Jason Michael Carroll from his video, "Meet Me In The Barn."

After the kids are tucked in for the night, grab their trick-or-treat loot and settle in for an especially haunted edition of GAC’s Late Shift, hosted by Jason Michael Carroll. Jason, who admits Halloween is one of his favorite holidays, has chosen a lineup of some of the spookiest country videos, like Alan Jackson’s “Midnight To Montgomery” and Willie Nelson’s “Gravedigger.”

During Late Shift, Jason will show the video for his new single, “Meet Me in the Barn.” The video is an 11-minute mini movie dedicated to the entertainers who have inspired Jason’s career. The clip is reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s classic “Thriller” video, full of spooky scenes and people who aren’t quite what they seem. Jason, who turns into a vampire thanks to a pretty girl’s charms, even has a dance sequence in the new video.

GAC’s Top 10 Most Haunting Country Videos >>

This haunted edition of GAC’s Late Shift premieres at 11/10 CT. If you don’t want to wait to catch Jason’s new video, check it out in our  Halloween Gone Country section along with Halloween memories from some of your favorite country stars. And if you wanted until the last minute to carve your pumpkins, print out one of our pumpkin carving templates of stars including Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood!

Get your FREE GAC country star carving templates >>

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Oct 31, 1912 – Dale Evans born in Uvalde, Texas. In December 1947, she marries Roy Rogers, with whom she stars on radio and TV. She also writes their classic closing theme “Happy Trails”

Oct 31, 1921—Malissa Monroe dies at the family home near Rosine, Kentucky. No one bothers to tell her son, 10-year-old Bill Monroe, that she’s dead until after she’s already been buried

Oct 31, 1931 – Lester Flatt marries Gladys Stacy at the courthouse in Cookeville, Tennessee

Oct 31, 1934 – At a Halloween party in Halifax, Hank Snow meets his future wife, Minnie Aalders

Oct 31, 1947 — Promoter Connie B. Gay books Eddy Arnold for the first-ever country show at Washington, D.C.’s Constitution Hall. Also on the bill are comedians Minnie Pearl and Rod Brasfield

Oct 31, 1952 – Hank Williams checks into a Shreveport hospital with acute intoxication

Oct 31, 1954 – When Eddy Arnold plays Memphis’ Ellis Auditorium, a young Elvis Presley finds his way backstage. Presley meets Arnold and The Jordanaires, and spots–though he does not talk to–Colonel Tom Parker

Oct 31, 1960 – Elvis Presley records “Crying In The Chapel” at Nashville’s RCA Studio B. The single goes unreleased, however, for more than four years

Oct 31, 1964 – Darryl Worley born in Savannah, Tennessee. Noted for the strong traditional influence on his music, the lanky singer builds a solid career after his 2000 debut, striking a major chord for patriotism with his 2003 release “Have You Forgotten?”

Oct 31, 1966 – Decca releases Loretta Lynn‘s “Don’t Come Home A’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)”

Oct 31, 1974 – Emmylou Harris records “If I Could Only Win Your Love” and her first single, “Too Far Gone”

Oct 31, 1983 – Lee Greenwood tapes the syndicated “Solid Gold” in Los Angeles, then visits the home of MCA chairman Irving Azoff to present him a tape of “God Bless The U.S.A.”

Oct 31, 1987 – Dolly Parton opens a restaurant in Honolulu, the Dockside Plantation

Oct 31, 1991 – Randy Travis accepts a unique Halloween treat: a gold album for “High Lonesome”

Oct 31, 1993 – Actor River Phoenix dies of a drug overdose outside the Viper Room in Los Angeles. His final picture was “The Thing Called Love,” based on Nashville’s famed listening room, The Bluebird Café

Oct 31, 1995 – Bryan White, Derek George and John Tirro write “So Much For Pretending” on Halloween, distracted periodically by trick-or-treaters

Oct 31, 1998 – Lari White blows out the speakers when she sings the national anthem before the Miami Hurricanes’ football game against Boston College

Oct 31, 2000 – “I Hope You Dance” becomes Lee Ann Womack‘s second platinum album

Oct 31, 2005 – “Inside TV” lists the Top 10 TV witches of all-time, ranking Lisa Hartman Black at #9 for her portrayal of Samantha Stevens’ grown-up daughter in the late-’70s series “Tabitha”

Oct 31, 2006 – During a Tuesday edition of the Grand Ole Opry, Jeff Bates gets down on one knee at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to propose to Kelly Vaughn. She nods yes

Oct 31, 2007 – Taylor Swift goes trick-or-treating in Hendersonville, Tennessee, disguised as the hairy “Star Wars” character Chewbacca

Oct 31, 2010 – Trace Adkins performs for U.S. soldiers in Basra, Iraq, near the outset of a USO tour

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Rodney Atkins photo courtesy of Curb Records.

