Alan Jackson (song for mother)…really, really sweet. :51
“I think one song on there, especially I wrote my mama died three or four years ago, four years ago maybe.  I don’t remember now. But I wrote it for her funeral, that’s “Where Her Heart Has Always Been.”  And I really love that track.  It’s just really – I tried to write it in a way that I know she would appreciate it. And then after we had cut it and we were just about to finalize the record, my sister sent a recording of mama reading from the Bible for a Christmas story or something from a few years ago that I hadn’t heard, or I don’t remember if I had ever heard it.  And I thought that would be cool to put that on there.  So, we tried to pick a little piece of that that didn’t sound so Christmasy and put on there on the front end and that made it really, really sweet.”

Brandon Lay (Mother’s Day) OC: …comes from her. :2
“She works harder than anybody I’ve ever seen. She can outwork most 20-year-olds in the yard still. She grew up on a farm, and I think a lot of that just bulldog it and get it done attitude, I probably get from her. She’ll go from sunup to sundown, and she doesn’t complain, and that’s just so rare. I feel like the work ethic, as far as grind it out and get it done, that toughness comes from her.”

Carrie Underwood (having 2 boys) OC: …little brother. :49
“It’s kind of crazy to think, sometimes I’ll literally look at my husband and be like, ‘We have two sons. We have two kids. We live on a farm.’ Like it’s just weird to think how life turns out sometimes. Life is very different with two. We kind of got out of that baby stage with Isaiah. He’s much more self-efficient, and he can brush his own teeth and put his own clothes on, and he’s making decisions for himself, and then we start all over with the little squishy one again. It’s just kind of crazy. You forget how hard it is, to be honest, but you just figure your way through it. I am so blessed to have Isaiah who is super helpful and super sweet, and he loves his little brother.”

Carrie Underwood (Mother’s Day traditions) OC: …even more so. :38
“We don’t really have like any Mother’s Day traditions. I feel like I remember me and Dad making breakfast for Mom like once as a kid. I’m pretty sure we just made a giant mess in the kitchen and we never did that again, so. Being on the other side of things, I obviously don’t expect anything, but my husband’s really good at getting presents from quote unquote Isaiah. It’s really sweet, because he likes to bring me things. He’s such a sweet little guy, and anytime he’s outside, he’ll pick me flowers and things. So, I’m like, ‘You’re learning. You’ve already got me wrapped around your finger, and then you do stuff like that, and it’s even more so.’”

Caylee Hammack (Mother’s Day) 1 OC: …love fully. :53
“I love that my Mom is a no-nonsense woman. I love that she always speaks her mind and she’s super stubborn, because she handed it down to me and it’s come in handy, to be honest. She’s a great cook. I wish I was half the cook that she is. She’s obsessive about Tupperware and plates, which I used to hate, but now as an adult whenever I break a dish or something, I just call her, and I know that I have one on standby. I love that she loves random things so that I can squirrel them away and take them to Nashville sometimes. And I love that she loves big. She either gives all of her heart or nothing at all; she always gives all of her heart. She loves, you know, she has a bleeding heart, and I think that’s just one of the most beautiful traits in the world is to love fully.”

Darius Rucker (Mother’s Day) OC: …killed me. :17

“I think that’s the main reason I am how I am…an innate fear of disappointing my mom.  My mom’s not even alive, and I have a fear of her looking down from heaven and going, ‘Man I’m just disappointed in my son.’ She could have said anything in the world to me, but if she would have said, ‘Son, you just disappointed me,’ That would have killed me. It would have killed me.”

Darius Rucker (favorite memory of his mother) OC: …my Mom’s song. :34
“Oh goodness! A lot of great memories of her, but probably one of my favorite memories, I was a young kid, probably eight or nine, and she was in the kitchen cooking and listening to the gospel station and Shirley Caesar’s ‘No Charge’ came on and she was singing ‘No Charge.’ I just remember I ran into our living room which was adjoined to our kitchen and I just sat there and I just listened to her sing that song, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow! What an amazing voice.’ That’s just always a memory I’ve always had, and that song still to this day when I hear it just moves me because that was my mom’s song.”

Darius Rucker (Mother) OC: …in my corner. :44
“My mom was just always great. She worked a lot. She was a nurse and she worked a lot. She took a lot of overtime and stuff to make sure we could live basically, but she always just so supportive, ever since I was a kid. I was always a music kid. Growing up in an African-American neighborhood, I was never that guy who was gonna be pigeonholed to let people say I could only listen to this and I could only do this, because I was African-American. She always supported whatever I wanted to do, whatever I wanted to listen to, wherever I wanted to go, she always had my back. Going to college and everything, she was my biggest supporter and never let my brothers and sisters knock me down or try to tell me I can’t do this or that. All of my success comes because my mother was always in my corner.”

Dierks Bentley (Mother’s Day – Cassidy) OC: …to have her. :
“It’s the toughest job out there being a mom, and I know from my life with my wife Cassidy. We work as a team together when I’m home, and it takes everyone to get the job done, me and her, working together. So, when I go on the road, I just have so much respect for her because it’s hard to do it right, if you want to do it great, and she does a great job with it. It’s really rewarding, but it’s also very challenging. I’m so thankful that she takes it on the way she does, and our kids are very lucky to have her.”

Eric Church (Mother’s Day) OC: …as a man. :57
“My mom, even though my dad won’t like this, my mom is by far the toughest person that I’ve met. She’s tough. One of those people that’s been through a lot in her life, adversity wise and never complains, always really resilient with anything that’s happened to her. And it’s just that attitude, the positive attitude, regardless of what has happened that I think is the one thing that I got from her. With career, she’s always been a person that’s been really positive through times that I couldn’t find a positive streak, [laughs] and she was always really positive, and very much believes in tough it out, keep working hard, and that’s her motto with stuff like that. I’ve always been impressed with that stuff. Then musically, she’s where I get my talent from, musically. She sings great, always has, her mom sang great. I owe my musical chops to her. And she still sings some. So, career-wise, I owe her everything. And just in life-wise she’s given me a lot of the qualities that it has taken for me to get me where I am. Not only as a musician, but as a man.”

Jon Pardi (Mother’s Day) OC: …worrying about me. :29
“My mom’s always been there for me. First of all, she’s a great mom. She’s an angel. She takes care of people that aren’t even in the family. She’s always been like that, and she’s a great mother. She’s always proud, and she’s always there supporting and being a great mom. She’s just a good human being. There’s not one mean bone in her body. And she cries about every time I talk to her. She always worries about me. I have to tell her, ‘Stop worrying about me.’”

Jordan Davis (Mother’s Day) OC: …Mother’s Day. :30 [laughs]
“I’m a Mama’s Boy. I love my Mom, and it’s the way she finds the good in everything. With my Mom, as opposed to finding anything negative, she’s gonna find something positive first. That’s something I really hope I can be more like her on; one of the many things I wish I could be more like my mom on. My mom, she loves flowers, so we’ll get her flowers or take her to, we’re slowly getting her into sushi, so we love to take Mom out to sushi spots on Mother’s Day.” [laughs]

Kacey Musgraves (creative women) OC: …taking pictures. :16
“My mom’s an artist – all different kinds of mediums, paint, but she’s always working on something different. My Meemaw, she’s a soap maker. She makes soap and they’re beautiful and they smell really good and they’re all natural. My sister has an etsy store, and she’s constantly creating something, sewing pillows and taking pictures.”

Keith Urban (Nicole is extraordinary mother) OC: …to see. :45
“She’s an extraordinary mum, she really, really is. Those girls are very, very lucky, and I feel very lucky that the children I should have in this world happen to be with Nic. I don’t know anything about raising kids and Nic does, and that comes in extremely, um, it’s really made for an experience I wouldn’t have had without that. Her patience, her recognizing them as people and not just little kids is really extraordinary. Her attention to honoring their feelings and listening to them right from day one – really being attentive to that is not how I was raised at all, so it’s really beautiful to see.”

Lauren Alaina (Mom keeps her grounded) OC: …same for her. :19
“I honestly would not be able to do it without my mom. I get overwhelmed sometimes, and if she wasn’t there to comfort me or tell me, ‘Look just realize what you’ve got going for you,’ I’d be up the creek [without a paddle]. She’s got my back. My mom would walk through a fire pit for me, and I’d do the same for her.”

