What It’s Like Sitting In The Audience Of The ACM Awards – Brian’s Blog

It was back in 2007 that I had the first big big night of my career. We got our first nomination for the ACM awards that year and went to the show. I had never been to anything like that before in my life. It was the greatest concert I have ever seen packed into a 3 hour show. Imagine seeing all of those stars you only see on TV sitting right in front of you at a show. I could see the back of every famous country stars head.We learned that it is a long show and you can get hungry. We went to the CMA the following year, which we won, and brought beef jerky and licorice to that one. We learned the hard way. When you watch the show, realize every one is hungry. It was funny being a long haired dude in western duds walking around the hotel lobby, people thought I was in a band. I pretended to be the bass player for Van Zant.

Country award shows are always class productions and this should be a great one this year with Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton hosting. I am predicting a lot of laughs and great performances. It will be a celebration of the all the great music that Nashville puts out. We will see Tim McGraw, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, The Band Perry, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Lady A and much more. A couple of things I am really looking forward to are the pairings of Hunter Hayes and Stevie Wonder and of course George Strait and Garth Brooks singing together for the first time in a tribute to Dick Clark. This should be something special.

The greatest moment of our trip to the ACM's was being in the audience when Tim McGraw premiered his song "If You're Reading This". It was a goose bump inducing moment to me. There was total silence and then there was Tim with a gathering of family members of those serving in our military. It was a moment I will treasure forever. If you listen really close at the end of the song you can hear the crowd scream and applaud. We were part of that noise. We are on a Tim McGraw recording, still waiting for a call back to be on more of his songs. Enjoy the show Sunday at 7 on CBS and enjoy Tim's performance of "If You're Reading This". Listen for Todd and I at the end.