Kel­lie Pick­ler Talks Tat­toos, Tents and Mar­i­lyn Man­son in Maxim

Kel­lie Pick­ler has done so much work for the USO, it’s no won­der she’s fea­tured on the cover of Maxim mag­a­zine in this month’s military-themed issue. Describ­ing some of her favorite USO mem­o­ries, she said, “This past trip, we were at Camp Spann in Afghanistan, and there’s a lit­tle chapel there. It’s noth­ing fancy, but it has a lot of love, and my whole band and I stayed up one night until 3 a.m., pick­ing with the sol­diers who played gui­tar. We had a pick­ing party.” But she also talks about how much her late grand­mother hated tat­toos. She would say, “Tat­toos are the devil!” But judg­ment aside, Pick­ler has her grandmother’s name and a cou­ple of USO stars inked on her skin. But the part I love the most is when she talks about her dumpy accom­mo­da­tions in the Mid­dle East. “When we went to Iraq, we stayed in one of Saddam’s palaces. It was kind of creepy. If those walls could talk, there’s no telling what sto­ries they’d tell,” she said. “It’s nicer than a tent, but in some ways a tent might be bet­ter, you know?“
Tim McGraw Pays Trib­ute to Col­orado Shoot­ing Vic­tims
The July 20 shoot­ing mas­sacre at a movie the­ater in Aurora, Col­orado, which left 12 dead and dozens injured, hap­pened just one day before Tim McGraw and Kenny Ches­ney were set to bring their Broth­ers of the Sun tour to Den­ver (about 20 miles from Aurora). The coun­try stars decided the show must go on, but they took time out to offer their con­do­lences to the local fans, who were under­stand­ably still try­ing to make sense of the tragedy.

“I’m think­ing about y’all and we’re pray­ing for y’all,” Tim shared. “Our job tonight is to come out here for just a lit­tle while and put a smile on your face, to cut loose, have a good time and have a party in remem­brance of all the fine folks who lost their lives. But before we do that, we wanted to do some­thing for you guys that we thought might lift your souls a bit.”

Car­rie Under­wood to Per­form on ‘The Today Show’ Sum­mer Con­cert Series
Break­fast TV will get a coun­try injec­tion on Wednes­day, Aug. 15, as Car­rie Under­wood is con­firmed to per­form on ‘The Today Show’ Sum­mer Con­cert Series. It was announced this morn­ing (July 24) and con­firmed in a press release from Underwood’s reps that she will indeed per­form at Rock­e­feller Cen­ter.
‘The Today Show’ Sum­mer Con­cert Series sets usu­ally take place on Fri­days But the program’s pro­duc­ers have planned a full week of out­door shows fol­low­ing the 2012 Sum­mer Olympics and they’ve recruited Under­wood for a hump day gig.