Honoring his late friend with their #1 hit.
On a star-studded night yesterday at The Pinnacle in Nashville, some of the best and brightest stars in the genre gathered together at the 19th annual ACM Honors Awards. Returning for her sixth straight year, Carly Pearce hosted the night alongside reigning Album of the Year winner, Parker McCollum.
In case you aren’t familiar with the concept of ACM Honors, unlike the ACM Awards, which highlight an artist’s individual performance, album or event, it awards recipients for their impact on the genre at large in a multitude of different categories, including the Poet’s Award, International Award, Spirit Award, Lifting Lives Award and many more.
Throughout the night, Kacey Musgraves was honored with the ACM Spirit Award, which was inspired by Merle Haggard. Eric Church received the Lifting Lives Award, highlighted by his massive effort in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Taylor Sheridan’s hit show, Landman, received the ACM Film Award. Ella Langley, who has been on a historic run thanks to “Choosin’ Texas,” also received her first-career Artist-Songwriter win.
Undoubtedly, one of the most emotional moments of the night came when the late, great Brett James, who tragically died in an airplane crash this past September, received the Poet’s Award alongside Dolly Parton and The Carter Family for their songwriting careers.
James, who had 27 career #1 hits (13 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart), a Grammy win for Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take The Wheel” and over 800 songs recorded by different artists throughout his career, was undoubtedly one of the premier songwriters in country music over the past three decades.
Among his hits, his biggest tracks include the likes of Jessica Andrews’ “Who I Am,” Kenny Chesney’s “When The Sun Goes Down,” Jason Aldean’s “The Truth,” Martina McBride’s “Blessed,” Cody Johnson’s “On My Way To You,” Rodney Atkins’ “It’s America” and many other cuts with the likes of Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Gary Allan, Lonestar and Kip Moore.
One of James’ closest friends in the industry was none other than Dierks Bentley, who scored a #1 hit with the song they co-wrote together, “I Hold On,” back in 2013. Upon the songwriter’s untimely death in September, Bentley would pen an emotional tribute to him, noting how his friendship and “I Hold On” changed his life.
“Rest in peace pal. Total stud. Fellow aviator. One of the best singer-songwriters in our town….total legend.
I brought a couple of roughy sketched verse ideas of I Hold On to Brett after my dad died and he just did his thing. The chorus is all him. When I sing that song live, I’m always thinking of my dad, but I also think about that day we wrote it. He just got it, just lit into it. It was one of the first times we wrote and I decided to drop the most meaningful and necessary idea of a song I had on him, because I felt like God was telling me to do so. Our friendship and that song changed my life. 💔 Prayers for his family and Melody and Meryl’s.”
At the ACM Honors last night, Bentley himself presented James’ sons with their late father’s Poet’s Award. The “What Was I Thinking” singer spoke about the writing process with James and once again reiterated how meaningful their relationship was:
“His friendship was one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.”
After presenting the award, Bentley would deliver an emotional performance of “I Hold On” to honor James, backed only by him and his guitarist Ben Helson.
Watch here:
