Odds & Ends: Prince, Jake Owen, Loretta Lynn, Chris Young

Prince, the same guy who shut down his official website and declared in 2010 that “the internet’s completely over,” is now tweeting photos of his food and even a selfie. Well, if you call a picture of smoke a selfie.

The Purple One made his Twitter debut on the Twitter page used by his backing band, 3rd Eye Girl.

His first tweet, “PRINCE’S 1ST TWEET… TESTING 1, 2…” was followed by “PRINCE’s 2ND TWEET.”

For his third he shared a picture of a salad and wrote, “PRINCE’S 3RD TWEET: DID EYE ADD 2 MUCH PEPPER?” Oh, Prince! So punny! (Hmm. Or maybe Prince wasn’t referencing 3rd Eye Girl and was just using lolspeak. Either way, his majesty is pretty silly.)

He also tweeted a link to a snippet of a new song called “Groovy Potential.”

And for all the skeptics, Today.com pointed out that Tatiana Grace Simonian, the head of artist and industry relations for music at Twitter, confirmed with Prince’s reps that it really was the singer using the social media service.  

“You said you wanted to party. I like to throw a party. Let’s do this,” Jake Owen tweeted Tuesday, along with a link to the poster below.

The singer’s Summer Block Party is going down Aug. 19 at the BMI Back Lot in Nashville with doors at 6:30 p.m. and Owen’s show scheduled at 8 p.m.

“It’s a Monday night FREE SHOW… Beer will be flowing… Nashville Food Trucks will be rocking with us,” Owen added. “Bring yo-self and some friends.”

What else do you need to know?! Click the poster for the address and directions.

Chris Young isn’t going to make it to Wednesday’s show at the Northwest Montana Fair because he’s stuck in a Denver area hospital for at least the next 24 hours (as of an announcement sent out this morning).  

He was on the way to the Kalispell, Mont., gig when the symptoms of his leg infection set in.

“I’m so sorry to disappoint the fans but I didn’t even know I was sick,” Young said. “One minute I was fine then suddenly I’m being rushed to the hospital. I look forward to being up and around and back on the road.”

Young has also canceled his Aug. 15 gig supporting Brad Paisley in Penticton, British Columbia, as well as his Aug. 16 appearance at Rockin’ River Music Fest in Mission, B.C., and his Aug. 17 set at Willamette Country Music Festival in Brownsville, Ore. His PR rep says he should be back on the road for his Aug. 21 show in Redding, Calif., followed by more support dates with Paisley.

In the meantime, click here to read Pollstar’s recent interview with Chris Young.

Loretta Lynn has been forced to call off the upcoming trail ride at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn., because of recent storm damage and a fire in the commercial kitchen.

The biannual event was scheduled Sept. 2-7.  

“I hate to cancel this ride,” Lynn said. “This is one of my favorite things we do at the ranch but Mother Nature sure dealt us a big blow with the recent storm and then we had the fire and it really set us back. We are trying to make sure everyone is safe and that’s our main concern. We sure hope to have everything back in order soon for more trail rides. I’ve been putting on the big organized trail rides for 30 years now and I ain’t about to stop … we just need a little more time.”

The next performance at the ranch is Kacey Musgraves’ Aug. 30 show.