May – People reports on the engagement of Keith Urban and actress Nicole Kidman. The two are married on June 25. Also during the month, Little Big Town members Jimi Westbrook and Karen Fairchild are wed; their marriage was announced in July.
May 3 – Lynn Anderson arrested in New Mexico after causing a traffic accident at a local intersection due to drunk driving. She was released the next day on bond. Anderson was taken to court later that year where all her previous charges were dropped, as long as she didn't commit any more offenses.
May 21 – Grand Ole Opry mainstay Billy Walker is killed in a car accident near Fort Deposit, Alabama, when the van he was riding in overturned along Interstate 65. Also killed in the wreck are Walker's wife, Bettie; and two member of his band. His 21-year-old grandson, Joshua Brooks, is critically injured. Walker was returning home from a show near Gulf Shores, Alabama.[1]
May 23 – The Tennessean of Nashville reports plans by Academy of Country Music to move its awards show to April, after consistently being drubbed in the ratings by powerhouse American Idol. The ACMs, which aired May 23 on CBS, appeared opposite Fox's American Idol for the fourth year in a row.[2]
September 18 – Willie Nelson and several of his band members are charged with misdemeanor drug possession in Louisiana. State police had pulled Nelson's tour bus over for a routine commercial inspection and, after smelling a suspicious odor inside, searched the bus and found marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.[5]
September 30 – George Strait finally breaks Conway Twitty's record by scoring his record 41st No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with "Give It Away".
October 13 – One day after abruptly leaving Dancing with the Stars, news breaks that Sara Evans was seeking a divorce from her husband, Craig Schelske. Allegations Evans levied against Schelske included his affair with the family's ex-nanny, that he watched and downloaded pornography in the house, and his removal of $275,000 from the couple's joint bank account on the day the divorce decree was filed.[6]
October 19 – Keith Urban checks himself into a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse.[7]
October 20 – Flicka, an adaptation of the 1941 children's novel, hits the movie theaters. Tim McGraw is in the leading adult male role as Wyoming rancher Rob McLaughlin.
November 6 – The Country Music Association awards airs for the first time on ABC. The awards show had been on CBS since 1972. Keith Urban, who won the Male Vocalist of the Year, is absent due to his rehab stint, and co-host Ronnie Dunn read Urban's acceptance letter. Hall of Fame inductee Kris Kristofferson presented the inductions for 2006 inductees George Strait, Harold Bradley and Sonny James, each of whom gave brief acceptance speeches; Strait also performed his No. 1 hit "Give It Away."[8] Controversy reigned when Faith Hill appeared to react angrily after Carrie Underwood won the Female Vocalist of the Year award.[9]
No less than nine acts achieved their first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart during 2006, the most since 1991. Those artists were Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, Bon Jovi along with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Jack Ingram, Jason Aldean, Rodney Atkins, The Wreckers, Heartland and Sugarland. Four of those acts – Bon Jovi, Nettles, The Wreckers and Heartland – turned the trick with their first charted country single. (Although she previously had two Top 5 hits and a Top 10 hit as a member of Sugarland, Jennifer Nettles made her first entry on the Hot Country Songs chart under her own name as part of a collaboration with Bon Jovi, which, in turn, also made their first Hot Country Songs chart entry. Their collaboration, "Who Says You Can't Go Home", ultimately peaked at No. 1 on that chart – a first for both Nettles and Bon Jovi – and as of late, it is the only No. 1 hit for either act there. Sugarland, Nettles' group, would eventually score their first career No. 1 hit on the same chart by the end of the year.)
During that same 12-month time span, chart veteran George Strait extended his No. 1 string to a Billboard-best 41, beating Conway Twitty's record of 40 No. 1's, while Dolly Parton scored her 25th No. 1 (as part of a duet with Brad Paisley) and Kenny Chesney extended his string of No. 1's to 10.
November 1 – Buddy Killen, 74, record producer and music publishing owner.
December 22 – Dennis Linde, 63, well-respected songwriter of hits for acts ranging from Elvis Presley and Roger Miller to Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks. (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis)
