Country Winners from the AMA’s last night:
Favorite Female Artist: Carrie Underwood . . . She snaps Taylor Swift’s five-year reign in this category.
Favorite Male Artist: Luke Bryan . . . This is his third-straight year taking this award.
Favorite Band, Duo or Group: Florida Georgia Line . . . They snap Lady Antebellum’s four-year reign in this category.
Favorite Album: “Just As I Am”, Brantley Gilbert
I guess we expected this: The country community seems to be burying their heads in the sand instead of vocally supporting TY HERNDON and BILLY GILMAN for coming out as gay last week.
CMT.com checked around the World Wide Web of Indifference and only found words of encouragement from FOUR people in country music . . . LeAnn Rimes, Meghan Linsey, Lucy Hale, and Chely Wright.
We expected to hear something from Chely, seeing as she blazed the trail four years ago. She hit up Twitter and Facebook to say, “Way to go.” She also wrote personal words of encouragement to each of them.
LeAnn was strong in her support, Tweeting, “My friend @TyHerndon.com is a bad ass! I love you big brother. #Speak The Truth #Respect #Coming Out.”
Meghan Linsey Tweeted, quote, “So much love and respect for my friends @Billy Gilman and @Ty Herndon! Thank you for being you. #Keepin’ It Real.”
And Lucy Hale wrote, “@Billy Gilman so proud of you! Good for you being true to yourself and setting a great example for others.”
JAKE OWEN took a couple of turns behind the wheel as an Uber driver last week in Nashville. It was part of a promotion announcing that Uber had partnered with Spotify to allow people to stream music during their ride. Jake posted two separate pics.
[Jake Owen Uber1]
[Jake Owen Uber2]
If you want to play guitar as well as KEITH URBAN, it’s probably too late. Unless you’ve been at it since Kindergarten, which is when he picked it up. He talked about it in an interview airing on next month’s“CMT Artists of the Year”.
He said, quote, “I started playing when I was six, and my mom and dad were incredibly supportive of me and drove me to talent [contests] that I was entering when I was nine, 10 and 11.
“I left school at 15 and was playing five nights a week in a band, and my mom and dad supported that, too. I was very fortunate to have parents that really believed in what I was doing. They could see I was going to do it forever.”
Keith’s serious about the “forever” part. Asked what he’d be doing if he’d never made it big, he said, quote, “I’d be playing some club somewhere tonight.”
(The “CMT Artists of the Year” airs December 2nd. Other artists being honored are Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, and Miranda Lambert.)
SARA EVANS got a haircut . . . but no worries, she’s still cute as ever. She posted a pic on Instagram and captioned it, “Just another day in the life. Released a Christmas album and cut my hair. Omg! #‘At Christmas’.”
[Sara Evans Haircut]