Humility reigned backstage at the 59th CMA Awards.
“I didn’t even think this was possible,” new artist winner Zach Top marveled. “People that sang country music on my radio and on my cassette tapes and won CMA awards were like mythical creatures, it wasn’t a real life thing to me. No one in my world had any connection to anything in this world.”
Faith helped keep surprise vocal group winners The Red Clay Strays on track during the hard times.
“Just not giving up, first of all, that’s really the main secret, is you just don’t quit, it’s as simple as that,” lead singer Brandon Coleman said. “And we just trusted God a lot through all of it, even when we should’ve quit.”
Riley Green gave fans the credit for his multiple wins with Ella Langley.
“They’ve got to feel ownership. ‘You Look Like You Love Me’ was – Ella may’ve known it was a hit. I certainly didn’t…” he recalled. “But then we played it on the road, you know, it became a thing.”
First time male vocalist of the year Cody Johnson traced his win to Merle Haggard: “I met him once. He signed my guitar. He taught me more about songwriting and being a vocalist than anybody else in the country music genre.”
Lifetime achievement winner Vince Gill pointed to the award’s namesake as one of country music’s remaining guiding lights.
“This man’s 92 years old, Willie Nelson. He’s still making records all the time, still writing the songs all the time and teaching us all how important songs are,” Vince said backstage. “You know, you look at that catalog of songs that Willie Nelson has accomplished and it’s staggering, you know. And he’s a great role model, he’s a great person to mentor to us.”
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