newsmakers

newsmakers

Courtroom battle splits Brooks’ hometown

YUKON, Okla.

A courtroom fight between country-music superstar Garth Brooks and a hospital in his Oklahoma hometown has divided local residents who say the roots of both run deep in the community.

Jurors awarded Brooks $1 million this week in his lawsuit against Integris Canadian Valley Hospital, which sits along Garth Brooks Boulevard in Yukon. Brooks says the hospital broke a pledge to use his $500,000 donation to build a women’s health center in honor of his late mother.

But the trial was 140 miles away, near a town where Brooks now lives.

The decision left Yukon residents in the middle. Although Brooks left town in the 1980s, his name adorns a water tower. The hospital is among Yukon’s largest employers, and its logo is on the other water tower.

Chesney leads ACM nominations with 9

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Kenny Chesney’s steamy duet, “You and Tequila” with Grace Potter, continues to radiate heat.

The song helped Chesney to nine Academy of Country Music Awards nominations Thursday morning, including the top honor of entertainer of the year.

In a phone interview from Key West, where he was about to step on his boat for a few days of fishing and fun, Chesney called the success of “You and Tequila,” written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter, one of the highlights of his career.

“That song’s been around for a while,” Chesney said. “To me, it just goes to show you a great song just has to some extent an infinite life, and good songs never go out of style, and this one surely hasn’t, thank God.”

Jason Aldean, next with six nominations, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and 2011 winner Taylor Swift round out the fan-voted entertainer of the year category.

Lady Antebellum had five nominations, Paisley had four, and several were deadlocked at three, including Swift.

Associated Press