Luke Bryan is now a fixture at the ACM Awards, having won Entertainer of the Year in 2013 and New Artist of the Year in 2010, plus returning as co-host for the third year in a row.
Luke recalls attending his first ACM Awards – even before his first album was released, and it was a pretty emotional time for him because he and his family used to sit down and watch the awards together.
“My first year out here, Reba was hosting and Capitol [Records] flew me out, and this was like a year before my first album ever came out,” says Luke. “I just sat in the back and ate popcorn, and I think Reba walked out and I started crying, so that was an amazing moment. It’s just crazy that, fast-forward the clock and now Entertainer of the Year of the ACM Awards, and I’ve hosted it twice – it’s pretty, pretty crazy.”
Luke is nominated for Entertainer, Male Vocalist and Song of the Year for “Drink a Beer,” as well as Vocal Event of the Year with Florida Georgia Line on “This is How We Roll.” Luke has already picked up one ACM Award – the Gene Weed Special Achievement Award, which acknowledges “unprecedented, unique and outstanding individual achievement in country music.”
The 50th Annual ACM Awards airs live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on April 19th at 8pm ET on CBS.
Audio / Luke Bryan recalls his early ACM Awards memories.
DownloadLuke Bryan (early ACM memory) OC: …pretty crazy. :52
“I just remember it was a big family night for us to sit and watch the awards. Our radio stations stayed on country music. It was our opportunity to see all our stars. We never really got to see ’em perform, we didn’t have an arena or anything so they couldn’t come to that, so a big chance to see our favorite performers were on TV watching the ACMs. Obviously, through the years of Reba was hosting was amazing. I mean, my first year out here Reba was hosting and Capitol [Records] flew me out, and this was like a year before my first album ever came out. I just sat in the back and ate popcorn, and I think Reba walked out and I started crying, so that was an amazing moment. It’s just crazy that, fast-forward the clock and now Entertainer of the Year of the ACM Awards, and I’ve hosted it twice – it’s pretty, pretty crazy.”
