Nashville

A little over a year ago, Madi Diaz lay in bed in an apartment near Dodger Stadium sweating out a gnarly case of COVID-19.

The Nashville-based singer and songwriter had traveled to Los Angeles to record the follow-up to her album “Weird Faith,” which came out in early 2024 and would go on to earn two Grammy nominations, including one for a beautifully bummed-out duet with her friend Kacey Musgraves. But after three or four days of work in the studio, Diaz became sick just as the Dodgers were battling the Mets in last October’s National League Championship Series.

“I could literally see the stadium lights — there were drones everywhere and people honking and lighting things on fire,” she recalls. “I was just like, Why, L.A. — why?”

Her suffering in a city she once called home was worth it: “Fatal Optimist,” the LP Diaz eventually completed in time to release this month, is one of 2025’s most gripping — a bravely stripped-down set of songs about heartbreak and renewal arranged for little more than Diaz’s confiding voice and her folky acoustic guitar.

In the album’s opener, “Hope Less,” she wonders how far she might be willing to go to accommodate a lover’s neglect; “Good Liar” examines the self-deception necessary to keep putting up with it. Yet Diaz also thinks through the harm she’s doled out, as in “Flirting” (“I can’t change what happened, the moment was just what it was / Nothing to me, something to you”).

And then there’s the gutting “Heavy Metal,” in which she acknowledges that enduring the pain of a breakup has prepared her to deal with the inevitability of the next one.

“This record is me facing myself and going, ‘I have to stay in my body for this entire song,’ ” Diaz, 39, says on a recent afternoon during a return trip to L.A.

What makes the unguardedness of the music even more remarkable is that “Fatal Optimist” comes more than a decade and a half into a twisty-turny career that might’ve left Diaz more leathered than she sounds here.

Beyond making her own albums — “Fatal Optimist” is her sixth since she moved to Nashville in 2008 — she’s written songs for commercials and TV shows and for other artists including Maren Morris and Little Big Town; she’s sung backup for Miranda Lambert and Parker McCollum and even played guitar in Harry Styles’ band on tour in 2023.

Yet in a tender new song like “Feel Something,” about longing to “be someone who doesn’t know your middle name,” Diaz’s singing reveals every bruise.

“Music is a life force for Madi,” says Bethany Cosentino, the Best Coast frontwoman who tapped Diaz as a songwriting partner for her 2023 solo album, “Natural Disaster.” “She has to do it, and it’s so authentic and so real and so raw because it’s not coming from this place of ‘Well, guess I gotta go make another record.’ ”

“If she doesn’t put those emotions somewhere,” Cosentino adds, “I think she’ll implode.”

Which doesn’t mean that putting out a record as vulnerable as “Fatal Optimist” hasn’t felt scary.

“I was gonna say it’s like the emperor’s new clothes,” Diaz says with a laugh over coffee in Griffith Park. “But I know I’m not wearing any clothes.” Dressed in shorts and a denim shirt, her hair tucked beneath a ball cap, she sits at a picnic table outside a café she liked when she lived in L.A. from 2012 to 2017.

“For a second, I was like, Damn, I wish I’d brought my hiking shoes — could’ve gone up to the top,” she says. “I would absolutely have done that as my masochistic 28-year-old self. Hike in the heat of the day? Let’s go.”

Diaz points to a couple of touchstones for her LP’s bare-bones approach, among them Patty Griffin’s “Living With Ghosts” — “a star in Orion’s Belt,” as she puts it — and “obviously Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue,’ ” she says. “That’s just a duh.”

Like Mitchell, Diaz achieves a clarity of thought in her songs that only intensifies the heartache; also like Mitchell (not to mention Taylor Swift), she can describe a partner’s failings with unsparing precision.

“Some ‘I’m sorry’s’ are so selfish / And you just act like you can’t help it,” she sings in “Why’d You Have to Bring Me Flowers,” one of a handful of what she jokingly calls “folk diss tracks” on “Fatal Optimist.” It goes on: “Bulls— smile, in denial / We’ve been circling the block / We’ve been in a downward spiral.”

“There are definitely a couple songs on this record where I felt apologetic as I was writing it,” she says. “Then when I finished it was just like: It had to be done.” She grins. “They’re tough,” she says of her exes. “They’ll be fine.”

Asked whether any of her songs express her feelings in a way she wasn’t capable of doing with the ex in question, she nods.

