In case you missed it...
What a day for Luke Combs. There's a lot to unpack with this story, which has a beginning, middle and end all in one day, so we'll break it down. Nicol Harness, a young woman with congestive heart failure who tried to make a little money making custom tumblers and selling them on Amazon, discovered that her Amazon account was frozen to the tune of $5500. She then found out why: a judge had ruled that Nicol was guilty of copyright infringement and owed Luke Combs $250,000. Not something you wanna just drop on someone with a bad heart. It seems Nicol was guilty of making and selling custom tumblers with Luke's face and logo on them. She sold 18 of them on Amazon, raking in the kingly sum of $380.00. In doing so, she crossed Luke's legal effort to go after those that would make counterfeit merch with his likeness, costing him millions of dollars - but Nicol's little side hustle got caught up in that net. That was the start of Nicol's day. Luke's didn't start much better, as he awoke to a firestorm that he was unaware of up until yesterday. He was distressed by the story and spent his day trying to make it right. On Twitter/X, he posted a video in response to the situation. "I woke up at 5am to use the restroom and first thing I saw was this - a woman who's being sued by me for $250,000. I spent the last two hours trying to make this right, trying to figure out what's going on because I was completely and utterly unaware of this." Luke eventually got in touch with Nicol, who explained her side of the story. Luke found that she had $5,500 dollars frozen in her Amazon account due to the judge's ruling; Luke said he was sending her double that. On top of that, he announced he was making his own tumblers with all proceeds going to Nicol and her family to help with her medical bills. Finally, late in the very hectic day, a notice of dismissal was filed by Luke’s attorney, officially ending the case against Harness and her Amazon store. It's impressive to see Luke respond to the situation so immediately and completely. A PS: Luke also said in his video that he invited Nicol to a future show so he could "give her a hug and say sorry in person." Luke Combs - good guy.
While Time's Square is the center of all things New Year's Eve related, Nashville is quickly building up its own NYE reputation as their celebration gets bigger and more star-studded every year. Yesterday it was announced that Kane Brown, HARDY, Cody Johnson, Megan Moroney, Morgan Wallen, Bailey Zimmerman, Trace Adkins, Grace Bowers, Jackson Dean, Parker McCollum, Brothers Osborne, Jon Pardi, Carly Pearce, Blake Shelton, and Trombone Shorty were all being added to the roster of performers for "New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash." They join previously announced performers Old Dominion, Elle King, Thomas Rhett, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Lainey Wilson. The five-hour show will air on the CBS Network LIVE on Sunday, Dec. 31 (7:30-10:00 PM, ET/PT, 10:30 PM-1:05 AM, ET/PT) and will stream on Paramount+.