Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
Garth Brooks says he’s never seen anything like the reaction he’s gotten since it was announced he will share the stage with George Strait for the first time today during the Academy of Country Music Awards. Brooks and his early musical hero will be singing together for the first time and paying tribute to the show’s late executive producer Dick Clark. “Everywhere I go, restaurants, stores, whatever — ‘Hey, you’re gonna be singing with George. Hey, we can’t wait to see you with George,’” Brooks said in a phone interview. “It’s so cool. It’s like getting to sing with someone that’s attained a level that you only get if you die. They love him and worship him, and I’m in line with everybody else.” The show airs live at 7 p.m. CDT today from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan hosting. The show also will include appearances by top nominees Eric Church and Hunter Hayes, who’s performing with Stevie Wonder, Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney and Miranda Lambert. Brooks has often said he wanted to be just like Strait when he first picked up a guitar and a cowboy hat, and started playing for tips while in college in Oklahoma. He demurred when asked what the two will perform, but said he believed it will be remembered as a special moment for a special man.
Wesley Snipes has been released from a federal prison in Pennsylvania. Snipes was convicted in 2008 on tax charges. He was released Tuesday and placed under home confinement. A Bureau of Corrections spokesman said Friday that he’ll be overseen by the New York Community Corrections Office until July 19. Snipes has appeared in dozens of films, from White
Men Can’t Jump and Demolition Man in the early 1990s to the Blade trilogy. He entered the McKean prison in December 2010 to begin a three-year sentence for failure to file income-tax returns. Snipes belonged to a group that challenged the government’s right to collect taxes. Prosecutors say he failed to file returns for at least a decade and owed millions of dollars in back taxes. Snipes had appealed in an Atlanta court, saying he didn’t get a fair trial.