One of the best performances in recent CMA Award history – and it didn’t even come from inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
The 2025 CMA Awards are getting underway next week, November 19th to be exact, and once again Lainey Wilson return to host the ceremony for her second consecutive year. Of course, Lainey is also nominated for a number of awards, and set to perform on the self-proclaimed “country music’s biggest night.”
Also set to perform is BigXthaPlug, who will join Luke Combs for a duet of their collab, “Pray Hard,” because, you know… having a rapper on the show will add an few million extra eyeballs that wouldn’t otherwise normally watch a country music awards show. Or at least, what’s what they think will happen, but it never does, because nobody who loves rap is tuning in to see the CMAs. You know who WOULD tune in to the CMAs if they had good country music artists perform… country music fans. Crazy, right?
But featuring pop and hip hop acts is nothing new for the CMAs or any country music awards show, and since I’ve been blogging bout country music (over a decade now), it’s been a constant complaint. One that has fallen on deaf ears. Where’s the good country? Where’s the real country? Where’s Tyler Childers? Where’s Sturgill Simpson? Where’s Cody Jinks?
But in 2017… Sturgill Simpson DID show up… just… not inside the building. He wasn’t invited…
Busking On Broadway
In 2016, Sturgill Simpson released his 3rd career studio album, A Sailor’s Guide To Earth, and it was quickly heralded as a fantastic project, and rewarded with a Grammy Award in early 2017 for Best Country Album. It was also nominated in the all-genre Album of the Year award, alongside heavy hitters like Adele, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and Drake. Seems like somebody you’d want to have on the CMA Awards, right? After all, it’s “country music’s biggest night.”
Welp… all that apparently that wasn’t enough to get him an invite to the CMA Awards, which instead featured performances from P!nk and former One Direction member, Niall Horan, that year. Just what country fans want to hear…
And while Sturgill may not have been invited, he decided to show up and perform anyway – outside of Bridgestone Arena during the ceremonies.
“They were all out of seats, I couldn’t get a ticket. So I thought I’d come down here and play some country music since we’re celebrating it tonight in Nashville, Tennessee.”
He put his Grammy in his guitar case, and for nearly an hour Sturgill busked outside of the CMA Awards as shocked onlookers started to realize what they were witnessing. Sturgill streamed the whole performance live online (and probably got more viewers than the actual awards ceremony) as he treated the crowd to “Turtles All the Way Down” and “Water In A Well,” as well as his controversial thoughts on Donald Trump.
He answered questions from his fans – and even gave a preview of what his acceptance speech would sound like if he ever were to win a CMA Award:
“Nobody needs a machine gun. Coming from a guy who owns quite a few guns. Gay people should have the right to be happy and live their life any way they want to, and get married if they want to, without fearing getting drug down the road on a pickup truck. Black people are probably tired of getting shot in the streets, and getting enslaved by the industrial prison complex, and hegemony and racism is alive and well in Nashville, Tennessee. Thank you very much.”
Whether you agree with his liberal politics or not, can you imagine an acceptance speech like that at the CMA Awards? In the same spirit as Rickey Gervais’ Golden Globes monologue, the LAST thing I want to do is hear celebrities get up there and lecture me from the stage, but I would love to see a rant like that just for the simple fact that it would make producers extremely uncomfortable. Of course, that’s why we’ll never see him up there…
Stu also revealed that he would perform Merle Haggard’s “Are The Good Times Really Over” if he were ever invited to the CMA Awards (which at this point it’s pretty clear, he won’t be).
It was quite the scene, seeing a Grammy-winning country singer busking outside of the CMA Awards while the eventual Entertainer of the Year winner, Garth Brooks, was inside lip-syncing his newest single. It highlighted the absurdity of the Nashville popularity contest, where all too often the best country artists aren’t even invited to the show – and are forced to busk on the sidewalk.
Check out the full performance:
2025 CMA Awards Nominees
Entertainer of the Year
Morgan Wallen
Luke Combs
Lainey Wilson
Cody Johnson
Chris Stapleton
Album of the Year
Am I Okay? – Megan Moroney
Producer: Kristian Bush
Mix Engineer: Justin Niebank
Cold Beer & Country Music – Zach Top
Producer: Carson Chamberlain
Mix Engineer: Matt Rovey
F-1 Trillon – Post Malone
Producers: Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome, Hoskins
Mix Engineer: Ryan Gore
I’m The Problem – Morgan Wallen
Producers: Jacob Durrett, Charlie Handsome, Joey Moi
Mix Engineers: Charlie Handsome, Joey Moi
Whirlwind – Lainey Wilson
Producer: Jay Joyce
Mix Engineers: Jason Hall, Jay Joyce
Male Vocalist of the Year
Chris Stapleton
Morgan Wallen
Luke Combs
Cody Johnson
Zach Top
Female Vocalist of the Year
Lainey Wilson
Ella Langley
Megan Moroney
Kelsea Ballerini
Miranda Lambert
Vocal Group of the Year
Old Dominion
The Red Clay Strays
Little Big Town
Lady A
Rascal Flatts
Vocal Duo of the Year
Brooks & Dunn
Dan + Shay
Brothers Osborne
The War and Treaty
Maddie & Tae
Single of the Year
“4X4XU” – Lainey Wilson
Producer: Jay Joyce
Mix Engineers: Jason Hall, Jay Joyce
“Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma” – Luke Combs
Producers: Luke Combs, Chip Matthews, Jonathan Singleton
Mix Engineer: Chip Matthews
“Am I Okay?” – Megan Moroney
Producer: Kristian Bush
Mix Engineer: Justin Niebank
“I Never Lie” – Zach Top
Producer: Carson Chamberlain
Mix Engineer: Mat Rovey
“You Look Like You Love Me” – Ella Langley ft. Riley Green
Producer: Will Bundy
Mix Engineer: Jim Cooley
Song of the Year
“4X4XU” – Lainey Wilson
Songwriters: Jon Decious, Aaron Raitiere, Lainey Wilson
“Am I Okay? – Megan Moroney
Songwriters: Jessie Jo Dillon, Luke Laird, Megan Moroney
“I Never Lie” – Zach Top
Songwriters: Carson Chamberlain, Tim Nichols, Zach Top
“Texas” – Blake Shelton
Songwriters: Johnny Clawson, Josh Dorr, Lalo Guzman, Kyle Sturrock
“You Look Like You Love Me” – Ella Langley ft. Riley Green
Songwriters: Riley Green, Ella Langley, Aaron Raitiere
New Artist of the Year
Zach Top
Ella Langley
Stephen Wilson Jr.
Tucker Wetmore
Shaboozey
Musician of the Year
Jenee Fleenor (Fiddle)
Paul Franklin (Steel Guitar)
Brett Mason (Guitar)
Rob McNelley (Guitar)
Derek Wells (Guitar)
Music Video of the Year
“Am I Okay?” – Megan Moroney
Directors: Alexander Gavillet, Megan Moroney
“I’m Gonna Love You” – Cody Johnson & Carrie Underwood
Director: Dustin Haney
“Somewhere Over Laredo” – Lainey Wilson
Director: TK McKamy
“Think I’m In Love With You” – Chris Stapleton
Director: Running Bear
“You Look Like You Love Me” – Ella Langley & Riley Green
Directors: Ella Langley, John Park, Wales Toney
Musical Event of the Year
“Don’t Mind If I Do” – Riley Green ft. Ella Langley
Producers: Scott Borchetta, Jimmy Harnen, Dann Huff
“Hard Fought Hallelujah” – Brandon Lake w/ Jelly Roll
Producer: Micha Nichols
“I’m Gonna Love You” – Cody Johnson w/ Carrie Underwood
Producer: Trent Willmon
“Pour Me A Drink” – Post Malone ft. Blake Shelton
Producers: Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome
“You Had to Be There” – Megan Moroney ft. Kenny Chesney
Producer: Kristian Bush
