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The NFL Playoffs began in mixed fashion during Wild Card weekend. While there were some lofty highs including Sunday night’s game between Washington and Tampa Bay, many of the games were lopsided with five home teams advancing by an average of 17.6 points per game. Moving forward, however, that is not necessarily a bad thing for the postseason, as the best teams in the league are still alive and the quality of competition projects to improve.

In this space, we had a winning week in the Wild Card round, making three straight positive weeks overall. Does that make up for a disastrous stretch over the first 17 weeks? Certainly not, but we’re perhaps righting the ship at a good time, even if I will rehash the 18-point fourth quarter from the Chargers-Texans game for a long time.

Before diving into a juicy Divisional Round slate, let’s take stock.

• Wild Card Weekend: 3-2
• 2025 Season: 39-54-2

Come get these winners.

Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans UNDER 21 points in the first half — Caesars

The Texans are playing quite well on defense, and the Chiefs are quite good on that side of the ball. The full game under here would also be appetizing, but there’s a chance Mahomes and company get loose late in the game or the Texans start heaving to try and make a comeback. Let’s get off to a slow start on the scoreboard and a hot start in the column.

TEASER: Kansas City Chiefs (-2.5) over Houston Texans AND Buffalo Bills (+7.5) over Baltimore Ravens — FanDuel, DraftKings

With all due respect to Houston’s defense, the Chiefs as part of a Wong teaser through two key numbers was pretty much an auto-play for me. I wouldn’t want to lay 8.5, but that’s a valuable leg. The other side is trickier because, in full transparency, I was ready to take the Ravens up to +7.5 early in the week when Buffalo was favored. I honestly would’ve found value in either side as long as it was up to 7.5 or higher, and Buffalo getting more than a touchdown at home is appetizing.

Washington Commanders (+9.5) over Detroit Lions — Widely Available

Candidly, I am not over-the-moon about the Commanders in a vacuum, but this number has broken contain. The Lions are the better team and standing in front of that offense is terrifying. However, this is a big number, and Detroit’s defense was struggling quite badly before Week 18. I tend to think those problems aren’t fixed yet. Maybe Jayden Daniels can get us in the backdoor if needed.

Los Angeles Rams (+6.5) over Philadelphia Eagles — FanDuel, ESPN Bet

I’ve thought the Rams were at least slightly undervalued all season, as long as Stafford was upright and their weapons were relatively intact. That is the case here, and I’m certainly less firm on Philadelphia’s offense than most seem to be. Granted, the Eagles are the better team and should be favored, but I don’t mean leaning on Stafford and company to put together a big late drive if we need it.

Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams UNDER 22.5 points in the first half — FanDuel, BetRivers

Like the first game of the weekend, I like the full game as well, but lean to the first half. I do trust the Eagles on defense, and the Rams have been plucky or better on that side of the ball. I’m expecting a feeling-out period of some kind in the early going, and I like this number available in a few spots. Bring me all the field goals and punts.

Basketball fans were treated to something special during the Summer Olympics in 2024: Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James all played on the same team. The trio was instrumental in the United States winning a gold medal in the men’s competition, and even beyond that, just seeing all three of them suit up alongside one another was a joy to watch.

No three players have come to define this era of basketball like Curry, Durant, and James, all of whom should head to Springfield the day after they announce their retirements from the NBA. And on Wednesday, the NBA treated fans to something special: A sit down conversation with the three legends of the game. It touched on a lot, but at one point (the 16:03 mark of the video at the top of this post), the trio were asked about continuing to play at a high level and not wanting to give up the torch to the next generation of players yet. James was quick to say it’s not about a desire to never pass that torch, but instead, they’re just committed to doing their craft at the highest level.

“We’re just naturally born hoopers who love the game and refuse to cheat the game while we’re playing,” James said, before pointing out some of the younger players that all three of them respect and want to see do great things when their time in the league comes to an end.

Curry then looked back on his conversations with guys like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and his father, Dell, about how guys want to leave the league in a better place than how they found it. He also cited the relationship that Durant has with Anthony Edwards, the latter of whom has never been shy about admitting that Durant is his favorite player, then mentioned that there’s a balance between keeping themselves at a high level, knowing that there’s young talent that has caused the league to evolve since their runs to the NBA Finals, and keeping the perspective that their careers will end sooner rather than later.

