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  • After naming Nashville suicide bombing suspect, focus turns to motive

    After naming Nashville suicide bombing suspect, focus turns to motive

    By KIMBERLEE KRUESI, MICHAEL BALSAMO and ERIC TUCKER

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — With federal officials having identified the man believed to be behind Nashville’s Christmas Day bombing, authorities now turn to the monumental task of piecing together the motive behind the explosion that severely damaged dozens of downtown buildings and injured three people.

    While officials on Sunday named Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, as the man behind the mysterious explosion in which he was killed, the motive has remained elusive.

    “We hope to get an answer. Sometimes, it’s just not possible,” David Rausch, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a Monday interview on TODAY. “The best way to find motive is to talk to the individual. We will not be able to do that in this case.”

    In just a few days, hundreds of tips and leads have been submitted to law enforcement agencies. Yet thus far, officials have not provided information on what possibly drove Warner to set off the explosion. According to officials, he had not been on the radar before Christmas. A TBI records report released Monday showed that Warner’s only arrest was for a 1978 marijuana-related charge.

    “It does appear that the intent was more destruction than death but again that’s all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation with all our partners,” Rausch added.

    Furthermore, officials have not provided insight into why Warner selected the particular location for the bombing, which damaged an AT&T building and continued to wreak havoc on cellphone service and police and hospital communications in several Southern states as the company worked to restore service.

    Forensic analysts were reviewing evidence collected from the blast site to try to identify the components of the explosives as well as information from the U.S. Bomb Data Center for intelligence and investigative leads, according to a law enforcement official who said investigators were examining Warner’s digital footprint and financial history, as well as a recent deed transfer of a suburban Nashville home they searched.

    The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, said federal agents were examining a number of potential leads and pursuing several theories, including the possibility that the AT&T building was targeted.

    Korneski said Sunday that officials were looking at any and all motives and were interviewing acquaintances of Warner’s to try to determine what may have motivated him.

    The bombing took place on a holiday morning well before downtown streets were bustling with activity and was accompanied by a recorded announcement warning anyone nearby that a bomb would soon detonate. Then, for reasons that may never be known, the audio switched to a recording of Petula Clark’s 1964 hit “Downtown” shortly before the blast.

    Warner, who public records show had experience with electronics and alarms and who had also worked as a computer consultant for a Nashville realtor, had been regarded as a person of interest in the bombing since at least Saturday, when federal and local investigators converged on the home linked to him.

    Federal agents could be seen looking around the property, searching the home and the backyard. A Google Maps image captured in May 2019 had shown a recreational vehicle similar to the one that exploded parked in the backyard, but it was not at the property on Saturday, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

    On Sunday morning, police formally named Warner as being under investigation.

    Officials said their identification of Warner relied on several key pieces of evidence, including DNA found at the explosion site. Investigators had previously revealed that human remains had been found in the vicinity.

    In addition, investigators from the Tennessee Highway Patrol recovered parts from the RV among the wreckage from the blast, and were able to link the vehicle identification number to an RV that was registered to Warner, officials said.

    “We’re still following leads, but right now there is no indication that any other persons were involved,” Korneski said. “We’ve reviewed hours of security video surrounding the recreation vehicle. We saw no other people involved.”

    Police were responding to a report of shots fired Friday when they encountered the RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. Suddenly the warning stopped, and “Downtown” started playing.

    The RV exploded shortly afterward, sending black smoke and flames billowing from the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene, an area packed with honky-tonks, restaurants and shops.

    Buildings shook and windows shattered streets away from the explosion near a building owned by AT&T that lies one block from the company’s office tower, a landmark in downtown.

    But on Sunday, just blocks from where the bombing took place, tourists had already begun to fill the sidewalks on Lower Broadway, a central entertainment district. Some took selfies while others tried to get as close as possible to the explosion site, blocked by police barricades.

    Earlier Sunday, the officers who responded provided harrowing details, at times getting choked up reliving the moments that led up to the blast.

    “This is going to tie us together forever, for the rest of my life,” Metro Nashville police Officer James Wells, who suffered some hearing loss due to the explosion, told reporters at a news conference. “Christmas will never be the same.”

    Officer Brenna Hosey said she and her colleagues knocked on six or seven doors in nearby apartments to warn people to evacuate. She particularly remembered a startled mother of four children.

