Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Miranda Lambert were on hand for the 9th Annual ACM Honors Tuesday night at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Luke was honored with the Gene Weed Special Achievement Award for scoring six #1 hits off his last album, Crash My Party. His tour mate, Randy Houser, paid tribute to Luke by performing one of those chart-toppers, “Roller Coaster.”
Jason honored his heroes, Career Achievement Award recipients Alabama, with a medley of their hits, “Tennessee River,” “Love in the First Degree” and “The Closer You Get.” Alabama frontman Randy Owen joked that Jason performed those songs better than they did as he accepted their award.
Miranda closed the night out by singing Crystal Milestone Award recipient Loretta Lynn‘s hit, “Rated X,” which speaks directly to Miranda’s newly-minted status as a divorcee. While presenting the trophy to Loretta, Miranda said, “She sang songs that were not necessarily appropriate to sing at times like this for me. So, I’m so thankful for women empowerment.”
Eric Church received the Jim Reeves International Award for taking country music around the world with his European tours. While accepting the trophy, Eric said he was extremely nervous before playing one of his first shows for a non-English-speaking crowd in Germany. Once he smelled marijuana in the crowd, Eric just knew everything was going to be OK.
“They sang every song. They held their boots up. They smoked marijuana,” Eric recalled. “I learned something that night. I learned that you don’t have to speak English to speak music fluently. “
Kacey Musgraves honored her producer Luke Laird, this year’s ACM Songwriter of the Year, with a performance of their co-written song, “Good Old Boys Club.”
Jake Owen returned as host for a second year and kicked the night off singing Alabama’s “Feels So Right.” Roy Clark, Chris Isaak, Holly Williams, Restless Heart and Josh Turner rounded out the performers for the evening.
The ACM Honors recognizes the Academy of Country Music winners not included in the April ACM Awards broadcast.
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