Having made lots of partisan noise during this past election season, Saturday Night Live will sing a slightly different tune when Tim McGraw — the sketch series' first country-music guest of this decade — steps up as host on Nov. 22. Read McGraw's reaction, and find out who his musical guest will be, after the jump.
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Faith Hill and Tim McGraw this summer will serve up another round of their hugely successful Soul2Soul tour, the AP reports. The Jeep-sponsored concert series, which last year was rated by Pollstar ahead of the Stones and Madonna as the "Major Tour of 2006," kicks off June 6 in Omaha, Nebraska, and wraps up Aug. 10 in Anaheim, California.... Kenny Loggins was inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk on Wednesday, as oiled-up Navy pilots played slo-mo volleyball in the background.
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Led by the road trips of the Rolling Stones ($138.5 million in gross receipts), Barbra Streisand ($92.5 mil) and the country combo of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill ($88.8 mil), North American concert-ticket revenue hit an all-time high of $3.6 billion in 2006, besting the year prior by 16 percent. Noting that the average ticket price ($61.45) was only up eight percent from '05, the editor in chief of trade mag Pollstar tells the AP, "That's a good sign for business" especially when you factor in all the K-Fed refunds.
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