    “I don’t have kids but I have cousins and nieces, people who I love who are small,” Hosey said, adding she had to plead with the family to leave the building as quickly as possible.

    ___

    Balsamo and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Scott Stroud and Mark Humphrey in Nashville contributed to this report.

  • Reba McEntire & Darius Rucker take over as CMA Awards hosts

    Reba McEntire & Darius Rucker take over as CMA Awards hosts

    It will be Darius Rucker’s first time as CMA Awards show host

     

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country stars Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker are promising laughs and good music when they co-host this year’s CMA Awards in November.

    McEntire, a Country Music Hall of Famer and veteran host of country music awards shows, returns after hosting last year with Carrie Underwood and Dolly Parton. It will mark her fifth year as a host. Rucker, who crossed over from the rock world about 15 years ago and is a Grand Ole Opry member, will be a first-time host of the CMAs when the show airs on Nov. 11 on ABC from Nashville, Tennessee.

    “We both love to giggle and laugh and cut up. Whatever they give us to say, I have a feeling that we’re going to be adding a little bit of our own kind of sense of humor,” said McEntire, during an interview with Rucker with The Associated Press.

    “One of the cool things about getting to do this with Reba is we can both be the straight man, or we can be the person who delivers the joke,” said Rucker.

    One of the first people that Rucker said he was planning on telling about his new co-hosting gig was country icon Charley Pride. Pride was the first Black country artist to co-host the awards show, in 1975 with Glen Campbell. Pride had won the CMA’s top prize, entertainer of the year, in 1971 and paved the way for artists like Rucker decades later.

    “When I started in this business, I was at my very first CMAs when I won the best new artist,” said Rucker, of his 2009 win. “I said to my manager, ‘I want to host this someday.’ I was joking. And to be here 14 years later hosting with Reba freaking McEntire? Wow!”

    While COVID-19 restrictions would make the show’s production different this year, the pair said they were aiming to deliver an uplifting night of music and entertainment.

    “We’re trying to keep it upbeat and light. We as a country, we as a nation, we as a world, we need entertainment,” said McEntire. “I think people sitting at home in front of their TV screens or their computers, I think they want to see what we can deliver.”

    The show will be airing from a new venue, the Music City Center, a convention center just across the street from the show’s regular home at the Bridgestone Arena. Rucker said they will be addressing the pandemic and the struggles that many people have experienced this year, but he said the focus will be on the music.

  • Loretta Lynn’s Bond With Patsy Cline Remains Strong

    Loretta Lynn’s Bond With Patsy Cline Remains Strong

    If she’d still be around, we’d probably both be in the pen.”

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn only knew each other a short time before Cline’s death at the age of 30, but the friendship formed between two trailblazers of country music is enough to fill a book.

    This combination photo shows Loretta Lynn posing for a photo at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. on Feb. 10, 2016, left, and the cover image for her book “Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust: My Friendship with Patsy Cline,” which was released on Tuesday, April 7. (Photo by Donn Jones/Invision/AP, left, and Grand Central via AP)

    Lynn’s new memoir, “Me and Patsy: Kicking Up Dust,” which was released Tuesday, chronicles their unbreakable bond as pioneering artists whose music spans generations, as well friends who leaned on each other through good times and bad.

    “We were two bad ones. If she’d still be around, we’d probably both be in the pen,” the 87-year-old Lynn, said while laughing in a phone interview with The Associated Press from her Tennessee home.

    Cline, one of the most powerful and recognizable voices in country music, took the Kentucky singer-songwriter under her wing in the early ’60s. The two became quick friends, bonding over their music, their marriages and motherhood. At the time they knew each other, Cline was reaching the peak of her career with crossover hits like “Crazy,” while Lynn was just starting out.

    “Patsy was always there to tell me what was right and what was wrong,” said Lynn. “She was my big sister that I never had.”

    Lynn, whose previous memoir “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was a best-selling hit and adapted into a Golden Globe-winning film, co-wrote the new book with her daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell.

    The two first met shortly after Cline was badly injured in a car accident in 1961, just months after releasing her song “I Fall To Pieces.” Cline heard Lynn singing on the radio and asked her to come to the hospital to meet her.