“I’d say I could get about halfway there in real life,” she says. “It’s almost like I couldn’t finish the thought within the relationship, and that was the signal that we couldn’t go onward. Or that I couldn’t go onward.”

Has writing about love taught her anything about herself and what she wants?

“I travel a lot — I’m all over the place,” she says. “And I really like to come and go as I please. But it’s funny: In retrospect, I think maybe I was chasing a relationship that was a little more traditional, even though I don’t know if I can actually be that way. So that’s a weird thing to be aware of.”

Madi Diaz in Pasadena.

(Annie Noelker / For The Times)

Diaz grew up home-schooled in a Quaker household in rural Pennsylvania and learned to play piano and guitar when she was young; when she was a teenager, her talent took her to Philadelphia’s Paul Green School of Rock, whose founder was later accused of abuse and sexual misconduct by dozens of former students, including Diaz. (“It was a really toxic place,” she told the New York Times.)

She studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston before dropping out and heading to Nashville, where she started making her name as a singer-songwriter operating at the intersection of country and pop. After a few years of fruitful grinding, she came to L.A. to “see how high the ceiling was,” she says, and quickly fell in with a group of musician friends.

“We used to love going to the Smog Cutter,” she says of the shuttered Silver Lake dive bar, “to have a couple Bud Lights and sing Mariah Carey really poorly.”

Diaz was making money writing songs — Connie Britton sang one of her tunes on the soapy ABC series “Nashville” — but she struggled to achieve the kind of liftoff she was looking for as an artist. “Turned out the ceiling was quite high,” she says now with a laugh.

Along with the professional frustrations came “a nuclear explosion of a breakup” with a fellow songwriter, Teddy Geiger. “They were going through a huge identity shift,” Diaz says of Geiger, who came out as transgender, “and we worked in the same industry, and it just kind of felt like there wasn’t a place for me here.”

Diaz returned to Nashville, which didn’t immediately super-charge her career. “I was bartending at Wilburn Street Tavern and making Jack White nachos,” she recalls. “He would never remember this, but I remember. I was like, This is my life now.”

In fact, her acclaimed 2021 album “History of a Feeling” — with songs inspired by the complicated dynamics of her and Geiger’s split — finally brought the kind of attention she’d been working toward. She signed with the respected indie label Anti- (whose other acts include Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman) and scored the road gig with Styles after he reached out via DM; she also became an in-demand presence in Nashville’s close-knit songwriting scene.

“I don’t know of anybody in town that doesn’t love Madi,” says Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, who adds that Diaz “has instincts about melodies that are all her own. Sometimes I’m thinking, ‘How’s she gonna fit that into the phrasing?’ But she always does.”

For “Fatal Optimist,” Diaz took an initial pass at recording her songs with a full band before deciding they called for the minimalist setup she landed on with her co-producer, Gabe Wax, at his studio in Burbank.

“We did it with no headphones, no click track, no grid,” she says. “It speeds up and slows down, and it goes in and out of tune as instruments do.” (One unlikely sonic inspiration was a singles collection by the pioneering riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, which she hailed for its “still-kind-of-figuring-it-out energy.”)

Diaz describes herself as a perfectionist but says “Fatal Optimist” was about “trying to find our way through the cracks of imperfection to break the ground and sit on the surface. I feel so proud that we let it live there.”

She’s touring behind the album this fall, playing solo shows — including a Nov. 20 date at the Highland Park Ebell Club — meant to preserve the album’s solitary vibe.

“I don’t know if I’d really thought that through when I made the decision,” she says with a laugh.

As good as she is on her own — and for all the torment she knows another relationship is likely to hold — “I’m a die-hard loyalist,” Diaz says. “I’m still looking for connection more than anything else.”

NICOLE Kidman and Keith Urban’s lawyers have a big job ahead of them in splitting the couple’s mammoth property empire after their bombshell split.

Nicole, 58, and Keith, 57, have called it quits after 19 years of marriage, with the Babygirl actress filing divorce papers on Tuesday, September 30.

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The couple, who share two daughters, have reportedly been living separately since the beginning of summer.

Just days ago, Nicole was seen still wearing her wedding ring and in good spirits at Cle de Peau’s event in Los Angeles as she appeared as their new brand ambassador.

The pair will have to spend time dividing their assets after almost two decades of marriage.

They mainly resided with their daughters, Sunday Rose, 17, and Faith Margaret, 14, in Tennessee.

