans during our 'Totally Private' show at the Hard Rock Cafe Nashville, powered by Spirit Airlines. But first, Gary, Joe Don, and Jay joined Katie Neal for a hilarious talk about touring, collabs, and a goat that got the better of them.

Life is a highway, and for Rascal Flatts, life on the road has evolved quite a bit over the years. The rider has gotten shorter for the trio, and no longer includes farm animals to prank their fellow Country friends. "We had all kinds of animals," shares Gary, admitting to getting a goat while on tour with Darius Rucker. "We put it in Darius Rucker's dressing room, but the joke was on us because it ate all the furniture, so that we had to pay for the furniture."

Things were simpler before social media, but the band still stays stocked with food on the road. "I have chicken wings and hot dogs in my room every night," Gary adds. "My friends are just rednecks and they're just like, 'You gotta be kidding me. Free hot dogs.'"

To hear more from the group about their collab with the Jonas Brothers, amazing meet and greet stories, and more, check out the full conversation above.

Megan Moroney takes us to 'Cloud 9' Feb 17, 2026

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Don't go packing away the pink just yet, because another another album is almost here from Megan Moroney and the sky is bright for 'Cloud 9.' The ACM and CMA Award-winning singer was recently in our Nashville studios with Katie Neal, as she took us inside the tint, title, and topics of her third project during the 'Superstar Power Hour.'

'Cloud 9' arrives everywhere on February 20, and the title track has been living in the mind of Moroney for a minute. "I had the title for a while and I got to a place like the 1st quarter of last year where I was just like, really happy," she shares. "I was happy with how my career was going, I just felt lighter, and so I had met up with ERNEST and I was like, 'I have this title 'Cloud 9,'' and he always has like the really cool chords and he starts playing something. The whole concept of the song is that you're above cloud 9. I think it's a true love song."

"I feel like it's probably my first because my other songs like 'Am I Okay?' it's like crying and dying, and then like 'Third Time's the Charm,' I consider a love song but it talks about dying alone, but 'Cloud 9' straight up, it's a long way down to cloud 9 so we're cloud 10, 11, 12."

Just like with the green and blue of her first two LPs, this era has it's own color, with pink presenting itself early on in the process for Megan. "I wrote a song called 'Medicine' and when I wrote that song, it was so pink. I thought 'Medicine' was gonna be the title of my third album because I thought, 'Megan Maroney Medicine, MM3.' I thought I was like doing something there."

"But then once I wrote 'Cloud 9' I was like, 'oh no.' I could immediately see the cover. I saw music videos. I saw the tour design and I was just obsessed with it."

'Cloud 9' features two massive collabs with Kacey Musgraves and Ed Sheeran both featured on the project, along with more revealing and vulnerable music that has become a calling card for Moroney. "I said this whole album with my chest," she admits. "I know I've got the best fans in the world and they make me confident enough to where they're gonna get behind my songs, and they know that it's coming from an honest, authentic place, and that just has given me more confidence as a songwriter to not give a crap what people are gonna say about it."

To hear more about the collabs on 'Cloud 9,' the making of the album, and her upcoming tour, check out the full 'Superstar Power Hour' interview above.

The Band Perry is back Feb 13, 2026

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The Band Perry is back making music under that moniker for the first time in nearly 9 years, as Kimberly Perry and Johnny Costello lead the new lineup for the group, debuting the track, "PSYCHOLOGICAL," just in time for Valentine's Day.

What was once a sibling trio is now a husband and wife project, as Kimberly and Johnny are set on continuing the story of The Band Perry after a hiatus for the band and solo projects for its members. "I keep saying like this, if you loved The Band Perry season one, you're gonna love 'PSYCHOLOGICAL,' first song of season two," shares Kimberly. "You know I love my psycho girl love songs."

"I do feel like this is evolution for The Band Perry, me as the narrator," she adds. "I think there's evolution in the fact that we're not trying to kill a man out here. We're like, are we deluded? Are we devoted? There's a fine line between the two."

"It's just a very tongue in cheek hilarious turn of a phrase, talking about the girl inside of me that has always been 150% deep diving into my crushes and obsessions."

The band has also dove in deep to the latest incarnation of the group, with a tour aptly titled, the 'Psycho Rodeo Tour,' and an album in the works. "I think playing the blend of all the OG The Band Perry hits, the songs that brought us to the dance in the first place, and like blending them perfectly with this new body of work that we've been working on," Perry notes as what she's most excited about for the upcoming set of shows. "We've only put out two full LPs, two full albums of Country music, so it definitely feels like the third installation of The Band Perry music."

"We are about, I would say 1/3 of the way through recording," the duo says of their upcoming album with producer Dann Huff. "I think it's really fun to be in a band with your husband, The Band Perry's always been a family band. This is our version of it with this project, and the love songs hit a little different, you know. Right now we've been writing a lot together to get to write those and think about how we're gonna bring those to life in the studio and on a video and on stage is a new element that I haven't gotten to really explore yet, so that's been really fun."

To hear more from The Band Perry, check out the full conversation above.