LBT (Mother’s Day) OC: …for my mother. :34
“Being a mother is a life-long dream for me. When I was a kid, that’s what I wanted to be is a mama. It took a long time. I wasn’t ever sure that I would be, but I am now, and it’s the greatest gift of my life. And as I’m a mother now, I see what my mother gave up and her sacrifices and her love and how she made us the most important thing in her life, and that’s what I strive to do for my little girl. It’s the most important job I have, and it’s the most responsibility that I have, and I try to live up to a great example that I had for my mother.”

Maddie & Tae (Mother’s Day-Tae) OC: …was so fun. :25
TAE: “To this day one of the best surprises I’ve ever pulled off was on Mother’s Day three years ago. ‘Cause my mom’s birthday always tends to fall on Mother’s Day Weekend – it’s coming up – and my mom and dad were coming into Nashville and I was like, ‘Okay-this has got to be a big weekend. It’s Mother’s Day, her birthday and the weather was going to be beautiful, so I planned this awesome surprise where we would drive first – she wouldn’t know where we were going, and then we ended up going canoeing down the Harpeth River [located south of Nashville], and it was so fun.”

Maddie & Tae (Mother’s Day-Maddie) OC: (Maddie) …everything’s okay. :51
MADDIE: “She is so good at balancing is what I’m trying to say. My Mom is such a great balancer, but as I’m coming into our adulthood, and all that kind of stuff, she’s very conscious about when I’m trying to be perfect and have everything in order with everything. And she’s like, you can’t. You can’t do that. Life, you have to figure out how you’re going to deal with the curveballs that are thrown out you. Are you going to catch them and whine out about it or are you going to catch them and move on? Like you have to just go with what’s thrown at you. And my Dad’s been a really, really good supporter on just not letting life’s trials bring you down and letting them just be learning tools and all of that. But, most of the time, a Mama hug can really fix anything.” TAE: “Ahh…it’s the best.” MADDIE: “If my Mom hugs me while I’m crying, everything’s okay. There’s just something about it. I’m grown, but, my Mom, if she hugs me, everything’s okay.”

Parker McCollum (Mother’s Day) OC: …those from her. :20
“I mean, she’s just a fantastic woman who went above and beyond for us as kids to always make sure, probably even when we weren’t able to have things, she still made those happen. Everybody says I look like her. She’s just an incredibly caring and very, very sincere person, so I would hope I got those from her.”

Sam Hunt (Mother’s Day) OC: …with my mom. 1:10
“I knew I had a great mother, and I was blessed and lucky to be born into my family, but until I got out into the real world, I didn’t realize how unique and rare and how much I really hit the lottery with her. She’s raised in the South, and she is all the things that a lot of Southern women are, the good things, but selfless is the word that comes to mind right off the bat. Her life has been devoted to me, my brothers and our family for as long as I can remember her. So, her life revolved around us and that was something that the love that she showed us through those sacrifices has been, I know, a huge part of my ability to go out into the world and cope with all the things that come my way. I’m standing on firm ground, I know, because I grew up in a loving household and that started with my mom.”

Shania Twain (joy to be a parent) OC: …means everything. :14
“It’s such a joy to be a parent. So, I relate to all the mums out there who are getting all their love and appreciation from their kids, and I hope, when you’re a kid, a child of somebody, show your mum you love her, because it means everything.”

Travis Denning (Mother’s Day) OC: …like crazy. :29
“You know, my favorite thing about my mom, especially as I get older, is realizing how much me and her have in common. I just love that she’s passionate about music. She loves it. I mean, she’s turned me on to a lot of artists, but at the core like she’s still Mom. She reminds me to do things and does these things which that I couldn’t live without. I love that we get to be friends, we get to be best friends, but at the same time, she’s still Mom and she still loves me and my sister like crazy.”

“Hey everybody, I’m Adam Hambrick, wishing all the mother’s a very Happy Mother’s Day. Love you, Mom.”

“Hey everybody, this is Brandon Lay, wishing all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day. Thanks, Mom.”

“Hey! What’s up guys! We’re Brothers Osborne, wishing all you mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey everyone. I’m Carrie Underwood, wishing all you mothers out there a very, very Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey y’all, this is Caylee Hammack, sending this out to my mom and all the other mothers out there – I hope all of you have a wonderful Mother’s Day.”

