An all-time great CMA Awards moment.
The 60th Annual CMA Awards will take place next Wednesday, November 18, 2026, live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, and of course, there will be a star-studded tribute for the late, great Mrs. Dolly Parton.
On August 25th, 2026, the country icon sadly passed away at 80-years-old in Nashville Tennessee due to what was described as “brief battle with cancer,” and the specific kind was not revealed. There were tons of stories and tributes shared about Dolly following her very sad passing, and I think the world is still in mourning over losing such a light… I know I am.
And with this year’s CMA Awards show coming up next week, I want to take a look back on Dolly’s 1978 Entertainer of the Year acceptance speech, which also included a bit of a wardrobe malfunction…
It was Johnny Cash who revealed her name as the winner, along with Ronnie Milsap, and of course, Dolly and Johnny go way back, as Dolly first met Johnny Cash during her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry in 1959, when she was just 13 years old. Cash ended up introducing her to the crowd, and Dolly famously received three encores that evening.
Cash was 32 at the time, and Dolly has said before that she couldn’t resist his undeniable charisma, charm and all-around good looks that made him one of the most recognizable and iconic artists in all of music. I mean, who could blame her? She certainly wasn’t the only one…
Later on, the two country icons became friends, and Dolly recalled the first time meeting the Man in Black during a recent interview with People:
“I was starstruck with Johnny Cash. Because that’s when he was young, and to me, I was a young girl, and that was the first time I ever knew or understood what sex appeal was.
Or that feeling that just made you feel all kinds of things all over your body, and I felt that from Johnny Cash… that was the first grown person I had that [with]. I had little crushes on boyfriends, but that’s when my hormones were beginning to rage, and I just felt all those feelings for him. Because he was very charismatic…
I thought about it years later, and that was the first time I understood what the call charisma, or whatever that thing is people have. Well, he had that thing, it worked its magic on me.”
Dolly went onto become the queen of country, and was nominated for 45 CMA Awards throughout her illustrious career, and she took home the coveted Entertainer of the Year in 1978, which leads us to this speech.
She got up there, and told the crowd that she had the dress made “in case” she won, and about five minutes prior to accepting the award, she was hoping she “wouldn’t win,” because she “busted the front of it out” with her iconic assets:
“Well, I’ll tell you, thank you. I do appreciate that. I had this dress made in case I won, and about five minutes ago, I was hoping I wouldn’t win, because I busted the front out of it… is it okay?
Of course, Johnny has a quick response, telling her it was just fine and he loved “watching [her] talk”:
“That’s alright… I just love watching you… talk.”
Classic…
Ronnie, who was born nearly completely blind, and he joked:
“Me too.”
They were too funny…
Dolly went onto tell the crowd that her dad told her “that’s what I got for putting 5o pounds of mud into a five pound bag,” which got a big laugh from the crowd. She was of course very gracious in the rest of her speech, thanking her label and her team, and saying she had hoped she would win this award, ending with her classic “I do love you”:
“My daddy said that’s what I got for putting 5o pounds of mud into a five pound bag. Anyway, I do want to thank all of you, and it is something I really hoped that I would win.
Of course, you never know if you will or not, but it’s been a great year for me and I have a lot of people to thank. A great record label, the heart of it being right here in Nashville. Mine too. And, a lot of folks that worked with me, my manager Sandy Gallin and Gary Cline that worked on my record last year.
But everything’s been good, I had a whole bunch of stuff that I thought I might say, But I guess I’ll just say thank you and I do love you. Thank you for your coat Mary Ann!”
If only the CMA Awards were anything like this now… no one did it like Dolly, and they never will.
If you’ve never seen this speech before, it’s iconic, and you can watch it here:
