‘CMT Artists of the Year’ Honors Haggard Alongside Today’s Stars

Merle Haggard is honored with the first CMT Artist of a Lifetime award, presented by Billy Bob Thornton. Photo courtesy of CMT

CMT held an elegant soiree Tuesday evening (Dec. 2) at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, an upscale music venue known for its impeccable acoustics and hosting everyone from bluegrass musicians to the Nashville symphony.

The event, which aired live, honored Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, and Florida Georgia Line as CMT Artists of the Year for their career accomplishments in 2014.

However, the star of the evening was clearly Merle Haggard, who was presented with CMT’s first Artist of a Lifetime award. Billy Bob Thornton was on hand to present the honor, and went off-script to add his own words of tribute.

Keith Urban performs with an all-female band at CMT Artists of the Year. Photo courtesy of CMT.

“I’d just like to add something to what they’ve got here,” said Thornton, “which is that I wouldn’t only include Merle Haggard in the greatest songwriters of all time. But I would put him up there alongside people like Tennessee Williams and William Faulker, Erskine Caldwell and John Steinbeck because he is truly a storyteller. That’s something that has been lost over the years, and I’m glad to see that it is coming back a little bit. And Merle Haggard personifies the storyteller.”

Haggard was nearly in tears as he accepted the honor. “Anything I would say would be short of the mark, so thank you very much and God bless you,” he told the audience. Off-camera, industry members and artists including Aldean and Florida Georgia Line were quick to welcome the legend as he entered the room.

Florida Georgia Line performs during the CMT Artist of the Year event. Photo courtesy of CMT.

Jason Aldean and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden opened the show with Aldean’s latest single, “Just Gettin’ Started.” Kenny Chesney was in attendance to honor his future tourmate. Chesney and Aldean will combine their headlining shows for several stadium concerts in 2015. “His fire and passion is one of the reasons he’s one of CMT’s Artists of the Year,” said Chesney.

Host Larry the Cable Guy kept the elegant evening from getting too stuffy, with his repertoire of one-liners.

Luke Bryan could not be in attendance. He is in Georgia with his family, following the death of his brother-in-law Ben Lee Cheshire over the weekend. Cheshire was 46, and the husband of Bryan’s late sister Kelly.

Chris Stapleton and Lady Antebellum perform “Drink A Beer” to honor Luke Bryan during the CMT Artists of the Year. Photo courtesy of CMT.

Lady Antebellum and Chris Stapleton stepped in to honor Bryan with an emotional rendition of his single, “Drink A Beer,” (co-written by Stapleton and Jim Beavers), which drew the first standing ovation of the evening. Other artists, including fellow Georgian Jason Aldean and Keith Urban, offered their condolences to Bryan’s family throughout the broadcast.

Miranda Lambert was honored by friend and fellow songwriter Ashley Monroe. Lambert gave a soulful, refined performance of “Holding On To You,” an album cut from her recent album Platinum. She also teared up while thanking husband Blake Shelton. “You are my rock,” she said. “I think he’s on a TV show somewhere tonight.”

Wiz Khalifa honored genre-melding duo Florida Georgia Line as CMT Artists of the Year. “As musicians, we are all brothers and sisters,” he said. Florida Georgia Line’s Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard gave a rousing rendition of their single, “Sun Daze.”

Miranda Lambert performs during CMT Artists of the Year. Photo courtesy of CMT.

Another highlight of the evening was Urban’s guitar-driven rendition of James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” backed by a 15-piece all-female band, complete with a string and horn section.

Urban was quick to praise his fans after receiving his CMT Artists of the Year honor. “Why are fans so important? Because without them it’s just one long sound check,” he said.

Chris Cornell and Jason Aldean kick off the CMT Artists of the Year. Photo courtesy of CMT.

Eric Church, Ashley Monroe, and T Bone Burnett rounded out the evening’s performances with a tribute to Haggard on his 1969 classic, “Workin’ Man Blues.”

Encore presentations of Artists of the Year will air Wednesday, Dec. 3 at 1:30 a.m., 8 a.m., and 11:30 a.m. ET/PT, and Sunday, Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. ET/PT.