“It just reminds you that this is not gonna be around forever, and to enjoy every minute of it,” Curry said. “Cause, soon we’re gonna be — we’re not gonna be the bitter old heads, can we all agree on that? We’re not gonna be the bitter old heads that come back hating on the younger generation. But, definitely an appreciation and admiration for what they’re able to do, too.”

The whole conversation is, as you can guess, pretty incredible, but hearing them talk about leaving the league in a great place when they retire and the pride they have in some of the up-and-coming stars in the NBA really is special. Anyway, here’s hoping we can get all three of them a podcast or something at some point down the road.

Visionary director David Lynch has died. He was 78 years old.

The sad news was revealed by Lynch’s family on his official Facebook account. “It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch,” the post reads. “We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

Lynch revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with emphysema. “Yes, I have emphysema from my many years of smoking. I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do love tobacco – the smell of it, lighting cigarettes on fire, smoking them – but there is a price to pay for this enjoyment, and the price for me is emphysema,” he wrote on X. “I have now quit smoking for over two years. Recently I had many tests and the good news is that I am in excellent shape except for emphysema. I am filled with happiness, and I will never retire.”

Where to even begin with David Lynch? His accomplishments as a filmmaker include cult favorite Eraserhead; surprise box office hit Blue Velvet; the Oscar nominated The Elephant Man and The Straight Story; and Mulholland Drive, one of only two films released since 2000 to appear in the top 10 of Sight and Sound‘s “Greatest Films of All Time” list. He also was an accomplished musician, advocate for transcendental meditation, and co-created Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return, which turned out to be his final project. It was yet another creative triumph in career full of them.

Last year, in response to a clip of Dua Lipa performing at a private McDonald’s event, the official X (formerly Twitter) account of Burger King UK joked, “Well we are going to bring out Lady Gaga at our next event.”

No word yet on if Gaga made out it out to that next event, but she has at least visited a Burger King location since then.

On X today (January 16), a Lady Gaga fan account shared a security video of Gaga at a BK, supposedly filmed in King City, California yesterday. In the video, Gaga does some classic waiting in the seemingly empty restaurant, sipping from one of the two drinks she’s holding, wandering around the ordering area, and generally meandering. After about 25 seconds, a man (Gaga’s fiancé Michael Polansky, the fan account says) emerges from what would seem to be the bathroom, and the two leave the fast food eatery together.

As they head out, another customer enters and seems to get a bit of a look at Gaga as she passes by the pop icon. She then keeps walking before doing a triple-take, as if wondering if that actually was Lady Gaga she just saw at a random Burger King on a Wednesday.

It’s a fun video, so check it out here.

Devo‘s biggest hit by far is “Whip It.” The track, from 1980’s Freedom Of Choice, is the influential new wave group’s only top-20 hit, and it’s appeared in everything from The Simpsons to Stranger Things to So You Think You Can Dance. But over the past decade, it hasn’t been Devo’s most profitable song. That distinction belongs to “Uncontrollable Urge,” which was never released as a single, and it “only” has 30 million streams on Spotify compared to over 174 million for “Whip It.” So, how is it such a money maker?

Ridiculousness, that’s how.

A cover of “Uncontrollable Urge” is the theme song for the Rob Dyrdek-hosted MTV series, which is pretty much all MTV plays. Tomorrow alone, the channel will air 20 episodes of Ridiculousness, which is actually down from a few years ago. Anita Greenspan, the manager and wife of Devo co-founder and “Uncontrollable Urge” writer Mark Mothersbaugh, told Rolling Stone that she estimates performance royalties bring in “around $1 million” every year.

“I’ve written so many other songs for films and television shows,” Mothersbaugh said. “I would’ve been shocked [years ago] if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income.” Greenspan added, “It’s ironic and kind of funny. In the beginning of MTV, you saw a lot of Devo because they were early to make videos, but MTV started questioning the videos Devo were making. [The videos] were subversive, they didn’t like them, and wouldn’t play them anymore. Now ‘Uncontrollable Urge’ is easily the most-played song on MTV, so [Devo] wins.”

You can listen to “Uncontrollable Urge” below, or, y’know, just wait 30 minutes for the next episode of Ridiculousness.

Throw a rock in Nashville and you will hit an earnest singer-songwriter who claims to be influenced by the country-folk greats of the 1970s: John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, etc. But almost nobody feels like they could have come out of the 1970s. Not only because they lack the writing chops, but they also don’t quite have the attitude or the gravitas.

Todd Snider is the rare exception.