Nicole is also mom to Isabella and Connor, whom she adopted during her marriage with her ex-husband, Tom Cruise.

The couple has spent millions on a property portfolio now worth more than $250million, according to online real estate sites.

Their main 20-room mansion is located just outside of Nashville and was purchased in 2008 for $4.89 million, two years after they tied the knot.

They married on June 25, 2006, at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel, located on the grounds of St. Patrick’s Estate in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. 

MILLION-DOLLAR LISTINGS

The lavish abode has seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms, along with a fully-equipped gym, a large tennis court, and a swimming pool, which were installed by the couple.

During the same year, Nicole and Keith also snapped up a Beverly Hills home for $6.77 million that has five bedrooms and five bathrooms.

The estate was built in the 1960s and sits on a 1.25-acre lot with celebrity neighbors Adele and Jennifer Lawrence in the desired neighborhood.

Listings show it has a flat-top roof, a pool, and a second-floor wraparound deck. 

They also bought their Australian farmhouse in 2008 for $6.5million, called Bunya Hill, which is located in the Southern Highlands village of Sutton Forrest.

The 45-hectare black Angus cattle farm features a large Georgian-style house built in 1878.

The home has sandstone verandas, a cedar staircase, and 10 marble fireplaces.

It sits on a private hilltop and includes a guest cottage.

The property has been updated with a swimming pool, tennis court, and gym.

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Two years after buying their main properties, the couple splashed out $13.53 million for a Manhattan duplex in the upscale Chelsea neighborhood.

It’s located in a stainless-steel tower and includes three bedrooms, a “double-height great room with a cathedral ceiling,” and two terraces with views of the Hudson River.

One of its most appealing qualities is its private “sky garage” with an elevator for apartment-level parking.

They also reportedly own two penthouses that were combined in the Latitude Building in Sydney’s Milsons Point. 

The first was bought for almost $6 million in 2009, while the second was around $7 million in 2012.

They also snapped up four more apartments in the same building.  

Last year, they also bought yet another residence in the same complex for $7.7million.

In 2020, they added to their New York portfolio after snapping up a two-bedroom apartment in Tribeca for $3.5 million.

According to the New York Post, there are three separate entrances into the building for added privacy.

The residence offers a 75-foot indoor lap pool, rooftop gardens, and a 2,200-square-foot fitness center.

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s Relationship Timeline

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have been one of Hollywood’s ‘It

January 2005 – Nicole and Keith were introduced by actor Geoffrey Rush during the G’Day LA gala ball.

February 2006 – The couple made their public debut as an item at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards.

May 2006 – Keith’s publicist revealed that he and Nicole were “very happily engaged.”

June 2006 – The twosome tied the knot at a chapel in Manly, Australia, surrounded by many famous guests.

October 2006 – Keith checked himself into rehab for drug and alcohol issues at the urging of his new wife.

December 2006 – Model Amanda Wyatt claimed that Keith had cheated on Nicole with her multiple times, leading up to their nuptials.

In January 2008 – Nicole’s rep revealed that she and Keith were expecting their first child together.

July 2008 – Keith and Nicole welcomed their first child, a daughter named Sunday Rose.

December 2010 – The duo introduced their second child, Faith Margaret, to the world, whom they welcomed via surrogate.

July 2015 – Nicole confessed to Vogue that she’d wished she’d met Keith earlier in life, so that they could’ve had more children together.

June 2016 – Keith opened up to Rolling Stone about how Nicole helped him get sober by insisting that he go to rehab a decade earlier.

October 2018 – Nicole gushed about her simple, quiet life in Nashville with Keith, and said that was the secret to their happy marriage.

June 2021 – Keith shared a sweet Instagram post, commemorating his and Nicole’s 15th wedding anniversary.

July 2024 – Keith, Nicole, and their daughters were seen enjoying the Gymnastics Women’s Team Final at the Paris Olympics.

April 2025 – Nicole referred to Keith as her “deep, deep love” during an interview with People, and said she was “lucky” to have the musician.

September 2025 – TMZ announced that Nicole and Keith had separated and were no longer living together.

There’s also a wine cellar with its own private dining room.

Since the couple’s split, their two children have been in Nicole’s care, and she is “holding the family together through this difficult time since Keith has been gone,” according to reports.

It is currently still unknown what led to the pair’s separation.

Sources claim that Nicole was “blindsided,” as she had been desperate to save their marriage, one of the longest in Hollywood.

