Dierks Bentley: Banned From the Opry, Then Made a Member
He snuck past security at the Grand Ole Opry, got slapped with a permanent trespassing ban — and years later that same institution made him a member. Dierks Bentley's rise through country music is one...
11 Jun 19min
Billy Joe Shaver: The Outlaw Poet Who Lived Every Word
He lost his fingers in a sawmill, survived a heart attack on stage, and shot a man outside a Texas saloon — then wrote some of the most poetic songs in country music history. Billy Joe Shaver was outl...
11 Jun 19min
Faron Young: The Young Sheriff's Ashes on Johnny Cash's Lawn
His family waited until Johnny Cash was out of town, snuck onto the grounds of his Old Hickory Lake home, and scattered Faron Young's ashes across the lawn. It's a fittingly strange ending for the You...
11 Jun 19min
Flatland Cavalry: From College Roommates to Interscope
It started as an excuse to hang out, drink a few beers, and jam between classes — and a decade later that weekend hobby became a major record deal with Interscope. Flatland Cavalry's rise from West Te...
11 Jun 17min
Gene Watson: The Houston Mechanic With Five Number One Hits
By day he pounded dents out of steel bumpers in a sweltering Houston auto body shop; by night he was a neon-lit honky-tonk sensation. Gene Watson turned that double life into one of country music's mo...
11 Jun 19min
Hailey Whitters: The Corn Queen Strategy That Beat Nashville
Forget the overnight-sensation myth — Hailey Whitters ground it out in Nashville for over a decade before doubling down on the most specific thing about her: her rural Iowa roots. The payoff came in r...
11 Jun 19min
Alabama: 75 Million Records, 40 Number Ones, One Bitter Lawsuit
They sold 75 million records, scored more than 40 number one hits, and rewrote the rules of country music — all while critics thrashed them in the press. Alabama, the band of three cousins from Lookou...
11 Jun 21min
Flatt and Scruggs: How Bob Dylan Broke Bluegrass's Greatest Duo
At the peak of their fame — Grammy Awards, a chart-topping TV theme song, two decades of defining bluegrass — Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs walked away from each other. The greatest duo in bluegrass a...
11 Jun 20min