A songwriter’s songwriter, the 58-year-old has been recording and performing for more than 30 years. His first notoriety arrived in the mid-nineties when he scored a smart-ass novelty hit called “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues,” in which he posited silence as “music’s original alternative.” At the time, he was a folk singer stranded in a sea of grunge bands and big-hatted Garth Brooks wannabes. He didn’t fit in, and he was still finding himself. Snider didn’t really hit his stride until a decade later, when he put out a series of gloriously ragged records — including 2004’s East Nashville Skyline and 2006’s The Devil You Know — that reimagined John Prine’s iconic 1971 debut as if it had been recorded in one night with the Rolling Stones in the south of France during the Exile On Main St. sessions. The music rocked, but the words — a mix of sly one-liners and closely observed daily minutia from an outsider perspective — were what stuck in your head.

Snider’s specialty is storytelling songs about down-and-out losers who just might be hitting rock bottom, rendered with a mix of gallows humor and nonchalant pathos. One of my favorites is “Tillamook County Jail,” from East Nashville Skyline, in which a guy wonders if his girl will pick him up after an unnamed skirmish. At one point the cops beat him up, which he calls “the Tillamook County lie detector test.” (“It’s a tough test not to fail,” he adds.) And then there’s “The Highland Street Incident,” which plays like a gritty seventies crime film condensed into a three-minute song. Snider portrays the song’s narrator, who is recounting a robbery that clearly went awry:

Did we get arrested? No we did not
We didn’t shoot anyone, we didn’t get shot
We didn’t hurt anyone, at least not a lot
And we got what we wanted

As good as these songs are on record, there are even better in concert. You get that sense from his excellent live records — 2003’s Near Truths And Hotel Rooms, 2011’s Todd Snider Live: The Storyteller, and 2022’s Live: The Return Of The Storyteller — but seeing him in person is a singularly charming experience. As those album titles suggest, the live show revolves around Snider’s rambling stage patter as much as it does the songs. Sometimes Snider’s stories go on longer than the music. (I have described his live records as comedy albums that happen to have some songs on them.)

Snider also has the requisite troubled back story for a singer-songwriter of this type — the trips in and out of rehab, a divorce, and health problems, including a debilitating back condition that has kept him off the road the past two years. He’s also lost some of his closest friends in recent years, many of whom were mentors and father figures: Prine, Kristofferson, Jimmy Buffett, and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Richard Lewis, who he calls his best friend.

In recent interviews, Snider has struck a pessimistic posture when asked about whether he will ever tour again. A note of finality about his career, at times, was alarmingly discernible. Frankly, I was worried about him. But when we spoke by phone last week, I was pleasantly surprised by his upbeat mood. He plans to record a new album, he says, and to play some shows in the fall.

“I’ve been really lucky,” he said. “I just took two years off and I’m being reflective, because my dad died when he was 54. And I’m four years past that now.”

Snider’s demeanor was buoyed in part by a new box set released last month of solo acoustic recordings. Titled Best Of All My Songs, it’s culled from online broadcasts from the pandemic era, and includes 50 tracks along with plenty of side stories. Along with Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 — a 2019 effort laid down at Johnny Cash’s Tennessee cabin with guest stars like Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires — it represents a retrenchment to his signature folk style after various sonic detours into garage rock (2016’s Eastside Bulldog), jam-band music (his band Hard Working Americans), and backwoods funk (2021’s First Agnostic Church Of Hope And Wonder).

He says the process of revisiting these hilarious and heartbreaking tunes has changed his perspective on his body of work. “I like them better than I thought I would,” he says, I imagine, with a crooked grin.

This box set derives from your online All My Songs series. How did that come about?

I have a studio in East Nashville. And me and my buddy, my tour manager, he and I had been gathering gear down there. All of a sudden, we got interested in cameras and lights and those types of things and started collecting them. We didn’t even know what we were going to do with them. Then right when the pandemic hit, we were like, “Well, we could use all this stuff.” He sat down and figured if we bought this thing and that thing, we could be on the computer like it’s television and do a show on Sunday.

After that show, Fiona Prine called and said John was gone. So I drove back down to the studio and we said, “We’re going live and I’m going to start playing Prine songs.” And I played all of them. And it was so healing. And that day, I was like, “I love this.” I felt like a DJ. It was a new art form.

Bob Dylan always says that the best versions of his songs are almost never on the records.

