He Was Just Trying To Get Home

The death of Kane Brown drummer Kenny Dixon is a heartbreaking story on so many levels. If you make your living away from home, so many times you will do almost anything to get home for just a few more hours, no matter how tired you are or what you have to do, you just want to get home.

Dixon had a fiancée and a 3-year-old little boy. Had just played Arlington, Texas, and was set to play Los Angeles on Friday, October 18th. Getting home in the early morning hours and losing sleep was more than OK.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol said speed was a factor in Dixon's crash, but drugs and booze were not. It was a single car wreck, 100 yards off I24 not far South of Murfreesboro, TN.

I fell asleep driving between Auburn and Montgomery one very late night. I just wanted to get home. I woke up seeing the road reflectors in my windshield. I was lucky! Who knows what happened to Kenny, but one thing we do know -- he was just trying to get home.

Kenny was 27 and doing a job he loved. The music business is not easy: The travel, the odd hours, the competition, lack of sleep, and sometimes it's not the greatest financial decision one can make. Kenny died with a toddler at home. As I wrote this, I heard a GoFundMe page was being discussed, and that's great. Try to find it.

I'm backing into why I'm writing on this subject. Isn't there a charity wing of music that can make a big deposit into a very restrictive trust fund for a child of a musician who dies accidentally, especially an accidental death going home from work? Maybe GoFundMe is the answer, but a trust is very specific in how it can be used.

Taking care of the music family should be a huge part of the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, MusicCares, and the various entertainment unions. The availability of drug rehab is great, but a panel or some group ought to be around that will take care of things like this. Maybe they are and maybe they will. It's a rare case, and a very sad one. Music Row and the fans all are sending their prayers to everyone involved.

In other news, it's October and that means it's awards season through Thanksgiving: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, CMA, CMT Artists of the Year, the Dove Awards, Musicians Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The songwriters are the foundation of Nashville's music scene. Things are better, but the digital age has been the best and worst thing that ever happened to them. Everyone is re-learning what a #1 is, and how to make money in this digital world.

Did you see where Dan + Shay's "10,000 Hours" set a Country music record with 75 million global streams in its first week? That's the digital music world in 2019. Excellent song, and the fans found it fast!

The Grammy race is on, and once the CMAs are settled things will be more clear, since many of the same voters cast ballots in both. Maren Morris might get a Best Album Grammy nod competing with Taylor Swift. But with all this push for girl power, look no further than Billie Eilish. Luke Combs' career is on fire in the Country world, but Eilish just sold out several dozen arenas as fast as a Garth Brooks show would. Things move fast these days in the music business 2019.