Insiders also said that “Keith has acquired his own residence in Nashville and has moved out of their family home,” although this has not yet been confirmed.

The U.S. Sun has reached out to Nicole and Keith’s reps for comment but did not hear back.

Both Nicole and Keith grew up in Australia, but did not meet until 2005 at a gala.

Keith swooned over his wife in an interview with CBS News in 2016.

Nicole told Ellen DeGeneres in 2017: “I had such a crush on him, and he wasn’t interested in me.

“It’s true! He didn’t call me for four months.”

The actress has spent a considerable amount of time filming in England recently, which may have put strain on their relationship.

She has been shooting scenes for the Practical Magic sequel and reportedly shelled out $87,288 a month to stay at Boy George’s luxurious mansion – without Keith.

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Singer-songwriter Brett James, who penned country music hits for stars including Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean, was one of three people who died Thursday in a plane crash in North Carolina. He was 57.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced in its preliminary report that three people were on board in a Cirrus SR22T that “crashed in a field” Thursday at around 3 p.m. local time in Franklin, N.C. There were no survivors, the North Carolina State Highway patrol confirmed in a statement.

According to additional information from the FAA, the songwriter was on the plane, which was registered to him under his legal name, Brett James Cornelius. It’s unclear whether he was piloting the plane during its crash, which the FAA said occurred “under unknown circumstances.” The state patrol confirmed the musician’s death, adding that his wife, Melody Carole, and Carole’s daughter Meryl Maxwell Wilson were the other two people on the plane. Wilson celebrated her birthday this week, according to a post on Carole’s Instagram page.

The aircraft had taken off from John C. Tune Airport in Nashville. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board said they are investigating the crash.

The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame shared the news of James’ death Thursday in a social media post. “We mourn the untimely loss of Hall of Fame member Brett James (‘Jesus Take The Wheel’ / ‘When the Sun Goes Down’), a 2020 inductee who was killed in a small-engine airplane crash on Sept. 18,” the post said.

James, born June 5, 1968, is best known for co-writing the 2005 Underwood hit “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” The ballad, also co-written by Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson, helped propel the careers of “American Idol” winner Underwood and James: It won the country song prize at the 2007 Grammy Awards and was dubbed ASCAP’s country song of the year in 2006.

The Missouri-born musician began his music career in the early 1990s after leaving medical school behind. He signed as a solo to Career Records, a subsidiary of Arista Nashville, but found his calling writing for Chesney, Billy Ray Cyrus, Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw and other country music acts.

“A brilliant songwriter and amazing man. He was the pen behind ‘Summer Nights,’ ‘Love You Out Loud’ and countless songs we’ve all sang along too,” Rascal Flatts said Friday in an Instagram tribute. “He will be greatly missed.”

Aldean also remembered James during his show in Lincoln, Neb., performing their song “The Truth.” The singer said he had “nothing but love and respect for that guy and he helped change my life” in a social media post of that performance.

James also penned Cheney and Uncle Kracker’s “When the Sun Goes Down,” Underwood’s “Cowboy Casanova” and Rodney Atkins’ “It’s America.” As a solo artist, James released several singles, a self-titled album in 1995 and the 2020 EP “I Am Now.” ASCAP named James its country songwriter of the year twice, first in 2006 then in 2010.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler pleaded guilty to a DUI charge but had three other charges, including for possession of a handgun while under the influence, dropped during a Tennessee court appearance Tuesday following his October 2024 arrest.

The 2008 Pro Bowl player was sentenced to four days in Williamson County jail, which he is set to start serving Sept. 29, according to WSMV-TV in Nashville. The Times has reached out to attorneys for Cutler and Tennessee’s 21st District but did not immediately receive responses.

As part of his plea deal, WSMV reported, Cutler agreed to forfeit his Glock pistol. In addition to the jail time, he will be on unsupervised probation for one year. He also had his Tennessee drivers license revoked and is required to pay a $350 fine and attend a DUI safety class.

Cutler was arrested Oct. 17 after Franklin Police Department officers responded to a minor collision in which it appeared that Cutler’s vehicle rear-ended another vehicle. According to the police, Cutler smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and slurred his words.

After he refused a field sobriety test, police said, Cutler was taken to a hospital and a blood sample was taken after a search warrant was obtained. Two firearms were found in his vehicle, according to the police, including a loaded pistol.

All four charges against Cutler — which also included failure to exercise due care and violating implied consent — were misdemeanors. He was released on a $5,000 bond.