“Hi! It’s Chrissy Metz, wishing you a very Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey y’all, what’s up? This is Darius Rucker, hoping you have a Happy Mother’s Day.

“Hey! What’s up? This is Darius Rucker, wishing all you mothers a Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey, y’all! This is Dierks Bentley, wishing all you mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey everybody! This is Eric Church, wishing you a very Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey everybody! This is Eric Church, hoping you have a Happy Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.”

“Hi! This is George Strait, wishing you a Happy Mother’s Day.”

Hi, I’m Jon Langston, wishing all the mothers a very Happy Mother’s Day. Love ya, Mom.

“Hey y’all, it’s Jon Pardi. I want to wish all the mamas out there a very Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey! I’m Jordan Davis, wishing all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day. Love ya, Mom.”

“Hi! This is Josh Turner, wishing you a Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey! It’s Kacey Musgraves. To all you mothers out there, Happy Mother’s Day!”

“Hi everyone, it’s Keith Urban. Hoping all the mothers out there have a very, very Happy Mother’s Day. Love ya, Mom!”

Hey y’all, this is Kylie Morgan, wishing all of you mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day.”

“(ALL) Hi! This is Little Big Town. (KIMBERLY) We want to wish all you mothers out there a Happy Mother’s Day. I love ya, Mama!”

“Hey! It’s Luke Bryan, hoping all you mothers out there have a Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey everybody. I’m Maddie & I’m Tae and we’re Maddie & Tae, wishing all you mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day. I love ya, Mom.”

“Hey everybody, I’m Parker McCollum, wishing you a Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey, it’s Priscilla Block wishing all you mothers out there a very Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey! This is Sam Hunt, wishing you a very Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hi! This is Shania Twain. Happy Mother’s Day.”

“Hey y’all, it’s Travis Denning, wishing all the mothers a very Happy Mother’s Day. Love you, Mom.”

Dierks Bentley (ACM performance) OC: …part of that. :25
“It’s just an amazing group with a huge mixture of sounds and the soulful sound of The War and Treaty, the bluegrass shredding of Larkin Poe and Brittany Haas, of course War and Treaty being African-American,” said Dierks prior to the ACM Awards. “And hopefully, it’ll be a powerful moment in the show and the right song for the right time here in country music with all that’s going on and all we’re trying to do to broaden our boundaries a little bit. So, I’m excited to have the opportunity to be part of that.”

Luke Bryan (Nominated for ACM Entertainer) OC: …dream come true. :36
“Being nominated for ACM Entertainer of the Year is just, it’s just amazing. I mean, I look back over my career and I’ve won a couple of Entertainer awards and every time you see your name a part of that group of people, you’re just honored by it. I’ll tell you what, I go on stage every night trying to be the best entertainer I can be and try to get everybody in the crowd, in the room sing and love one another and have fun So, any time the ACMs recognizes me for that, it’s a dream come true.”

Luke Bryan (fan expectations for BHLHDH) OC: …something for everybody. :37
“I think fans can expect a little something of everything. They can expect a love song, a dancing song; obviously, ‘One Margarita’ being a big ole fun summer drinking song. And I think we have songs that will make you cry, touch your emotions, and I think, like I said there are songs that you can fall in love to out there. And there are songs that talk about the true meaning of life when you think about a song like ‘For a Boat,’ and you got a father teaching his son about the important things in life. So, I’m just proud of the way the album come together, and I feel like there’s something for everybody.”

Eric Church (ACM Entertainer Nod) OC: …live up to. :51
“Coming off the CMA Entertainer of the Year – I’ve said this in interviews and I really believe this – I did not know what that award would mean to me because we’d never won that award (laughs) and never thought we would, and I felt a responsibility. I know what that award means to the format; I know what that means historically, and I tried to live up to that. I think with the vaccinations, I think with the touring, I think with the things we’ve tried to do during this, I’ve done more in that regard than I ever would’ve, because I understand the people that came before me, and I understand the people that will come after me. So, that nomination means more to me now than it probably ever has, because we’ve won. I think representing the format that I adore is something that I’m trying to live up to.”

Eric Church (ACM Male Artist 2021) OC: …category. :12
“I’ve not been in that category in a while. I think it’s a great honor. I mean, I’ve said this a thousand times – I’ve always thought of myself as more of a stylist than a vocalist, but it’s an honor to be with the guys that are in the category.”