I definitely feel like that. When I listened to this box set a couple days ago, I was like, “I finally made this album that I wanted to make.” It’s got way too many songs on it, but that’s what it took. And then I think everything before was pre-production. I finally figured out if I film myself so there’s an audience, but they’re not there, that could do it.

I read this recent quote from you that I thought was really interesting. You were talking about John Prine and the influence that he had on you and your music. You said, “He healed my memories and turned them into medicine for others. My songs grew from words meant to win arguments and get back at girls who rejected me, to opening up my heart and showing people what was in there.” I was wondering if you could talk about that.

That was right after my third record, and that was the kindest thing that anybody had ever done for me. And he stayed with it. I still can’t believe I got to have that. I know that he knew how important he was to me already when he made that move.

Was that something he said to you explicitly?

Yeah. We met when he was making The Missing Years. He just treated me like his friend. He came to a bar and saw me play. And then a friend of his in Memphis had been helping me and got me a record contract, and as soon as I got one, John asked me to open some shows. And so I did that. And then I think after the second record came out, I asked John’s manager to manage me. Even though the guy who was managing me at the time, he didn’t stop or anything. He just stopped getting money. His name was Bob Mercer. He just loved me like his kid.

I had never really understood what I was doing that was sort of pure or whatever. I just was letting it all hang out. And then, if you get a record deal, usually it makes you kind of mad eventually because it gets picked at by everybody. And so on my third record, I settled a lot of scores, bragged a little bit. All I knew was, “What’s wrong with my songs, man?” It’s not even that people don’t like them. When I’m singing them, I just can’t wait for them to get over. And then that’s when he spoke up and said, “I can help.”

I had 13 songs that I gave him and his manager a CD. I came back the next day and they said one of them was really good. The song was called “Missing You.” And I said, “What about the others?” And John was like, “Ain’t nothing going on with any of them.” And then he said, “There’s this other song about DB Cooper that’s kind of going somewhere. I just don’t get why you’re the one telling me that. And then there’s this other one called “Harder To Listen” where you’re telling some story about the girl going to AA and how dumb they are. And I think it’s about you going to AA and being intimidated.” And then he was like, “If that wasn’t about a girl who thought everyone was stupid and it was about a guy who was afraid of everybody, you might have a song.”

I worked on “DB Cooper” until I realized that my dad was wanting them to catch him and I was wanting them not to. And when I put that in the song, John’s like, “That’s why you remember it. That might’ve been the first time you disagreed with your dad.” I’m going to get choked up now.

I made the record. It’s called Happy to Be Here. Then my best friend got cancer, and I fell into super hard dope with him. I felt like that’s when I had my back to the wall and I just had to do something. And I made a record called East Nashville Skyline with my friends and didn’t allow any grown-ups around. And when I was done, John was like, “Man, here’s the keys, son.” That’s it. He talked to me different after that, from that day forward. And it wasn’t like it was a success. It was just like, “That’s kind of original and honest and heartfelt and no crap in there.”

That’s when I got on board with your music.

I love that one. It means so much to me. The label was John. I had a feeling it would be cool, so I just said, “Look, I want to make the record and give it to him.” That means if they don’t like it, I’m mowing everybody’s yard for years. So, we made it for nothing on the gamble that they’d like it.

I thought about “DB Cooper” when that health insurance CEO got murdered. The killer has some DB Cooper-esque qualities.

Yeah, that’s right. I hadn’t thought about that. He killed a guy, but he was a dick.

Have you been writing songs lately?

I have, would you believe? I’ve been home for two years and it’s not going to be a better album than any before. Might possibly be worse, but I’ve been able to work on the songs. I love to rewrite. I can do it for hours every day. I’ve had 10 or 12 songs going now for a few years. And there’s a young guy named Aaron Lee Tasjan, who’s a recording artist, but also a producer. And another guy named Robbie Crowell who plays piano for Sturgill Simpson, but he’s also a producer and has played with me.

I love Robbie’s playing. He was great on the Sturgill tour.

Yeah. That tour was amazing. Robbie and Aaron, when they first got to town, they were in my Bulldogs band. It’s been fun watching them grow. And I learned from them. So those two are like soul brothers. And then I have this kid, Sterling Finlay, he’s like a brother and he lives in Texas and has been playing with bands forever and he’s coming too. And those four, we’re going to set up in my house.

Are these political songs? Love songs?