Cutler was selected 11th overall by the Denver Broncos in the 2006 draft and became their starting quarterback late in the season. He was traded to the Chicago Bears before the 2009 season and led the team to the NFC championship game that year, in his only postseason appearance.

Cutler was cut by the Bears in March 2017 and played one more season with the Miami Dolphins before ending his career. He and reality TV star Kristen Cavallari were married from 2013-2022 and have three children together.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, beloved home goods store Bed Bath & Beyond opened its first new store in Nashville Friday with a new name.

The owners of the bankrupt chain’s intellectual property resurrected the brand with a new name — Bed Bath & Beyond Home.

“We’re proud to reintroduce one of retail’s most iconic names with the launch of Bed Bath & Beyond Home, beautifully reimagined for how families gather at home today,” said Amy Sullivan, CEO of parent company Brand Collective, in a news release.

“With Bed Bath & Beyond Home we’re delivering on our mission to offer great brands, for any budget, in every room. It’s a powerful addition to our portfolio and a meaningful step forward in our transformation.”

If shoppers have kept their old Bed Bath & Beyond coupons, they can use them in the new store.

“We encourage guests to bring in their legacy Bed Bath & Beyond coupons which we will gladly honor,” the company said in a news release. “The coupon we all know and love is back and for those who need one, a fresh version will be waiting at the door.”

When the company went bankrupt in 2023, it struggled to find a buyer and liquidated. It sold off the business in parts. Overstock.com bought the intellectual property and rebranded itself as Beyond Inc. It launched an online-only Bed Bath & Beyond.

Beyond bought an ownership stake in Kirkland’s, a home decor chain, and licensed it to develop and create Bed Bath & Beyond Home stores and Buy Buy Baby stores. Kirkland’s became the Brand House Collective and will convert some Kirkland’s stores to Bed Bath & Beyond stores.

Not all Bed Bath & Beyond products were available on the online store. In 2024, the brand secured a partnership with The Container Store to sell its goods. Beyond Inc. also committed to a $40 million investment in The Container Store, The Tennessean reported.

The Nashville opening is one of six planned for the market. Beyond said if the stores do well, it intends to convert 75 stores in 2026.

The victims may be dead, but NBC’s “Dateline” is going live.

NBC News announced Tuesday that the cast of its popular long-running true crime newsmagazine will gather onstage Sept. 28 at the Pinnacle, a new music venue in Nashville.

Ticket-holding fans will see correspondents Josh Mankiewicz, Blayne Alexander, Keith Morrison, Dennis Murphy, Andrea Canning and anchor Lester Holt in panel discussions and Q&A sessions. There will also be criminal justice experts on hand for onstage demonstrations.

The Nashville session — which will also commemorate the 3,000th episode of the program first launched in 1992 — will be a test run, according to Liz Cole, senior executive producer for “Dateline.” A strong turnout could lead to more dates and become additional source of revenue for the program. (NBC News has not revealed prices for tickets, which go on sale Aug. 5.)

“We realized that the anniversary was coming up, and it’s such a big number we wanted to do something special to mark the occasion,” Cole said in an interview. “This seemed like a great way to experiment with the format and go out and meet with our ‘Dateline’ community in real life.”

The television news audiences are shrinking as viewers move from traditional appointment viewing to on-demand streaming. But on-air personalities, whether they are covering politics or true crime, have devoted fans willing to pay to see them up close.

The revenue news shows can generate from live events is probably limited as journalists and anchors need the time to report stories or prepare a nightly program, making it challenging to book lengthy tours. (The “Dateline” correspondents are frequently on the road for their stories.)

“It’s quite an accomplishment getting everyone in one place at one time,” Mankiewicz said in a recent interview. “That usually only happens here when we’re taking the team picture or we’re kicking off the new season.”

Networks with well-known franchises are looking for ways to expand their reach beyond the viewers tuning in each day. Every little bit helps. “Dateline” has been doing it with podcasts — one of which will carry an audio version of the Nashville show — which have attracted younger viewers who don’t watch on TV as often. Podcast versions of “Dateline” TV episodes regularly populate the Apple rankings.

But live events can help create a deeper connection with viewers, as other outlets have discovered.

MSNBC, which will soon be leaving the NBC News family to be a part of the Comcast spin-off company Versant, sold out a 4,000-seat venue in Brooklyn last year for its first “MSNBC Live” gathering.