Last year, Halloween fell on a Sunday, which gave Rodney Atkins’ son Elijah the chance to cash in on several trick-or-treating events held over the Halloween weekend. As part of their weekend-long celebration, the Atkins family decided to go on a haunted tour of downtown Franklin, Tennessee — and one costume caught Rodney’s eye.

“I showed up at the courthouse downtown and these people were kinda dressed up — and this one girl was just over the top,” Rodney said. “I didn’t know what she was, she was all white with an umbrella and I’m thinking, ‘Who in the world is this freak?’ I start walking and I get tapped on the shoulder and she says, ‘Hey Rodney, Rodney it’s me, Jennifer Nettles…’ I think she was a jellyfish.”

Clint Black and wife Lisa Hartman Black still enjoy Halloween. Their daughter, Lily, is 10 years old and still trick-or-treating, though Clint knows her days of wanting mom and dad to go with her are numbered. While Clint isn’t looking forward to his little girl growing up, he does have hopes of returning to a former Halloween favorite – scaring people.

GAC’s Top 10 Most Haunting Country Videos >>

“I’ve always enjoyed even as an adult, getting to dress up and mostly scaring people that come around our house,” Clint says. “I had to knock it off for a little while when Lily was a certain age ’cause it scared her too. I’ll hopefully be able to get back to the scaring real soon.”

As a child, Colt Ford’s father would take him and a few of his friends trick-or-treating in nearby neighborhoods. While Colt ate his fair share of candy, he used his Halloween bounty to make a little extra money in the schoolyard.

“We’d get in the car and he’d take us all around to these other neighborhoods and we’d fill up three or four pillowcases full of candy,” he said. “I’d turn around and sell it at school ’cause I was trying to hustle, you know. I was tryin’ to make money. I think I got in trouble for that. Halloween turned into trouble for me ’cause I’m tryin’ to sell Blow Pops for a quarter at school. But, you know, you’ve got to make a living somehow baby.”

Josh Gracin has four kids to get ready for Halloween activities. While trying to get  the family out the door for trick-or-treating isn’t easy, Josh is used to it.

“It’s just as crazy as it was when I was a kid and I had four sisters in the house getting ready for Halloween and fighting over pillowcases because some are bigger than others,” he said. “You know it’s just a crazy time of year. It’s no different with my kids now. They’re always excited whenever we start buying the Halloween costumes. What’s funny is, I try to stay out later than they do because I benefit from what they get in their pillowcase.”

James Otto’s Halloween plans include overalls and a little lamb. “We’ve got a couple parties to go to and we’re definitely planning on dressing up this year,” James said. “My wife and my baby girl (1-year-old Ava) are gonna go as Mary and her little lamb so my wife’s gonna be Mary, Ava’s gonna be a little lamb and apparently they’re gonna dress me up as a farmer in overalls and the whole bit. So, farmer Otto is coming your way.”

For more Halloween memories from your favorite country stars, check out the video clips in our  Halloween Gone Country section. And if you haven’t carved your pumpkins yet, print out one of our pumpkin carving templates of stars like Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood!

Get your FREE GAC country star carving templates >>

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Dierks Bentley photo courtesy of The Green Room PR.

Halloween is a week away and country stars are remembering the Halloweens of their childhood and sharing what they are looking forward to this year. For Dierks Bentley, Halloween was another holiday he could use as an excuse to get his hands on explosives.

“When I was a kid, I was all into fireworks,” Dierks said. “Growing up in Arizona, we couldn’t get ‘em, so we’d have ‘em shipped in illegally. I still remember the name of the guy we’d call. His name was Joe, and he’d bring in, ship ‘em in a package with no writing on ‘em. We were all about M-80s in the mailboxes and bottle rocket wars. To me, as a kid, Halloween was fireworks, was blowing up stuff around home.”

