Kellie, Kid Rock, Chuck: Beyond the Music

Kellie Pickler performs "Best Days of Your Life" at "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photo courtesy of the Country Music Association.

Feb. 19, 2009 — Successful artists are more than just musicians — the public side of the job features all kinds of extra details that run the gamut from privilege to embarrassment. Kellie Pickler, Kid Rock, Chuck Wicks and Jimmy Wayne all know about that firsthand.

In fact, they’re just a few of the artists with new developments — good, bad or indifferent — beyond the music:

• Kid Rock will soon have his own brand of beer, presumably a perfect enhancement to the sonic grooves of "All Summer Long." The Michigan Brewing Company will receive a tax credit from the state, according to Detroit’s WXYZ-TV, to develop the still-unnamed line, which will likely create 400 new jobs in the ailing (or, in this instance, ale-ing) state. Kid’s suds may be in stores sometime this spring.

• BlackHawk’s website features an image of a $15,000 check written to the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center on behalf of late band member Van Stephenson. The check was to be delivered Tuesday.

• Kellie Pickler had a front-row seat right next to Paris Hilton during a show this week at Fashion Week in New York. Paris and Kellie were both sending text messages during the event, according to The New York Daily News, and Kellie was invited to Paris’ birthday party at the trendy Manhattan celeb hangout Butter. Kellie was so "fashion"-ably late that she never arrived at Butter.

• Jimmy Wayne visited Alabama this week to spend two days with a crew building a new house for a local couple, The Montgomery Advertiser reported. The build came courtesy of ABC’s "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Jimmy also chipped in a fundraising concert for the family at the Montgomery Brewing Company.

• "Ready, Set, Don’t Go" singer Miley Cyrus had her Twitter account hacked this week, according to Idolator.com. The hacker posted a series of messages — some lewd, some just weird — and her account was quickly suspended.

• Chuck Wicks has a new partner. No, he’s not leaving girlfriend Julianne Hough, but he has signed a deal with Dr. Pepper in conjunction with an ACM Awards promotion. The winner of the online sweepstakes gets to attend the ACMs in Las Vegas in April and meet Chuck.

• Dan Hill is best known as the singer and songwriter of the 1978 pop hit "Sometimes When We Touch," which went Top 10 in the country charts when it was remade by Tammy Wynette and Mark Gray in 1985. Now Dan is an author. His autobiography, I Am My Father’s Son: A Memoir Of Love And Forgiveness, was recently released in Canada. The song, according to The Toronto Globe And Mail, still earns more than $100,000 annually, but that success couldn’t dim other problems. Dan had issues with sex addiction and his father’s harshness, which led to excessive use of alcohol and sleeping pills. The book isn’t yet available in the U.S., where Dan’s found more success as a songwriter. He co-wrote the Mark Wills hit "I Do (Cherish You)" and Sammy Kershaw’s "Love Of My Life."