The floodgates have opened…and artists aren’t holding back.
The 60th annual CMA Awards are coming up on November 18, but ahead of the ceremony the Country Music Association is dealing with a full-blown controversy after Sammy Kershaw revealed late last week that they denied his request to walk the red carpet at the event.
Obviously fans were outraged at what they saw as disrespect for the ’90s country legend, and several artists also spoke out in support of Sammy while criticizing the CMA for allowing influencers, actors and athletes to walk the red carpet while turning away country artists.
On Saturday, Rodney Atkins revealed that he had also been turned away from the red carpet, which only added fuel to the fire. And yesterday, the CMA released a statement attempting to smooth things over…but it didn’t go over well.
In their statement, the organization basically said “Sorry your feelings were hurt” while blaming some unspecified “criteria” for determining who gets to walk the red carpet:
Jake Owen criticized the statement as “a lot of words saying nothing,” and fans flooded the comments to let the CMA know that the words weren’t good enough without action behind them.
And last night, yet another ’90s country star took to social media to give his thoughts on the response, while also revealing the disrespect he and some of his fellow artists have felt from the CMA over the years.
Tim Rushlow is the former frontman for Little Texas, the ’90s country group behind hits like “God Blessed Texas,” “Amy’s Back In Austin,” “What Might Have Been,” and “My Love.” These days he’s a member of the supergroup The Frontmen, which is made up of former Lonestar frontman Richie McDonald as well as Larry Stewart of Restless Heart. Between the three of them, their groups are responsible for over 30 hits including 20 #1 songs, as well as 15 nominations between them for Vocal Group of the Year at the CMA Awards.
But apparently, that’s not enough to get to attend the awards show.
In his post, Rushlow revealed that The Frontmen tried to attend the CMA Awards recently, and were told that it would be $4,000 for the three of them – and that was without even taking their wives with them:
“This is as lame as it looks and sounds! A couple years ago, Larry Stewart Richie McDonald and myself as The Frontmen Live were gonna attend the show and it was gonna be $4,000 plus no guarantee of any red carpet or press at all, just seats and that’s without wives!”
He also says that the group has offered to present the award for Vocal Group of the Year, or collaborate with newer artists for a performance, but their offers continue to be rebuffed:
“We’ve also floated presenting group of the year award since we are past winners to no avail. Even thought it would be cool to do a collab with some newer artist with some of our hits that we are continually told inspired them growing up to no avail.”
Rushlow criticizes the organization for treating the country music powerhouses like “outsiders,” while claiming to honor the history of the genre:
“We tour and play our hits that shaped 90’s country and see amazing crowds every night so we don’t have to be treated like we’re “outsiders”. We see true country fans at every show. The CMA needs to get real! Do you really wanna celebrate 60 years and six decades of country music? Invite the people that are responsible for helping it take its shape. Blowing them off like a bad habit is not gonna work, not with real country music fans. The fan base is much more loyal than the CMA is!”
And he also criticizes the organization for welcoming the artists when they offer to play CMA Fest for free, while ignoring them when the awards show rolls around:
“Add to the fact that every time we play CMA Fest, we have to pay our band and our crew and we play for free, yet they charge thousands of dollars per ticket and make hundreds of millions of dollars each year while the artists actually have to pay their own people just to play there, pretty nuts!! Not a fan of the hypocrisy at all.”
It seems the disrespect towards ’90s country artists has been going on for a while now, and they’re no longer willing to sit back and bite their tongue about it.
