This week, Lon begins his countdown of the Top 70 country hits of 2022. Along the way, you’ll hear highlights of his conversations with the stars, including Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, Kane Brown, Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, and more. Next week, Lon picks up the countdown at #35, and continues to […]
This year, Country Countdown USA host Lon Helton counted down the Top 30 most-heard Christmas songs on country radio. He used the same source he uses every week for CCUSA: Mediabase & Country Aircheck. This list counted all plays of all Christmas songs (regardless of release date) from the past year. The list included heritage […]
This week, a very special co-host for the final countdown of the year: Dolly Parton! Her latest album is the Ultimate Deluxe version of Holly Dolly Christmas. She also has a Christmas special airing next Wednesday on NBC-TV. Dolly was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Pink: “I was sittin’ there with […]
Listen to a podcast on Lon Helton’s interview with Dolly Parton. I want to start by talking about the induction by Pink at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Was that not beautiful. I was sitting there with my false eyelashes on, at the table, knowing I was going up there, and she pulled […]
This week, Lon’s co-host is Jimmie Allen, who was with family in Philadelphia. He had just performed at the annual tree lighting at Rockefeller Center in NYC. Jimmie just wrapped the fall leg of the Denim & Rhinestones tour with Carrie Underwood: “It was amazing. They came to me and asked me to sing with her, and […]
This week, Luke Bryan returns for more co-host conversation with Lon. Luke continued sharing backstage stories from this year’s CMA Awards: “I think Peyton’s best joke was the ‘Plead the 5th’ joke, I won’t plead the 5th, but I’ll drink a 5th. I had a good one about Peyton where we couldn’t find a hat big enough for […]
Lon’s first order of business with Luke (after he explained why he’s clean shaven) was to get an update on his wife Caroline. She had tweeted that she was in the hospital for hip surgery, and Luke explained: “She’s good, she obviously had a hip surgery, she tore her labrum in her hip. Approaching the […]
This week’s co-host is Luke Bryan, who is fresh off his role co-hosing the CMA Awards. We almost didn’t recognize him when he walked in. He was clean shaven! “I don’t have any TV stuff for a minute, so I’m clean shaven. I kinda look like you! Cleaned up like you!” There had been reports that Luke’s wife Caroline had hip […]
This week, Thomas Rhett returns with more stores about his friends in the Top 30. Thomas explained why he chose Riley Green for his current duet: “Me & Riley had become good buddies. He’s taken me to Arkansas to duck hunt with him. Every time I listened to this song I thought about Riley. Maybe because every post I […]
One year ago, Luke Combs won the 2021 CMA Entertainer of the Year award. A few months later, Luke revealed to Lon Helton who HE thought was going to win. “To be honest, very candidly, what I’m thinking in the moment is ‘OK I’m 0 for 3, everything I’ve lost, I’ve lost to Chris Stapleton, […]