Eric Church (ACM Music Event of the Year 2021) OC: …hopefully it wins. :34
“Luke Combs is somebody that we went to the same college, we’re from North Carolina both of us, I’ve got to know him, not only as an artist, but on a personal level. We’ve hung out together in North Carolina, here in Tennessee. I’m so proud of him and what he’s done. I’m proud that I was able to influence him and that he was able to do his own thing. And this song was, it was great to record it with him. I love the song. I love the writing of the song. I had nothing to do with that. They wrote it to the wall, and it was an honor to join him, and hopefully it wins.”

Chris Stapleton (theme of Starting Over album) OC: …as humans. :54
“I’ve never really looked at records necessarily as having a theme.  I’ve never made a record in that kind of a constraint necessarily. And there are a lot of great records that have this theme and this overlying thread that kind of runs through them.  Maybe the thread for me is just I’m singing. I wrote a bulk of the songs. It’s the same guys playing all the songs. If there’s a theme – if there’s a theme it’s hopefully there’s a theme of truth somewhere in it. And what I mean by that is hopefully we’re conveying in the songs some experiences that feel real and hopefully people can find themselves in those songs and in the album. And for me if I’m looking for a theme it’s that kind of, I don’t know, that thing that binds us all together as humans.”

Chris Stapleton (Maggie’s Song) OC: …of our family. :33
“She deserved a tribute of a song. Now, whether or not I did her justice in the song, I don’t know, but she was a dog that deserved a song so I wrote a song about her the day after she died. That song happened to carry through to me being allowed to play it live, and we wound up in the studio and we recorded it. And now it lives in the world to make people more sad than they deserve to be (laughs) in a year that we don’t need much of that. But I loved that dog very much, and she was a great member of our family.”

Brothers Osborne (how Skeletons came about) OC: …came about. 1:02
“Skeletons is a record that was essentially brought on because we wanted to play more new songs live. So, going into this record T.J. and I decided let’s make a record that no matter what song we just cherry pick out of the record we can do it during our show. And that is how we decided the songs that we ended up on the record. And we started with just like every other artist, 30, 40 plus songs. We started whittling them down, ‘well we might be able to play that. I don’t know if we would be able to play that.’ And that’s how we ended up with Skeletons. And it was really birthed from just playing live shows. One of the cool things about this record is that this is the first record where our entire band is playing on it. Previous records our drummer Adam and our bass player Pete they were playing, but this one has our other guitar player Jason and our keys player Billy Justin now. And it made a huge difference because for the first time we all got in the studio after playing hundreds of shows together, we put the headphones on and started playing and it was like oh it’s just the guys. We’re jamming with the dudes. And that’s how the record came about.”

Keith Urban (P!NK duet) OC: …it together. :29
“This song was written as a duet, and I sent the song to her and luckily she loved it. I loved the song and I was really hoping she would love it, because she’s truly one of the great singers of our generation. So, to hear her voice on this song was phenomenal. We had such a great time getting to do that. I wish we could’ve done it in the same space, but you know with the situation we’re in, of course, we couldn’t do that. So, she recorded her vocal at her house and I did mine at my house, and we put it together.”

LBT (Group nomination) OC: …yeah. :12
“That’s the coolest thing. Yeah. We’re all friends and we all root for each other and cheer each other on, and we love the music they’re making. And we just celebrate, man. We’re, we’re fans. Yeah.”

Maddie & Tae (Duo nomination) OC: …super fun. :24
“Having that nomination was like, oh wow, our peers do still feel like we’re doing something special and do still believe in us and that was a really nice spirit-lifter where we were like, ‘Oh my gosh. We are doing something right and we’re making music that people are enjoying,’ and that was just a huge, huge compliment. And we’re nominated with some of favorite people in the industry, so super fun.”

Dierks Bentley (production on Gone) OC: …for me. :25
“So, the production is a little different. I mean, when I’m doing my thing the best, I think it’s when I mix the bluegrass instrumentation with some of the, we used to call it ‘mixing the bluegrass with the kickass.’ But you know, trying to get those acoustic instruments with the big drums and the big guitars and finding that place where they meet. Even though I’m always trying to do something different musically, I always go back to that, you know? I mean just trying to mix those sounds together, it’s interesting for me.”