Halloween is a little tamer for Dierks these days. As the father of two young girls, Dierks is letting his older daughter, Evie, call the Halloween shots, including what mom and dad are going to dress up as.

“Evie’s got her Halloween costume picked out,” he said. “She’s decided what everyone’s gonna be this year in our family. So, she’s gonna be The Little Mermaid, and then her younger sister’s gonna be a crab. I think his name is Sebastian. I don’t know The Little Mermaid that well, but she’s decided Jordan’s gonna be the crab. And she wants me to be Swiper, who’s a character from a TV show called Dora, The Explorer. I think she has Cassie going as Dora.”

Alan Jackson used to take his daughters trick-or-treating when they were younger. There was one costume his wife dressed the girls in that he was less than fond of, however.

“I remember some, when they were infants, they had like these little, they looked like a little pea pod, you know, or something,” he said. “It’s like a little green pea or something. And I thought man, that’s awful. But Denise liked it, and I guess it was cute, but…”

Eric Church’s favorite costume wasn’t from his childhood. As a college student, Eric and some of his friends headed to a Halloween party at the University of North Carolina and didn’t realize until they were nearly there that they needed costumes. In a pinch, they ended up as characters from a famous street.

“We stopped at a costume place in Greensboro, North Carolina, and it’s Halloween, so there’s a run on everything and couldn’t find anything,” he said. “We end up finding this hole-in-the-wall place, but they had the full costume Sesame Street outfits. The real deal. The real ones [with] feathers and fur. We were Elmo, Cookie Monster, and I was Big Bird, and Big Bird was the actual Big Bird.”

Luke Bryan is looking forward to taking his boys, Bo and Tatum, trick-or-treating. Luke is planning to use the bounty of sweets to learn about his neighbors and shared what candy makes a good neighbor.

“We’re looking forward to trick-or-treating, and doing it in our neighborhood,” he said. “You can find out a lot about your neighbors by what kind of candy they put out. So, well, like full bars of Snickers and Reese’s cups, [but] the old chocolate popcorn ball of stuff, that’s no good either, like Dots – you get Dots one time of year and they pull your teeth.”

Lady Antebellum’s Dave Haywood remembers being a die – one half of a pair of dice – for Halloween one year. The homemade costume proved to be a little bit of a safety hazard, however.

“I had a big cardboard box that I had painted white and had the polka dots and stuff,” he said. “And I remember I was walking up this hill to go to this hill and literally fell back down the entire hill, rolling in this giant cardboard box that I couldn’t do anything about, because I rolled down about 50-feet.”

For more Halloween memories from your favorite country stars, check out the video clips in our  Halloween Gone Country section. And if you haven’t carved your pumpkins yet, print out one of our pumpkin carving templates of stars like Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood!

Get your FREE GAC country star carving templates >>

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Jason Aldean, Carrie Underwood & Brad Paisley.

It’s only October 14, but we’re already preparing for Halloween! And what better way to celebrate country music and the ghoulish holiday with country star pumpkins! We’ve had lots of fun trying out all the different templates, including Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift,  Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood and more!

Here’s our Kellie Pickler pumpkin, carved using a template from one of her publicity photos:

Kellie Pickler photo courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Pretty cool, huh? If you’d like a Kellie pumpkin…or a Reba or Garth or even Dolly pumpkin, check out all the templates HERE!

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Lady Antebellum dressed as Brooks & Dunn and Reba this year for Halloween. Photo courtesy of twitter.com/ladyantebellum.

They may be busy touring, writing or recording, but even your favorite stars took time to get dressed up for Halloween! We checked around on Twitter to see which stars posted photos of themselves in their costumes. For example, Lady Antebellum had a little fun honoring two of country’s biggest acts — Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn. Check out some of our favorite country star costumes in our Photos of the Week gallery. Lee Ann Womack as Lady Gaga, Sugarland‘s Kristian Bush as Indiana Jones’ father — they’re all HERE!

Did YOU dress up this year? What was your costume?

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Jason Michael Carroll with his family, Halloween 2008. (l-r): JMC and wife Wendy (second from right) with JW, Gavin, Stori Paige and Savannah. Photo courtesy of the Carroll family.

