At an L.A. listening event for Morgan Wallen's hotly anticipated new Big Loud/Mercury/Republic album, One Thing at a Time (due to drop in March), an array of industry professionals gathered around to praise the young country phenom, and also to pretend that they like drinkin' beers and drivin' trucks rather than, say, swilling kombucha in the back of an Uber.

"The outdoors? Sure, I've been there," recalls Republic boss Monte Lipman. "It was late '97. I won't be doing that again." Seen are (l-r) Monte, Morgan, Big Loud chief Seth England, Avery Lipman and Mercury's Tyler Arnold.

Here we see our own Todd Hensley taxing the capacity of Wallen and England for small talk. Thankfully, Todd was subsequently distracted by a platter of hors d’oeuvres.

After posing for this jolly pic, Team Spotify and Wallen got down to brainstorming their sprawling playlist "Jams to Shake It to While Waiting in a Duck Blind." Seen just before hunting down some cocktails are (l-r) Thomas Fitzner, Vic Trubowitch, Joe Hadley, Amy Vogel, Paul Vogel, Wallen, Sulinna Ong, Rachel Whitney and Gemma McInturff.

"When people call you 'buddy' in these parts," iHeart prexy John Sykes cautioned Wallen, "get in your truck and drive."

Though they’re fierce competitors, iHeart’s Beata and Audacy’s Michael Martin are on the same page about wishing they hadn’t posed with HITS loser Hensley.