“MSNBC Live 25” will return in October with a top ticket price of $1,086.05 for an evening session at the Manhattan Center’s Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. The price includes an orchestra seat and a VIP dinner event with hosts Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki and Stephanie Ruhle in conversation with special guests.

Conservative-leaning Fox News has tapped into its loyal audience annually with its Patriot Awards show that features Sean Hannity and other anchors honoring citizens who “dedicate themselves to their communities with inspirational acts of courage and patriotism.”

A Fox News representative said the event, which is streamed on the network’s Fox Nation site, has sold out every year since its inception in 2019. In the fall last year, the program honored President Trump at the 2,242-seat Tilles Center in Long Island, N.Y., where the top ticket price was $669.

In March, NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo joined ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith and former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly for an event billed as “Three Americans Live.” The trio regularly debate on Cuomo’s prime-time program for the Nexstar-owned news channel. No further dates have been booked since their one appearance in Westbury, N.Y.

Cole has seen evidence that the “Dateline” crew can draw a crowd on their own. The correspondents are a top attraction when they appear at CrimeCon, an annual gathering of true crime fanatics.

Many of those fans drive hours from around the country for the weekend event, which will be held in Denver later this year. The $1,800 Platinum VIP level tickets are sold out. (The dress code is “respectful casual” to discourage cosplaying.)

“I love the viewers because they always have questions and observations that I was not expecting, and I see that every year at CrimeCon,” Mankiewicz said. “I also experience it regularly at America’s airports, and I’m expecting that in Nashville.”

NASHVILLE — The private lives of public figures have increasingly become part of the national scene. Usually, they are caught in the spotlight; they do not turn it on themselves.

Not so in Nashville. Here, Mayor Bill Boner, 45, who is divorcing his third wife, is involved in a most public romance with his fiancee, Traci Peel, a 34-year-old country singer who sports a 2.2-carat engagement ring. Details of their sex life are discussed on radio talk shows, in local newspapers. And the most volatile revelations came from the couple themselves.

Last month the Nashville Banner reported that Peel and Boner, during a telephone interview, giggled and joked about their sexual prowess, saying they had been caught by the reporter “at a bad time.” At one point, Peel said Boner remained amorous as long as seven hours.

“That’s pretty good for a 46-year-old man,” Peel said.

“Forty-five,” Boner corrected, talking on an extension.

Later, Peel said she was just joking.

But that was only the beginning of the uproar here. Nationally, the tabloids, both print and television, have had a ball. The Nashville Scene, a local weekly newspaper, ran a contest to complete this sentence: “You are so Nashville if . . . “

The winner, from Maralee Self: “Your mayor is married and engaged at the same time.”

An oft-repeated joke here, which betrays some disgust with Boner, takes a feminine voice: “If he’d made love to me for seven minutes, it’d seem like seven hours, too.”

Peel complained Tuesday in a surprise telephone call to a radio talk show that the media are making Boner “look like an idiot.” In an interview with The Times, the mayor, looking like a harried man, refused to discuss the matter.

“I don’t want to get into my personal life, other than I can just tell you that we’re doing the job here and working every day,” he said. Boner said he will not seek reelection next year, but rejected calls for his resignation. “Barring some unseen event, no,” he said.

However, as the situation wears on, a lot of people around here are beginning to resent the publicity, even as they revel in the jokes. The shift comes as the bloom fades from Nashville’s economic boom.

“Nashville is really on its butt,” said Bruce Dobie, editor of the Scene. So, while on one level, “The whole thing is really a hoot,” he said, on another level, “people are really getting bitter about it. They feel he is making us look like ‘Hee Haw,’ ” the television show depicting hicks and bumpkins.

Economists say that Nashville seemed headed for super-stardom in the mid-1980s but that overbuilding created a glut of properties, a huge factor in the city’s economic slowdown. Now bankruptcies are up and housing starts are down.

In such a soured economic climate, there is little tolerance for a mayor from whom rejuvenation seems to take on a new meaning.

Boner said he met Peel in May at a golf tournament. He announced in July that he and Peel were engaged, even though he is still married to his third wife, Betty. Boner’s aides say the mayor and his wife had agreed to separate in January, but at the time his engagement was announced, the estranged Boners were living under the same roof with their 4-year-old son.

Peel, a former backup country singer and now an aspiring soloist, sings in Nashville nightclubs and is occasionally joined by Boner, who pulls out a harmonica and accompanies her. She said she and Boner plan to marry in Hawaii once the divorce is final. She sent pineapples to reporters to announce the impending nuptials.