Jason Michael Carroll says Halloween is one of his family’s favorite holidays.  In fact, if you were to drive by the Carroll house in late September, you might find it already decorated with ghosts and other assorted scary items.

“We always decorate our house early for the season,” says Jason. “Every year, we pick out a few new decorations to add to our already large collection. The older the kids get, the scarier the decorations get. We pick out our costumes months in advance, and try to go with some sort of theme.  Last year, we were Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Gang.  This year, we are working on a Batman theme.  Buying our costumes in advance gives us a chance to make them AWESOME!  One of our good friends helps us with alterations.  Even the grandparents, aunts, and uncles are dressing up to fit with our theme this year!”

Jason even puts a little mood music on to make Oct. 31 even more special. “While we’re all getting our make-up and costumes on,” he explains, “we play the Michael Jackson ”Thriller” video on TV and the kids try to get all the moves down. (They were so sad to find out that he had passed this year.) Then we’re off to go trick-or-treating and wind up at my mom’s house for food, because all that walking makes us hungry.  The kids also hand out candy to the rest of the kids that show up while we’re there. ”

For the whole month of October, Jason, wife Wendy and their kids celebrate the holiday. ”We always watch ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas,’ ‘The Addams Family’  and ‘Hocus Pocus,’ he says. “We  also have Halloween soundtracks on our iPods, too,  like ‘Monster Mash,’ ‘Ghostbusters,’ ’Thriller,’ and  ’Nightmare On Elm Street.’  My wife and I  make Halloween all about the kids and in doing so it makes us feel a little like kids again, too.”

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Justin Moore photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of The Valory Music Co.

Many country stars enjoy dressing up for Halloween – and some avoid it altogether. Dial-Global recently spoke with Justin Moore, Big Kenny & Dierks Bentley about their Halloween plans.

“I absolutely hate Halloween,” Just tells Dial-Global. “Everybody makes fun of me ’cause I despise Halloween and I don’t know why. I was a real serious child, which makes no sense because I’m never serious now, but I never wanted to dress up as a kid. My parents, they’re like, ‘You are the strangest kid.’”

As one might expect, the opposite is true for Big Kenny. “Halloween is the great American excuse for everybody to get dressed up, eat, drink and be merry together and spook the dickens out of all the kids and even some dudes like me who are still spookable,” he says. “I’ve always loved to dress up. My kid dresses up every day like it’s Halloween. When any of his friends come over, they’re all dressing up like it’s Halloween. He dressed up like a pirate to go to church. He goes to school dressed like Captain America. He goes to the grocery store dressed like Peter Pan, carrying a light saber. He does not know anything other than that, nor should he when he’s three years old. He’s gonna be a great, inspiring happy soul.”

Unfortunately, Dierks is playing a show in Michigan on Saturday and will miss daughter Evie’s first Halloween. But, he says he and wife Cassidy have found the perfect costume.

“My daughter, she loves to play the drums but then she’ll also take the drum stick and we’ll have a little sword fight,” says Dierks. “And she’s kind of looks like a little Yoda anyway, so we were online looking and got her a little Yoda outfit with the ears and the little cape.”

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Kellie Pickler photo by Tony Baker, courtesy of Sony Music Nashville.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year — a night when most country stars are usually onstage. But this year, Kellie Pickler will be able to celebrate one of her favorite holidays.

“This is the first Halloween I don’t have to work,” Kellie tells the Chicago Tribune. ”I might have to take advantage. I’ve been witches, monsters, Barbies – I was obsessed with Barbie when I was younger — Dolly [Parton]. Gosh, I need to find those pictures.”

Kellie hasn’t decided on a costume yet. What do YOU think she should wear? Suggest a costume below in our comments section!

Kelle adds that favorite part about Halloween is “the candy. It’s such a fun holiday. It’s your chance to go out and get away with anything – as long as it’s legal.”

In other Kellie news, she tells the paper you won’t be hearing any re-mixes of her songs anytime soon. She’s adamant about not making her music more “pop friendly” in order to crossover to mainstream radio.

“I love country — that’s what I grew up listening to,” Kellie says. “As long as I’m played on country radio, I don’t care if any other stations play my music or not. If they want to play my music, that’s fine. But I’m not changing it for them.

“I don’t care if I’m on pop stations.”

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