I don't know if the following Tennessean article on the 2009 ACMs has been posted before. I apologize if it was.
I would've posted this before now, but I have been unable to Post
anything on the message board(s) here for a long time due to continuous message board problems and error messages.
Anyway, here is the Tennessean article
:A grateful Carrie Underwood, a bubbly Taylor Swift and a furious Toby KeithBy PETER COOPER • Staff Writer • April 5, 2009ACM Notebook: Peter Cooper's final report from backstage at the ACM Awards...
Backstage at the Academy of Country Music Awards, we had a grateful Carrie Underwood a bubbly Taylor Swift, a via-video link Brad Paisley and an angry – make that furious – Toby Keith. Here are some highlights:
“I can’t wait until the day when having females in the (entertainer) category is no big deal, whatsoever,” Underwood said, reflecting on her position as the first woman to win the ACM’s entertainer trophy since the Dixie Chicks in 2002. “I accept that award on behalf of my self and my fans, but also on behalf of all the women that came before me that kicked butt and never got the recognition they deserved. It’s a male-dominated genre of music, but women are doing really well. So many strong women that are selling like crazy, and selling out concerts. Entertainer of the year is the big enchilada. That’s the one they save for the end, and they save it for the end for a reason.”
Taylor Swift was thankful and effusive after the show. Her Fearless won album of the year.
“The fact that you can write songs in your bedroom about your feelings and boys, and you can win best album at the ACMs… it’s indescribable.”
Swift said she’s hoping to be in the top entertainer category next year, and also hoping that the ACM folks retain their current policy regarding the entertainer crown.
“I just hope they keep it fan-voted,” she said, before adding that she liked the fact that the album prize was industry voted because, “It means people in the industry liked the album. But the fans are the reason the album was so big. I’ll spend my life trying to thank them.”
Less thankful was Toby Keith, who won’t be including yours truly on his Christmas list this year. Actor Ethan Hawke wrote an article in Rolling Stone that described a confrontation between Kris Kristofferson and “an unnamed country star” who could only have been Keith. The Tennessean ran an item in Friday’s paper pointing people to the article, and Keith took exception to the item’s attempt at humor. He denies an incident took place at all, and Kristofferson is also saying that he can’t recall any such argument. Though it was Hawke who wrote the piece, Hawke wasn’t in the room to bear the brunt of Keith’s furor.
“I’m really having a tough time. I’m struggling with you even being here in the room,” he growled. “Ethan Hawke reported a fictitious story about me, Kris and Willie Nelson, from 2003. You ran with it and took it to a (expletive) super-sized French fries.”
While it’s difficult to believe that a Tennessean celebrity item took a multi-page Rolling Stone spread to the next level – and in fact many people in the press room had no idea what Keith was talking about – we are running a piece in Monday’s paper explaining that Kristofferson and Keith say that they never had a confrontation.
“I don’t even know Ethan Hawke,” Keith said. “He wanted to do some kind of superficial Rolling Stone article. He did everything he could to make this the greatest story in Rolling Stone. And it was a fictitious lie. He didn’t even call me by my name. He called Norah Jones, Ray Charles, everybody else by name. Why didn’t he say, ‘Toby Keith?”
I don’t know, why?
“He didn’t want to deal with the aftermath. He thought he could dance around and say it was whoever it was. Guess what, it ain’t. It’s me.”
The Tennessean piece noticed that, too, which is why I thought it was silly that Hawke had given such obvious clues as to Keith’s identity. I went so far as to say, “Might the name of this ‘unnamed artist’ rhyme with ‘Moby Teeth?’”
“Moby Teeth? You think that was funny?” he asked Sunday night.
Uh, not anymore.
On to happier subjects: Trace Adkins talked about his best single win, which gave him his first ACM prize since he won for best new vocalist in the 1990. He won the award Sunday night for “You’re Gonna Miss This,” a ballad written from a father’s perspective, about a daughter who has grown up.
“That song moves me,” he said, adding, “And I’m pretty crusty. I think it connects with a lot of people. Maybe a lot of young ladies who have just gotten married and didn’t realize they’d broken their father’s heart. I was shocked, and still am today, at the wonderful things this song has done for me.”
The Sugarland duo of Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush were thrilled to have won the top duo prize, ending an unprecedented run of Brooks & Dunn wins in that category. Apparently, Bush had been worried about his choice of awards show headwear, a fedora.
“I told him, it doesn’t matter what the lid looks like, it’s what’s in the jar,” Nettles said.
Awaiting the birth of his second child, Brad Paisley chimed in via satellite from Tennessee. How’d he like the show?
“Actually, we watched a DVD of The Dark Knight,” Paisley joked. “No, really, I felt like it was a great cross-section of music. You had Jamey Johnson, firmly planted in tradition, and then the more progressive stuff. There’s room for both. We’ve probably seen the last of where the Top 20 is all full of traditional country songs. That’s not going to happen again. But as long as we have a few people around who have that sort of sound, I think we’re going to be okay. Anyway, I was so impressed by the songs tonight. It seemed like everybody had great songs.”
