The Country Music Association Awards are set to begin with a tribute to country music legend Loretta Lynn, who died on Oct. 4 at the age of 90.
Lynn entered the music business at a young age, and in 1971 released "Coal Miner's Daughter," the song she would become most known for in her career. She went on to win the CMA Award for female vocalist of the year in 1967, 1972 and 1973. Her other hits include "One's On the Way," Somebody Somewhere" and "Don't Come Home a-Drinkin."
The award show will feature a handful of performances. Kelsea Ballerini is set to take the stage with Kelly Clarkson and Carly Pearce to sing "YOU'RE DRUNK, GO HOME," as well as a duet between HARDY and Lainey Wilson singing "wait in the truck." The Zac Brown Band will team up with Jimmie Allen and Marcus King for "Out In the Middle."
Other performers who will take the stage that night include Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Carly Pearce, Carrie Underwood and Morgan Wallen, who will be singing his hit "You Proof."
PEYTON MANNING AND LUKE BRYAN 'GET IN SYNC' FOR CMA AWARDS: 'THAT IS NOT GOOD'
When it comes to hosting the show, Bryan and Peyton Manning are excited to have fun together on stage and aren't the least bit nervous about show night.
Bryan, who hosted the show in 2021, couldn't pass up the opportunity to poke a little fun at his co-host this year, by pointing out the increase in Manning's participation in commercials and various other TV appearances.
"I'm certainly not nervous about Peyton and him messing up because he's got this TV stuff down," Bryan explained. "Just watch the Super Bowl, he's 83% of all the commercials on the Super Bowl. The fun part about the night is there's always the beauty of being the host. It'll be fun for Peyton and I in the moment."
One element of the night Bryan can't get enough of is the energy he feels while hosting on stage. He compared the energy he feels while hosting to the energy professional athletes might feel when they walk out onto the basketball court or the football field, in the sense that there is an audience cheering for him.
"You get amped up. Not to make silly analogies, but for me, it's like going into a big football game, and the energy coming out and starting the show, delivering some fun jokes, roasting some of the entertainers out there," Bryan explained. "The room is a magic thing to be in, and it's up to us to just be natural and to have fun, and for the people at home to really see that we don't really take ourselves too seriously, but we take the night very seriously."
Manning and Bryan, who have been friends for quite some time, have no problem making jokes at each other's expense.
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"Luke and I played golf together years ago in Indianapolis, before he was playing a charity fundraiser for this children's hospital that I'm very involved with," Manning said. "A lot of golf courses, sometimes you'll show up in shorts, and they'll say, ‘Hey you have to wear long pants,’ but this was different, because you could wear shorts at this club, but Luke showed up in pants, but they were very tight pants. I'm like, ‘Luke you can’t wear those tight pants here.' We cut them off, and they became very tight shorts."
Added Bryan, "A great memory is when I actually, I played Mile High Stadium and Peyton comes out and Brandon Stokley and him, who played together for years, got a football backstage in the locker room and Peyton would just beam Stokley in the head with it whenever he wasn't looking, and it was fun to see those two torture each other."
The CMAs are set to air Wednesday, Nov. 9.