Brad Paisley Guests on William Shatner's New Album

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Actor-musician William Shatner has made memorable appearances inBrad Paisley's videos for 'Celebrity' and 'Online,' and now the country superstar is returning the favor. Brad joins a long list of famous musicians who will appear on Shatner's upcoming CD, 'Searching for Major Tom,' an eclectic collection of cover tunes with a space theme that will be released later this year.

The 80-year-old celebrity, who is best known for his role as Captain Kirk in 'Star Trek,' invited Brad to sing on a cover of the Steve Miller classic, 'Space Cowboy.' Other tracks on the CD include 'Spirit in the Sky' by Norman Greenbaum, Peter Schilling's 'Major Tom (Coming Home),' 'Rocket Man' by Elton John and Queen's hit, 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'

Other musicians lending their talents to the project include Peter Frampton, members of the Strokes, Ozzy Osbourne's band, the Kinks and Deep Purple, as well as famed funk bassist Bootsy Collins.

Lady Antebellum Play 'Divas' for a Great Cause

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With five CMA awards, six Grammys, seven ACM awards and multi-platinum album sales, among countless other honors, Lady Antebellum have every right to act like divas. And they will ... if only for one night.

The superstar country trio are set to headline the annual Divas Nashvegas benefit on April 29, performing before an intimate crowd in their hometown. All proceeds will benefit Nashville's Oasis Center, the city's only residential and counseling program for homeless, at-risk and underprivileged teens. The non-profit organization is a place near and dear to the hearts of Lady A singer Charles Kelley and his wife, Cassie.

"Cassie and Charles have been volunteers for us for a number of years," Oasis Director of Development Mark Dunkerley tells The Boot. "They have volunteered in our Emergency Shelter for homeless youth for a while, and this past year they showed up around Christmas with bags full of gifts for families they adopted. It's amazing to have a group of their caliber perform this benefit concert, but what makes this really special is the personal interest they have in helping our agency."

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Eric Church Returns to Prison for His Latest Music Video

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Revisiting the former Tennessee State Prison, the setting for his music video for 'Lightning,' Eric Church was at the empty and somewhat ghostly facility once again on Wednesday (April 13) to shoot the video for his latest single, 'Homeboy.' When you make the drive down the path and see the majestic "castle," the beauty of the architecture nearly takes your breath away. But as you make the drive around the building, you notice the stark quarters that once housed numerous hardened criminals.

The imposing prison, which was also the setting for the films 'The Green Mile' and 'The Last Castle,' is the perfect place to shoot scenes for Eric's new video. "I've been here twice now, and it's just a heavy place, which I like," Eric tells The Boot. "I know as musicians, you pick up on energy when you write songs and you perform, and the same thing happens when you shoot videos in a place that's got a little bit of heaviness. It certainly happened with 'Lightning,' and there's a little bit of heaviness in 'Homeboy,' in the message. I like that heaviness. I don't know if some people would listen to that and pick up on that. There's a little bit of that in the song, and you're going to get it in this video."

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Lady A's Hillary Scott Shoots Down Engagement Rumors

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Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott sported a sparkling diamond ring on her left hand at last Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards, which generated whispers and questions about her romantic status. Since they were in Las Vegas, band mate Charles Kelley should have placed a wager that Hillary would be asked if she was engaged -- he certainly would have walked away a winner. Backstage at the ACMs, however, Hillary insisted she is not betrothed, while band mate Charles Kelley said emphatically, "I told her not to wear that! Itold her it was going to start rumors!"

"First of all, I'm not engaged! On the record," the country songbird confirmed The Boot. "Whenever you wear fancy jewelry like this, you just put it on the finger that fits, and this is the finger it fit on. I'm not engaged yet."

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Brad Paisley Gives Clint Eastwood a Whistle

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Brad Paisley features many special guests on his forthcoming album, 'This Is Country Music,' one of whom is the legendary Clint Eastwood. The film superstar has been shown playing piano in a few of his movies, such as 'In the Line of Fire,' but on Brad's upcoming project, he contributes another of his talents. The tune featuring the actor/director is an instrumental appropriately titled 'Eastwood.'

"We wrote [it] as a Western. It's an epic movie soundtrack-sounding Western," Brad tells The Boot. "I've become friends with Clint and his wife, Dina. So I emailed Dina and said, 'Does he whistle?' And she said, 'Yeah, you want him to whistle on something?' I said, 'I have a thing that sounds like an Ennio Morricone, the guy that did all the spaghetti western music like 'The Good, Bad and the Ugly,' and of course it has to have [he whistles] all that kind of stuff. I asked, 'Can he do that?' She wrote back and said, 'He'd love to.'"

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Lady Antebellum, Kangaroos, Koalas & Keith. Oh My!

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Lady Antebellum will join Keith Urban as part of his Get Closer 2011 World Tour in Australia. The trek kicks off Friday (April 8) in Adelaide, and Lady A member Hillary Scott is hoping to soak in the local flavor during some free time Down Under.

"Dave has been to Sydney, and then Charles and I have never been," says the youngest member of the group. "So this is going to be an adventure for us. We're excited! We've done some phone [interviews] and promos, but to meet the people, to see the fans, to hopefully make some new fans -- we're really looking forward to it. And then the obvious; I'm going to go see the kangaroos and pet a koala bear. [laughs] We're really looking forward to it. It'll be really fun."

They'll play shows in Sydney, Brisbane, Tamworth and Melbourne before wrapping this leg of the tour in Auckland, New Zealand April 18.

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Reba & Blake Shelton Keep ACM Audience Laughing

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Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton put their different but equally charming senses of humor to good use as co-hosts of the 2011 ACM Awards.

Reba has now hosted the ACMs 13 times, so everyone knew she'd get plenty of laughs for her family-friendly jokes. Blake's irreverent humor, which was underscored in humorous promotions for the ACMs, made some fret a bit prior to the live broadcast. It's been widely reported, including by CMT, that Blake tried to ease those fears by telling CBS that he wouldn't become too colorful as the host.

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