Let’s see. [Starts reading song titles.] “The Phone Call,” “While We Still Have a Chance,” “The Temptation To Exist.” “Another Likely Story.” “High Lonesome And Then Some.” “Stoner Yodel No. 2.”” Petey Wheatstraw Blues,” or it’s also known as “Sockdologizing Old Man Trap.” “If You’re Happy And You Know It, Keep It Down.” Then there’s another one called “60,000 Miles An Hour.” One called “The Counts Of Saint Germain,” but that might be called “Psych”. And another one called “Nobody Makes a Memory Like You.”

Wow.

I’ve had them on blocks the whole time. I have to finish two. I have like three verses to make up.

Do you see yourself touring in the future?

I do, but part of that is I’m thinking really positive. It’s the part of my life I love the most. And I didn’t know the last time that it might be the last time. I have this disease called stenosis. It doesn’t get better. It just gets worse. And so, if I’m going to do it, I got to do it now.

How does the disease affect you?

At first, my stomach was way up in my diaphragm, and I thought I was done. But now it’s back where it should be. My bones hurt though, and it’s hard for me to stand up sometimes. At times I go on tour and just take pain pills towards the end, but the last year I didn’t do it. I’m not 60 yet, and I love drugs. I always loved drugs, but I don’t want to have to take them. I love pain pills when I don’t need them. So, I turned into one of them “stretching all the time and meditating” people. I’m in okay shape, I walk a lot and stuff. But I think I’m going to have to start swimming. I have to get stronger.

It seems like you’re in a relatively good place.

I am. I am. I’m looking forward to recording these songs. For some reason, I don’t know when it happened — about two weeks ago or something — it was like, “All right, let’s get this going again.”

Before I let you go, I wanted to ask you about the late Richard Lewis. I didn’t know how close you were.

Jim Keltner introduced me to him years ago. We’d get on the phone a bunch during the day and he was involved in everything I did to the nth detail. When I’d record or when he’d be on the set of Curb, he’d call me during the breaks. I was always recording and calling him, running lyrics by him. I hadn’t made decisions without him in a decade. I made a management switch right before he passed, and that was the last thing we did together. It was his idea, and he held my hand through that.

We were, I guess, best friends. He was the funniest person, but also insanely thoughtful. And yeah, we just got caught up in the minutiae of each other’s lives. It was like, “I gotta race home, I gotta hear what kind of shoes Richard ended up getting.” I loved him so much, and his wife Joyce.

He had been having heart trouble. And he’s exactly like the character, so if his heart felt weird, he was on his way to the ambulance. And then one night, to me and Joyce, he was like, “My heart feels a little weird tonight, but it’s fine.” Oh really? You don’t want to shut the government down? He was like, “Nah, I’m just going to go to bed.” In a way, I think it was his way of saying, “I’ve had it.” His last two years were pretty painful. He was getting some leaves out of the gutter and fell, broke his shoulder. I remember that day. And then he never recovered. Two years later, he was gone of a heart attack.

One more story and then I’ll let you go: He talked me into booking a show with him in a really teeny club so that he could try out new material. He was going to go first and it was a set-up. He went out there and did his best 40 minutes and there was nothing left to do when I went up there. People left during my shit. He was in the balcony. I called him Mussolini. He was in the Mussolini seats up there laughing his ass off. It was very much like a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.

It was a spite set!

[Laughs.] It was!

I wonder if Richard saw you in a way as a stand-up comedian. I’ve described your live albums as comedy records with songs put between the stories.

Well, he definitely thought that I was really funny, and I could crack him up. But when people around us would say, “He could do stand-up,” he’d be like, “No, he’s doing this thing Will Rogers used to do. It’s different. It’s way easier.” And then he’d say, “Write a joke.” And I would write jokes and he’d be like, “No, no, no, no.” And then I wrote one joke he said that was really good. He’s like, “Now that is a joke, and yet, you can’t ever tell it.”

[Todd tells me the joke but makes me promise not to put it in this column. It’s very funny, though.]

Today, January 16, is FKA Twigs’ birthday. To celebrate, she went ahead and announced a tour in support of her upcoming project, Eusexua.

Announcing the tour on social media, Twigs writes, “as my own birthday gift to you i present the fourth offering, the EUSEXUA tour. ten dates stretching limbs and embracing one another the way we’re born to do. […] have you experienced eusexua? you will.”

A ticket pre-sale starts January 21 at 10 a.m. local time, followed by a general on-sale beginning January 24 at 10 a.m. local time. UK fans can get access to the pre-sale by pre-ordering a copy of Eusexua from Twigs’ online store. US and European fans can sign up for the pre-sale. More information can be found on Twigs’ website.

Twigs previously said of the album, “I moved to Prague a couple summers ago, fell in love with techno, the album isn’t techno but the spirit is there fr. […] It’s deep but not sad. I’m not sad anymore.”

Check out the tour dates below.

FKA Twigs’ 2025 Tour Dates: Eusexua 2025 Tour

03/08 — Prague, Czech Republic @ Forum Karlin
03/11 — Berlin, Germany @ Uber Eats Music Hall
03/13 — Paris, France @ Zenith
03/15 — Brussels, Belgium @ Les Halles De Schaerbeek
03/18 — Manchester, UK @ Aviva Studios
03/21 — London, UK @ Magazine
03/26 — Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed
03/30 — Toronto, ON @ History
04/03 — New York, NY @ Knockdown
04/19 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Center

Eusexua is out 1/25 via Young Recordings. Find more information here.

So far, Sphere has leaned towards booking rock acts: U2, Dead & Company, Phish, etc. But beginning in May, Kenny Chesney will become the first country artist to headline the Las Vegas venue.

“When we started talking about all of the possibilities playing Sphere offered, I was all in,” Chesney said in a statement. “Just the idea of 4D technology and the impossibly dialed in sound raises the experience for No Shoes Nation, literally immersing them in music, visuals, sound and being together. To me, this is going to be a whole new way of rocking the fans, and I can’t wait.”

He continued, “When we started talking, I flew to Vegas with my key tour team. We stood on the floor as they ran the film of U2’s show and we were completely consumed. We could see the band, but it was so much more than that. It almost took what they were doing and multiplied it by another dimension. Knowing how much intensity our shows generate, my mind started thinking about all the things we could do. Once you see how the show wraps all the way around you, the dreaming begins.”

Tickets for the residency go on sale on Friday, January 31, at 10 a.m. PT. You can find more information here, and the full dates below.

Kenny Chesney’s Live At Sphere Las Vegas Residency Dates

05/22 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
05/24 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
05/25 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
05/28 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
05/30 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
05/31 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
06/04 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
06/06 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
06/07 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
06/11 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
06/13 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere
06/14 — Las Vegas, NV @ Sphere

The good news is that Zach Bryan has two new projects on the way. The potentially bad news is that the future after them is currently unclear.

In an audio-only Instagram post shared by Bryan yesterday (January 15), Matthew McConaughey does a 30-second voiceover in which he teases a new film from Bryan, along with his “final major-label album.” He says:

“This is not a film about a band. This is a film about a boy from Oklahoma, a boy who joined the Navy with a love of writing. That writing connected with people — a lot of people. This film is about a group of best friends taking a two-week motorcycle ride across America while recording one final major-label album. Oh, and the title of the film, you ask? Motorbreath.”

This comes after Bryan has expressed some discontent with some of his recent experiences with fame. On Instagram earlier this month, he wrote, “All you f*ckn weird couch warriors attacking and belittling my friends on the internet because you’re assuming I have a girlfriend are weird as hell and should be studied for science. Everyone wonders why I quit touring and don’t want to be attached to music anymore. meanwhile you’re calling my friends ugly and harassing them?”

He also wrote, “Everyone wants you to have fun and make great music but you guys are making it really hard to do that with my friends getting insulted and death threats everyday. Everyday I lose a little more faith in humanity and everyday I get closer to never being in the public’s eye again which is incredibly sad because I truly do really love humans and being happy and joking around and laughing a lot.”

Ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs’ playoff game against the Houston Texans on Saturday, Travis Kelce gave an update on his relationship with Taylor Swift.

“I’m enjoying all aspects of life, that’s for damn sure, man,” he said on the January 15 episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show. “Me and Taylor are happy and I couldn’t be happier to have that confidence and that comfort off the field and all the support I could ever ask for in the stadium.”

After the Charmander-loving Smith admitted that he never listened to Swift before attending The Eras Tour (“I said, ‘this better be worth it!’ And I gotta confess, it was so damn good I went back twice”), he asked Kelce about whether Swift has inspired him as a football player.

“I think personally, that’s the beauty of being in a very strong relationship, is that you get that support to be able to come in and focus on your craft,” he replied. “Focus on being the best version of you. That’s why I wanted to be at the concerts supporting her, being there for her and making sure she feels comfortable and supported in everything she’s doing in life.”

You can watch Kelce’s appearance on The Stephen A. Smith Show here.