Kenny Rogers to Retire After World Tour "It's sadly happy," Kenny Rogers said on NBC's Today show upon announcing his retirement from the road on September 25th. The Gambler will begin his annual Christmas tour November 11th, hitting 26 cities mainly on the eastern coast of the U.S. and Canada before wrapping December 23rd. After that, it's a global venture, as Rogers will do one last world tour before calling it quits. "I've done this long enough. Sometimes there's a fine line between being driven and being selfish, and I think I crossed that line when I was younger," says the 77-year-old icon. "I really want to be there with my kids and my wife. I don't see enough of them. And I have some things on my bucket list." One of those bucket list items, the country music legend reveals to Rolling Stone Country, is another book of photography. His 1987 collection, Your Friends and Mine, featured portrait shots of celebrities ranging from Elizabeth Taylor and Clint Eastwood to Michael Jackson and Paul Simon. This time around, though, he's focusing on landscapes. "There are probably 550 pictures, so there will be at least two books," says the musician, who was awarded an honorary master's degree from Professional Photographers of America last year. "One will be called American Beauty, and it's all waterfalls and beautiful canyon shots. It's really spectacular. And the other will be places I've been and things I've seen, and it'll be pictures from China, Africa, Europe, Switzerland — over the Alps in a helicopter." Rogers releases his sixth holiday album, Once Again It's Christmas today. The LP features both standards and originals, with Alison Krauss, Jennifer Nettles and Home Free duetting with the country music legend. The Time Jumpers are also featured on a special Cracker Barrel edition of the album. Black Sabbath Announce Final Tour 'The End' Black Sabbath have announced "The End," their farewell tour set to kick off in January. The group is promising concerts that "surpass all previous tours with their most mesmerizing production ever." The North
American leg begins in January in Omaha and ends in February at New York City's Madison Square Garden. The band will do a leg in Australia and New Zealand in April and will be announcing more shows next month. As with the group's reunion album, 13, and its subsequent tours, the Black Sabbath lineup on this tour will consist of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler. Although they did not specify who would be playing drums, the drummer from Osbourne's solo group, Tommy Clufetos, played all of the previous dates. Prior to recording the LP, the band had a falling out with original drummer Bill Ward, who told Rolling Stone in April that he did not know whether or not he was still a group member. "I wish them well, and I have no further comment," Ward tells Rolling Stone in a statement about this tour. Osbourne has said previously that the group would also be recording a final album. Last September, he told Metal Hammer that he was hoping to begin writing sessions with his bandmates in early 2015. "If we're going to do [it], I want to do it before I'm 70," the 66-year-old rocker said. "Time isn't on our side. So Sharon Osbourne made the call and came back and said, 'Yeah, the record company wants another album.' I believe Rick Rubin is going to do it with us again." Black Sabbath's tour announcement did not mention a new record. Chris Janson Enlists Tim McGraw for Duet on New Album Chris Janson, whose first single for Warner Music Nashville, "Buy Me a Boat," recently sailed into the Number One slot on the Mediabase country chart, has revealed details of his debut album for the label. Titled after that gold-certified hit, Buy Me a Boat is set for release on October 30th and features a duet with a superstar who once cut one of Janson's songs. Tim McGraw joins Janson on "Messin' With Jesus," one of the LP's 11 tracks, all co-written by Janson. Janson was one of the writers of McGraw's 2012 single "Truck Yeah."
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