Until the extensive discussion of his sex life in the public print, Boner appeared politically secure in Nashville. He ran for mayor in 1987 while sitting as a U.S. congressman representing Tennessee’s 5th district. He was elected mayor with 53% of the vote. His resignation from Congress ended a House Ethics Committee investigation into a $50,000 salary paid to his wife, Betty, by a defense contractor.

Boner is now routinely pilloried on issues ranging from the city’s need to improve its school system to where it should locate a landfill.

Richard Jackson, general counsel for Meharry Medical College and a recent unsuccessful candidate for the state Senate, said: “The Boner situation is why some people feel Nashville is not moving the way it should. People have to find some reason to explain why we didn’t become the next Atlanta.”

Boner argued that he inherited an extraordinary set of challenges when he assumed office in 1987. “People were living through the economic good times, and a lot of outside investors came in and invested,” he said, adding that the city was “not prepared for this sudden on-rush” of building.

The mayor sounded an optimistic note. “We think we’ve about bottomed out,” he said.

But within days of the story about his sex life, bumper stickers appeared here proclaiming: “Seven Hours for Traci. Three Years for Metro,” referring to Boner’s years as mayor of the 500,000-person metropolis.

Boner’s supporters who had contributed $526,000 to his reelection campaign have begun asking for refunds because the mayor decided not to run again.

And, in an impassioned call for him to resign, Ruth Ann Leach wrote in her column for the Nashville Banner that Boner has become “a national dirty joke.” She recounted wisecracks she encountered during a trip to Dallas, saying that Boner jokes had replaced Dolly Parton jokes.

The Argentinian superstar extends his multigoal record run with a brace against Nashville at Chase Stadium.

Lionel Messi has extended his MLS-record scoring streak with two more goals, which made the difference in a 2-1 victory for hosts Inter Miami over Nashville SC in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The 38-year-old’s brace on Saturday helped Inter Miami (11-3-5, 38 points) snap a club-record 15-game unbeaten streak across all competitions for Nashville (12-5-5, 41 points), which lost for the first time since April 19 at Seattle.

Messi scored two or more goals for the fifth consecutive time in an MLS match, which is a league record.

Inter Miami improved to 4-0-1 in its last five matches with Nashville while also winning their fifth consecutive MLS match overall. Miami has won three in a row since it was eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 at the FIFA Club World Cup on June 29.

Messi capitalised on a major mistake by Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis to strike for what turned out to be the match-winning goal in the 62nd minute. Willis chested a ball and tried to clear it out of his zone but kicked it right in Messi’s direction.

Messi intercepted it with his left foot, then worked the ball around Willis and fired it home to put Miami ahead for good.

The goal came 13 minutes after Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar tied the game at 1-1 with a perfectly timed header off a pinpoint cross from distance by Andy Najar. It was Mukhtar’s 10th goal of the season. Patrick Yazbek also had an assist.

Messi’s first goal came in the 17th minute on another spectacular free-kick score. Messi fired a ball precisely through a gap in the wall set up by Nashville’s defenders, and it found the mark just out of the reach of a diving Willis.

Messi with his 16 goals this season is tied for the most in the league with Nashville’s Sam Surridge, who was kept off the scoresheet on Saturday. Messi has 23 goal contributions in MLS games this season and has 22 goals across all competitions.

Each side returns to action on Wednesday as Inter Miami will play at Cincinnati and Nashville will host Columbus.

Singer Ray Stevens has shared his first update since being admitted to the hospital on July 4 for surgery.

According to his Instagram, the 86-year-old has been moved out of intensive care and is continuing to recover.

“Ray is out of ICU and beginning to walk the halls as therapy with a nurse’s assistance as he is working towards recovering from this surgery,” the post from Wednesday reads. “Ray is very grateful for all of the cards and get-well messages. Everything is Still Beautiful!!!!”

The last line is a reference to one of Stevens’ best-known songs, the Grammy Award-winning “Everything Is Beautiful.”

In a previous statement provided to People magazine, representatives of Stevens said he was recovering after a “minimally invasive heart surgery” on Monday. On July 4, he went to a Nashville hospital after experiencing chest pain.

Following a heart catheterization, Stevens was informed that he had suffered a minor heart attack. A subsequent surgery was carried out successfully.

