Jelly Roll wins big, Toby Keith gets tribute at CMT Music Awards

And that was Jelly Roll, closing out the CMT Music Awards on CBS. Last night, he walked away the night’s big winner, taking home three awards. The show featured a star-studded lineup of country performers, including a special tribute to the late Toby Keith. Joining us now with more highlights is Audrey Gibbs. She’s a music reporter for the Tennessee and Audrey, I know you were there last night. Can you quickly explain how the CMT awards work and why country music fans are such a big part of the show? Definitely yes. The Same To You. Awards are a fan voted show, so fans go in and they vote for their favorite music videos, their favorite live performances from the past year. And the Awards last night took place at the Moody Center in Austin, TX for the second year in a row, hosted by Kelsea Ballerini. Now I know there was a tribute performance for the late Toby Keith, who died in February after a battle with stomach cancer. Can you talk to us about what that performance was like in the room? Yes, it it was an incredibly powerful a moment to be there in the room. I think everybody could really feel the energy and and and Toby, his family said he really fought with with Grace and I think everybody felt that grace. Last night. We saw a performance from Lanny Wilson who’s saying how do you like me now? We saw Brooks and Dunsing should have been a cowboy. We saw rocker Sammy Hagar hit the stage and I love this bar, a song that he used to be a lot with Keith in Cabo at his bar. Well, it was it was an incredibly moving moving time. We also, as a crowd raised solo cups for red solo cup in his honor. So yeah, that was a really powerful moment. Audrey, I I got to talk about Jelly Roll. He is becoming a huge name in country music. He was a top winner last night, nominated for two Grammys earlier this year and he’s known for blending genres, including rap into country music. How his country music as a genre broadened over time and could this could this open the door for for a variety of new country stars? Yes, yes, I definitely think that it can. We’re seeing this embrace of different genres moving into country. Somebody like Jelly Roll is being so embraced in his genre bending by his fans and we see this at this fan voted award ceremony and especially country is is for everybody. You know, that’s something that Jelly Roll has made very clear. Last night especially, he addressed one of his speeches, his award speeches to those who may be incarcerated or in juvenile detention facilities, since that was kind of his story. He’s been out of, in and out of facilities since he was 14 years old and he spent some time in jail. So he really wanted to say you can turn things around. I’m an example. You can be that guy. I think he’s very clear that that country music means that there’s hope for a lot of people. Any other favorite moments from the show? Yeah, I think that last night was a lot about legacy, right? There was a the June Carter Cash Humanitarian award was given out for the very first time at the CM TS to country singer Trisha Yearwood. That was a moving moment as well because there was this there’s connection back to the cash’s the Carter Cash family. We also saw Sam Hunt sing his song Locked Up, where he really connected to Johnny Cash’s performance of at Folsom Prison when he was performing for the inmates. So there was that, that strong connection to the caches last night and there was a strong connection to Toby Keith. And we were really focused on legacy in the performance space and in paying tribute. Audrey Gibbs, thanks for joining us. Thank you.