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Thomas Rhett ACM Won Male Artist Among His ‘Best Friends’

Thomas Rhett is feeling great today as he returns to Nashville carrying his Male Artist of the Year Award from the ACMs in Las Vegas. He said backstage after the…

Thomas Rhett ACM Won Male Artist Among His 'Best Friends'

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – APRIL 07: Male Artist of the Year award winner Thomas Rhett poses in the press room during the 54th Academy Of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 07, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for ACM)

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Thomas Rhett is feeling great today as he returns to Nashville carrying his Male Artist of the Year Award from the ACMs in Las Vegas.

He said backstage after the win, “We never go into awards shows assuming or expecting anything. We’re just glad to be there, glad to be nominated.”

Thomas was thrilled to win, but he would have been happy for anyone in his category to have been the winner because he says, “I was just looking at that card they gave me, just looking at those names in that category, like, I said this up there … actually, I don’t know what I said, I think I rambled a lot, but like all those people in that category, man, are like truly like my best friends and I listen to their music and we hang out and the fact that like their music has shaped who I am and I’ve took a lot of things from them and gone, ‘Gosh, I love that, can we try to do something for me in that vein.’ It’s just really, really such an honor to win that award.”

Rhett continued, “It just gave me affirmation, honestly. It is really cool going into an awards show knowing that you’re nominated, first of all. And I know that I say this all the time, it’s the most cliché comment ever, but truly, just to be nominated is a dream come true.”

-Nancy Brooks

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.