Though the two-time Grammy winner’s upcoming performances at his CabaRay Showroom in Nashville have been canceled, fans are just happy to hear he is OK.

“This is the good news I was waiting for,” one Instagram user commented under the update. Another rejoiced, saying it was “great news in a world of such sadness and loss recently.”

Stevens has had a successful music career, cutting his first top 10 pop hit, “Ahab the Arab,” in 1962. The singer has recorded 45 albums, according to his website, won two Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019.

Following the induction, Stevens was asked whether he would be retiring anytime soon.

“I feel fine; I’ll probably keel over after I hang up the phone,” he joked.

In 2024, he announced he would be hanging up his boots — only to change his mind a year later with the release of a new album, “Say Whut?”

“Although I said earlier that last year was going to be my final year at the CabaRay … I’m kind of going back on that because I want to promote this album,” he told NewsChannel 5 Nashville.

ATLANTA — LAFC’s first foray into the FIFA Club World Cup was competitive, but ultimately a defeat.

LAFC hung around against English powerhouse Chelsea at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and had the match still in striking distance nearly the entire way, but lost 2-0 in its first of three group stage matches.

“Chelsea won, deservingly so,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said. “I think we kind of clawed our way back into the game; I think we played a little better in the second half and maybe had the odd chance here or there to get the equalizer.”

The first competitive fixture between English and American clubs featured the mostly expected run of play, with Chelsea carrying most of the action and carving out nearly all of the afternoon’s clear-cut scoring opportunities. It was one-way traffic, and Chelsea broke through in the 34th minute when Pedro Neto beat LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris at his near post following a quick turn inside around defender Ryan Hollingshead.

LAFC soaked up the pressure as long as it could and defended well against continuous pressure for most of the game, a tangible positive for Cherundolo’s team to build on.

“I was quite happy with the way the team performed defensively,” he said. “I think out of the run of play we didn’t concede too much. I think we had things mostly under control, but conceded two transition goals which we didn’t look good on.”

Although it never really dictated terms, LAFC did create a few opportunities in the second half. Denis Bouanga forced a good save from Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez into a close-range save in the 57th minute, but a tight Chelsea defense held the fort long enough for Enzo Fernandez put the match away with a 79th-minute goal after taking down a Liam Delap cross and gliding it past Lloris.

“The higher up you go, the less opportunities you do get,” Cherundolo said. “You need to make sure those opportunities you do get are taken advantage of, or at least you’re making teams defend properly. I think a little bit of carelessness with the ball in the final third and the opponent’s half hurt us.”

Chelsea’s Liam Delap, right, and LAFC’s Aaron Long battle for the ball during Monday’s match.

(Mike Stewart / Associated Press)

In the big picture, this was as much a feeling out process as anything. Not just for LAFC in its first of at least three matches in this tournament, but for this tournament as a whole acting as something of a dress rehearsal for host cities before the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The crowd itself was certainly not inspiring, just 22,167 in a cavernous stadium set to host five more matches in this tournament and eight next summer. It was a stark contrast from the 80,000 who filled the Rose Bowl for yesterday’s Paris Saint-Germain-Atlético Madrid match, and at times felt more like a preseason exhibition than a major competition despite sturdy efforts from a healthy LAFC’s 3252 supporter group camped behind one goal.

“I don’t know,” Cherundolo said. “I don’t know if there’s just more fans in Los Angeles that are into this tournament than here, or if it’s the pairing tonight, there’s a lot of things I just can’t answer.”

The sample size is small, though, with the sparse Atlanta crowd coming in just the sixth of 63 total matches in the event.

“I don’t think we should be talking about this right now,” he continued. “I think we should be waiting until the end of the tournament to make a more complete summary of what was going on and opinion on it as a whole, as opposed to right now and one game.”

One injury note did come out of the match when LAFC forward Nathan Ordaz left play in the 38th minute after Chelsea captain Reese James took him down with a hard foul on the left wing. James received a yellow card, and Ordaz went into concussion protocol.

“After that happened he just wasn’t quite himself,” Cherundolo said. “We’ll hope that he has a speedy recovery. As more information comes in I can give you more, but right now I don’t have an update.”

The setback broke LAFC’s run of 10 consecutive undefeated matches in all competitions, but it will have opportunities to regroup quickly. Group play continues Friday in Nashville, Tenn., against Tunisian club Espérance Sportive de Tunis before finishing out on June 24 with a match against Brazil’s Flamengo in Orlando, Fla.