A huge congratulations are in order for Chris Stapleton.
He took home the coveted Entertainer of the Year award tonight at the 58th Annual ACM Awards, his very first EOTY award at any major country music awards show.
The ever-humble Stapleton gave a great speech, saying that he was “in shock” and didn’t deserve it, but he of course graciously accepted the award, noting how grateful he was to win it:
“Well, I am in shock. Truly. Thank you. By any imaginable metric, I don’t deserve this, but thank you. There are so many other great people in this category.
I stand up and I play music. That’s what I try to do every night…I’ve never through of myself as somebody who would win this award, and I’m so grateful.”
He also thanked his crew, band and entire team that makes his whole career happen, especially his wife, Morgane, who spends a lot of time out on the road with him.
Chris even got a little choked up talking about his kids, who also sacrifice time away from their parents so they can go out and play music for a living:
“I’m really at a loss of what to say. I wanna say to my kids at home, they give up a lot of my time and a lot of my wife’s time so we can go do this. This is for them.”
He was up against Jason Aldean, Luke Combs, reigning ACM’s EOTY Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown and Morgan Wallen in the EOTY category.
Of course, Chris recently gave one of the best Super Bowl National Anthem performances of all-time in February, and is currently out on the road for his 2023 All-American Road Show tour.
I mean, the ACM’s certainly got this one right…