    “Bless her heart. I could tell she was in a lot of pain,” said Lynn. “Her arms and her head were all bandaged up. And it broke my heart.”

    Lynn was there for support when Cline struggled to hide her scars from the wreck. Cline also taught Lynn not to get pushed around by men in the business, telling her she should demand to get her concert payments up front and that she should confront male artists who pinched and touched her backstage.

    “The men knew exactly what Patsy thought and they’d try to get away with things with me, you know? But she’d seen them act funny, and she’d tell them off,” Lynn said.

    Cline and Lynn shared everything, like sisters. Cline showed Lynn how to shave her legs for the first time, taught her how to drive and gave Lynn dresses to wear on stage. Lynn even has a pair of lace panties that Cline gave her as a way to spice up Lynn’s marriage.

    “I’ve got a pair of panties that she gave me that I wore for four years,” said Lynn.

    But as Cline’s career was at the peak with songs like “Crazy” and “She’s Got You,” disaster struck. Cline was killed in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee, on March 5, 1963, as she was heading home from a show. Her manager, Randy Hughes, and country stars Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins also died.

    In the book, Lynn recalls sitting by Cline’s coffin at the family’s visitation and hearing Cline still talking to her.

    Lynn never stopped thinking about the advice Cline gave her and it guided her as her career blossomed in the ‘60s and ’70s, becoming a huge star with hits like “The Pill” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough.” She recorded tribute albums for Cline after her death, wanting to make sure fans remembered the late singer.

    Even five decades later, the bond remains strong for Lynn.

    “She’s on my mind all the time,” she said. “A lot of times, not even expecting it, but I’ll be sitting and thinking and I’ll see Patsy. I know a lot of people don’t believe that, but she’s with me all the time.”

  • Nashville Musicians To Hold Concert Monday For Tornado Relief

    Nashville’s music community was touched by the storm that hit early last Tuesday

    A man walks by The Basement East, a live music venue destroyed by storms Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding buildings and killing multiple people. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Dan Auerbach and more Nashville artists will hold a benefit concert to raise money for people impacted by a recent deadly tornado.

    The concert called “ To Nashville, With Love ” will be held Monday, March 9th at Marathon Music Works and feature artists like Old Crow Medicine Show, Ashley McBryde, Margo Price, Brothers Osborne, Yola and more.

    Some in Nashville’s music community were touched by the storm that hit early Tuesday. East Nashville music venue The Basement East was hit, as well as the office for Dualtone Records, which works with artists like The Lumineers and Amos Lee.

    ___

    Online: https://www.tonashvillewithlove.org/

  • Gibson Guitars Helps Nashville Musicians Get Back To Making Music

    Gibson Guitars Helps Nashville Musicians Get Back To Making Music

    Gibson will provide replacement guitars to anyone who lost one in the recent Nashville tornadoes

    The music industry in Nashville employs about 60,000 people and contributes roughly $5.5 billion to the local economy.  The 126-year old Gibson Guitar Company, based in Nashville, recently announced on their website that they will be offering replacement guitars to local musicians who lost theirs during the March 3rd tornado outbreak.

    “Our goal is to get a guitar back into the hands of anyone who has had their guitar damaged or destroyed in the recent Tennessee storm,” says Dendy Jarrett, Executive Director of Gibson Gives.  “As a Nashville, Tennessee-based company, we are also engaging with our artists and other partners to provide support across many areas.”

    if you or someone you know lost their guitar in the recent storm, let them know about the Gibson Gives Guitar Recovery Plan at this website, or email donation.request@gibson.com with your story.

     

  • Disaster: Deadly Tornadoes Shred 40 Buildings In Nashville

    Disaster: Deadly Tornadoes Shred 40 Buildings In Nashville

    Nashville police said in a tweet that two deaths in East Nashville had been reported

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — At least two tornadoes touched down early Tuesday in central Tennessee, including one that ripped across downtown Nashville and caused about 40 buildings to collapse around the city. Authorities are reporting fatalities as they search the wreckage for injured people.

    Authorities pleaded with people to stay indoors, at least until daybreak could reveal the dangers of a landscape littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees. Schools, courts and transit lines were closed, and four polling stations were moved only hours before Super Tuesday voting was set to begin.

    “A tornado skipped across the county,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper told the Tennessean while visiting an emergency shelter early Tuesday. “You do have people at the hospital and frankly there have been fatalities.”

    Nashville police said in a tweet that two deaths in East Nashville had been reported to the department but did not say if the fatalities were confirmed. Reports of other deaths were likewise unconfirmed early Tuesday.

    The tornado near downtown reportedly stayed on the ground into Hermitage, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of the city. Other areas reporting extensive damage included Mt. Juliet, downtown Nashville and Germantown.

    “Our community has been impacted significantly,” the Mt. Juliet Police Department tweeted early Tuesday. Multiple homes were damaged and multiple injuries were reported, the department said. ”We continue to search for injured. Stay home if you can.”

    Police officers and fire crews were responding to about 40 building collapses around the city, Metro Nashville police said.

    John C. Tune Airport, Nashville International’s sister airport in West Nashville, “sustained significant damage due to severe weather,” spokeswoman Kim Gerlock said in a statement early Tuesday morning. Several hangars have been destroyed and power lines are down, she said, adding that there are no reported injuries.

    Gerlock asked that the public avoid the airport until further notice and that the Airport Authority has activated its Emergency Operations Center to coordinate response.

    A video posted online from east Nashville showed what appeared to be a well-defined tornado moving quickly across the city. Lightning repeatedly flashed while much of the city was in the dark. The whir of the wind could be heard gusting after the tornado moved out of sight.

    Images on social media showed extensive damage to buildings, mangled wires on downed power lines and structures that are now unrecognizable as the tornado had reduced them to rubble. One photo showed a white vinyl fence that had fallen a car. Another showed the roof and walls gone from a building that still had what appeared to be boxes stacked on shelves.

    A reported gas leak forced an evacuation of the IMT building in the Germantown community, according to WSMV-TV. Photos showed dozens of people in the street carrying their belongings not long after the tornado moved through the city.

    Nashville police said in a tweet that two deaths in East Nashville had been reported to the department but did not say if the fatalities were confirmed.

    The American Red Cross of Tennessee said on its Twitter account that a shelter had been opened for displaced residents downtown at the Nashville Farmers Market, just north of the state capitol.

    Nashville Electric tweeted that four of its substations were damaged in the tornado. Power outages as of 4 a.m. were affecting more than 44,000 customers, the utility company said.

    Metro Nashville Public Schools said its schools would be closed Tuesday because of the tornado damage. Wilson County, just east of metro Nashville will close schools for the rest of the week. Election polling sites at schools were expected to remain open, as well as district offices, according to tweets from its official account.

    Jeff Roberts of the Elections Commission said in a statement early Tuesday that information about damage to polling stations is being collected as polls open for Super Tuesday. Any voter in Davidson County whose assigned precinct has been impacted may vote at the Election Commission Offices, the statement said. Polls open at various times, starting at 7 a.m. CST, depending on the county.

    The storm system was forecast to bring an isolated tornado, damaging winds and large hail, news outlets reported. Heavy rain was expected to impact Gulf Coast states over the next several days, according to WTVF-TV.

  • Check out Candi Carpenter’s version of Dolly Parton’s song “Little Sparrow”

    Check out Candi Carpenter’s version of Dolly Parton’s song “Little Sparrow”

    Her name might not be familiar yet, but singer-songwriter Candi Carpenter is going to have a breakout year in 2020.

    Like so many of today’s country superstars, Candi’s parents started giving her music lessons early, including saxophone and piano lessons when she was only six years old.  She toured and performed with her parents’ gospel band was discovered by a Nashville talent scout when she was only 11 years old.  Her family moved to Nashville when she was 15 to support her music career.  She toured and performed with veteran artist Jack Greene for a few years, and was a regular performer on Lower Broadway and other Nashville music venues before she was even old enough to drive.

    Fast forward to 2019 and Candi is about to release an EP with several songs produced by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile.  She also earned a lot of attention for her version of the classic Dolly Parton song “Little Sparrow,” which she performed at the Grand Ole Opry during the recent 50th Anniversary celebration for Dolly Parton.

    https://twitter.com/CandiCarpenter/status/1199191095114121218

    Check out Candi’s website for more music, merch and upcoming performances.