Billy Dukes

Last week, Randy Travis was cited with a Class C assault after a physical confrontation with his girlfriend’s estranged husband in the parking lot of a Texas church. The husband, Dr. Ritchie Beougher, claims the country superstar did much worse than inflict an “unwanted touch” upon him.

Keith Urban has accepted an offer from Fox producer’s to judge ‘American Idol‘ next season, less than one day after being named the frontrunner for an open seat on the panel. The Country Vibe reports that Urban has agreed to take the job, making him the second country superstar on a major network reality show.

Instead of writing new songs for his next album, Blake Shelton has taken to rewriting hits from other country music stars. Kenny Chesney‘s ‘Come Over’ and Tim McGraw‘s ‘Live Like You Were Dying’ were his two victims choices in the past 24 hours.

Wynonna Judd‘s husband, Cactus Moser, suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries in a motorcycle accident on Saturday night (August 18). Now, it’s becoming clear just how serious those injuries are. TMZ reports that Moser has had his left leg amputated at the Rapid City Regional Hospital as a result of the crash.

Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood… add one more country name to the list of potential ‘American Idol’ judges. Rascal Flatts bassist Jay DeMarcus believes he’d be a good fit to fill Steven Tyler‘s empty chair when the show begins next year.

It’s a busy month for new country music releases in September 2012, with no less than 10 albums from major country music stars hitting the shelves. While few are using the day after Labor Day to release new music, Sept. 11 is literally packed with new music. Little Big Town, Kix Brooks and Aaron Lewis are just three of the artists with new albums out that day.

What does Miranda Lambert do between shows? She visits Alaska to go fishing. A Taste of Country reader sent us these pictures of the ‘Fastest Girl in Town’ singer reeling ‘em in by the dozens when she was on a mini-vacation earlier this month, sans husband Blake Shelton. The break came during a trip to the Last Frontier for an August 2 show in Anchorage.

Additional camera angles and bonus interviews with Miranda Lambert and Danica Patrick are two perks of watching the new interactive music video for ‘Fastest Girl in Town,’ Lambert’s new single from the ‘Four the Record’ album. Create your own unique vid by clicking play on the video below right here at Taste of Country.

Men and women will be divided on ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,’ Taylor Swift‘s new single. On one (woman’s) hand, it’s an empowering breakup song that slams the door on every no-good loser who’s come crawling back with apologies and “I love yous” (and maybe flowers or a sack of White Castle hamburgers) at all hours of the night. From the male perspective: “Get over it.”

After seven days of voting, Brantley Gilbert‘s fans proved what the singer already knew: His supporters are the most passionate in all of country music. The BG Nation took over 35 percent of reader votes in a week-long readers poll, easily topping second and third place finishers Taylor Swift‘s Swifties and Scotty McCreery‘s McCreerians.

More details are now available regarding Randy Travis‘ arrest in North Texas on Tuesday night. As previously reported, the singer was nabbed for suspicion of DWI, as well as retaliation and obstruction, after he allegedly crashed his car and “verbally threatened” a police officer. Reports are now surfacing that Travis was naked at the time of his arrest, which came just before midnight.

Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw and Eric Church all make strong debuts on the Top 40 Country Songs list for August, but none of their singles were good enough to take down a song that ranked No. 2 on the July 2012 list. Aldean comes closest, with ‘Take a Little Ride’ making a Top 5 debut this month.