Jason Aldean on his duet with wife, Brittany Feb 10, 2026

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There's a lot of action inside the Aldean house these days. Of course there's that first duet between Jason Aldean and Brittany Aldean, linking up on a song after years of fan fervor, but also, there's a piglet and a puppy that are best friends, and that might even get the louder applause online.

During this week's 'Superstar Power Hour' with Katie Neal, Aldean opened up about both, the collaboration that's been a long time coming and the most adorable friendship of 2026. "We got the bulldog, he's rocking, he's fun, but the pig, it's so cold outside, and she's a little piglet that we haven't put her outside yet, so she's been living in the house in a pen, which is really driving me nuts right now," Aldean admits.

"It's got a pen outside. It's ready to go, but my wife's like, 'it's too cold. We can't put her out there right now. She's too little.' So I'm like, 'alright, well, we'll reevaluate here in about a month or so,' so yeah, I'm ready for the pig to go outside, but other than that, it's been good."

The piglet and puppy have already become somewhat of social media stars, sharing the same pen inside and spending tons of time together. "They're best friends. The pig and the puppy are best friends. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen."

"They'll sleep in the bed together and they'll play and I think the pig actually thinks she's a dog because we got the pig, and then we have 3 dogs. So I think she just thinks she's part of the dog squad."

Elsewhere in the Aldean home is another first-of-its-kind moment, as Jason and Brittany have joined forces on the new song, "Easier Gone."

"Whenever it comes to a duet or doing anything like that, I've always kind of said the song will dictate what we do with that," explains Jason. After being pitched a song by Lady A's Charles Kelley, Aldean took it to his wife. "I said, 'hey, I got something that I think you would sound really good on.'"

"She's never really been in the studio, so we took her in, and I think the first day was probably a little overwhelming," he adds. "She kind of had never done it, so she didn't really know what to expect. And so I think the first day was a little bit feeling it out, and then the second day, she went in and kind of knew what to expect, a little more confidence and, and crushed it."

"We've wanted to do something together for a while, but like I said, you gotta wait for the right thing to come along, and I felt like this was something that really fit her well. People probably thought if we ever did something, it would be this big sappy love song, but it's actually the opposite of that, which I love. I'm more of a heartache, heartbreak song kind of guy than I am a love song guy, but yeah, I love it. I love the way it turned out, and I think she sounds amazing on it, and I think a lot of our fans have wanted to hear that for a while, so it's cool to give it to them."

To hear more on recording with Brittany and the stories behind a few of his recent hits, check out the full talk with Katie Neal above.

Cody Johnson only competes with himself Feb 03, 2026

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Nothing raises the bar quite like an award for 'Album of the Year.' So it goes for Cody Johnson, who is hard at work on his next project after winning the CMA Awards' top prize in 2024 with his LP, 'Leather.'

Cody came by our studios in Nashville at the Hard Rock Cafe to talk with Katie Neal about what's next, the success of his song, "The Fall," and his massive remodeling project at home. Along the way he shared some details about the upcoming album, which finds Johnson once again trying to outdo himself and only himself.

"When you win, 'Album of the Year' with 'Leather' before the 'Leather Deluxe' comes out, your back's against the wall as far as expectations," he admits. "I think I don't ever focus on trying to be better than anybody else. I really just wanna, if I can just constantly beat myself and if my next song is better than the last song, and my next project is better than that project, and my next performance is better than the last performance, then that's what keeps me motivated and driven."

"I took like a half and half approach to this record," Cody continues. "Some of this stuff is like so stone cold Country, or it's like so left Motown, or it's like really leaning Rock, or it's really leaning Bluegrass. I don't have a radio agenda with those songs. It's just I recorded these songs because I love these songs and I wanted you to hear me sing these songs, so you can take about half of that and put it over here for 'this is who I am.'"

"Then you're gonna hear certain ones on the record where you're like, 'OK, that's gonna be huge, that's gonna be a big song' and you're gonna hear that one on the radio. Trying to whittle it down. I'd like to get it down to about 16, I've got about 20 tracks and it's pretty hard because once you invest the time in the studio with them and you kind of get to know them, it's really hard."

Although Cody is "emotionally attached to all of them," he'll trim down the tracklist after listening sessions with friends, seeing which get the most play while riding around. The project also incudes a few collabs, which Johnson revealed to Katie. "I know that me and Luke Combs, we cut one together, we finally got on it."

"Brothers Osborne. That was kind of a last minute deal," he says. "I heard this song and I was like, 'man, this sounds like John and TJ.' And they had happened to be reaching out at the same time of like, 'hey, when we do our next project, would you do this song with us?' I was like, 'yeah, absolutely. Would you do this with me on my project?' So it's kind of a trade-off."

"There's a couple of collabs that haven't happened yet. It's still just a lot of cell phone conversation," explains Cody. "As a matter of fact, I got a call right before I walked in here and I had to say, 'hey, I'm walking into Katie. I'll holler back at you,' but that person is in to do the collab so far. So there's gonna be some cool surprises on here."

To hear much more from Cody Johnson, listen all week on the Superstar Power Hour during Katie & Company, and check out the full conversation above.

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