Asked about the pending birth, Paisley said, “Actually, Kimberly is on her way to the hospital. I’m just going to hang out here. No, kidding. She’s doing fine. April 5 was our due date. I told (ACM producer) Rac Clark, “She’ll be early.
She wasn’t early.
James Otto, who co-wrote song of the year winner “In Color” with Johnson and Lee Thomas Miller, said he was “blown away” by the award.
“I was so blown away that I forgot to thank my wife. I meant to. I love her. Thanks, Amy Katherine.”
McGraw leaves rehearsalTim McGraw left a rehearsal on Saturday evening, thus calling into question his role in Sunday's awards show.
No official reason was given for McGraw's departure, though conjecture centured around his unhapiness with the set design and television presentation.
Saturday evening, update on Kristofferson Rolling Stone pieceIn Friday's Tennessean, we ran a celebrity column item about a Kris Kristofferson profile that is running in the current issue of Rolling Stone.
In that story, as we reported, author Ethan Hawke (yep, the famed actor) described a backstage confrontation between Kristofferson and an unnamed country star who sounded an awful lot like Toby Keith. Hawke was at the 2003 Willie Nelson birthday concert at Madison Square Garden, and he wrote of seeing Kristofferson and the unnamed star having a near-violent altercation.
The Rolling Stone article also included comments from a college classmate about Kristofferson's scholarly career.
Saturday, Kristofferson responded with a note to Rolling Stone that he copied to The Tennessean. Here is the note, in its entirety.
"I'm deeply grateful and was profoundly moved by Ethan Hawke's generous and respectful story about me. I have to say, though, I have no memory of talking so tough to anyone at Willie's birthday party - least of all to Toby Keith, (if that's who the nameless star is), for whom I have nothing but admiration and respect. And contrary to what the college classmate said, I never was President of any class in college, or on the debating team, writing club, or played baseball. I hated politics and never ran for anything."
So, that means that in his young life all Kristofferson really achieved was being a Golden Gloves boxer, a college football player, a Rhodes scholar, a military officer with a West Point commission and a published short story author (in Atlantic Monthly). And then he moved to Nashville and became one of American music's greatest songwriters. Oh, and then there's the acting thing.
Toby Keith, by the way, will perform on the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards show Sunday night.
Saturday afternoonRehearsals continued today, with Tim McGraw and others working through their songs. There's a lot of buzz about the Trace Adkins segment, which is intended as an emotional high-point in the show. The Academy's charity arm is called Lifting Lives, and the Trace section has something to do with that charity.
McGraw actually had two rehearsals, one as a solo act and one as a duo with wife Faith Hill.
Friday eveningFriday, Southwest Airlines flights were packed to the gills with Nashville musicians and Music Row types flying away from Music City’s tempestuous weather and into a Las Vegas that felt more like foggy London. Clouds, blustery wind, cool temperatures and all such as that. Sitting in a hotel room here, the only way to tell that this is Vegas is by looking out the window at the Statue of Liberty. A hotel attendant told me that it’s not the real Statue of Liberty, but it shines as bright and true as the day that the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria sailed into Las Vegas harbor.
Enough with the history lessons. Friday found country stars rehearsing for Sunday’s Academy of Country Music Awards show in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Reba McEntire will host. Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and others prepared in the arena, while the CBS folks worked on camera blocking. Rac Clark, son of Dick Clark, is the producer, and he spent a long day at the Arena.
I stopped by Lambert’s rehearsal, and I would guess that her portion of the show will wind up as a highlight. While some artists sing over pre-recorded backing tracks, Lambert and her band are playing live.
“We always play live,” she said. “My band is awesome, so why would I sing to tracks?”
The difference in karaoke-style performances and actual live stage turns is not at all subtle. There’s an energy that came through in Lambert’s rehearsal that will surpass the energy of some others’ performances on the Sunday night show.
Lambert will be doing new song “Dead Flowers” (no, not the Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers”), which she wrote on her own.
“We’ve only played it three times, live, so I’m nervous,” she said. “But I trust this band, and if I screw up they’ll follow me.”
Back to the weather deal, as it matters for several reasons. One reason, of course, is that visiting journalists might experience a chill when moving from hotel to hotel for… uh, research purposes. The biggest reason, however, is that microphones don’t sound good when wind hits them. And the big show on Fremont Street, featuring Jason Aldean, Jake Owen, Julianne Hough and Matt Stillwell, was a little wind-whipped. The weather should be better tomorrow night, when LeAnn Rimes, Kellie Pickler, the Zac Brown Band (fresh off a Thursday night appearance on Craig Ferguson’s television show) and Gloriana are performing.
The big show begins at 7 p.m. Nashville time on Sunday evening. Until then, I’ll be posting updates on what’s happening until then.
Wait, huge update from the casino floor: Singer-songwriter Chris Richards just won $300 on a .25 cent slot machine. Also, the Tar Heels are giving seven and a half points in Saturday’s game against Villanova.
Tennessean