It’s Not About The Red Carpet. It’s About Respect

It was December of 2012, and a GAC Backstory episode featuring Blake Shelton caught the country superstar at the time saying, “Nobody wants to listen to their grandpa’s music. And I don’t care how many of these old farts around Nashville going, ‘My God, that ain’t country!’ Well that’s because you don’t buy records anymore, jackass. The kids do…”

On January 23rd, 2023 when Saving Country Music reposted and rebutted these comments, it sent off a firestorm of epic proportions. Country legend Ray Price took the lead in condemning the comments by Blake. Dozens of others joined in. Pretty soon, wherever you went in country music, that’s all people wanted to talk about. Dale Watson used the energy and anger the comments fueled to start his Ameripolitan Awards as an alternative to the CMAs. To this day, the reverberations of that moment are felt throughout country music.

It wasn’t just the specific comments that Blake Shelton made. It’s how they touched a nerve, and spoke to a very specific sentiment that many actual country fans knew was out there, but went unspoken. Blake Shelton gave voice to it, and made it real. That’s the same nerve that has been touched, and the same verification that was made when Sammy Kershaw came out publicly to say he’d been denied access to the red carpet for the 2026 CMAs coming up on November 18th.

It was always unlikely that Sammy Kershaw was alone. There’s likely dozens or hundreds of country legends, Grand Ole Opry members, let alone producers, songwriters, and side players that contribute so significantly to the music that also have had their requests denied, or would never even make those requests because they know they have no chance. Meanwhile, TikTok influencers, actors, online celebrities, athletes, and who knows else get invited, let alone approved.

Subsequently, scores of artists have come out and rallied behind Sammy Kershaw. And now, Rodney Adkins has said he suffered the same fate when he made a request to walk the red carpet as well.

Now there’s viral memes going around from fans declaring they will boycott the presentation. There is a call out there to hold an alternative awards show or some other sort of presentation for Sammy Kershaw, Rodney Atkins, and others to attend and potentially perform at.

You have to imagine that at some point, the CMAs will address this situation in some sort of meaningful manner. Far and away, this is the biggest scandal to rock country music in the last year, if not the last five years. Yet even if some sort of corrective action is taken, the curse is already cast. So much ill will has been allowed to fester for the CMAs. That energy will be poured into alternatives and opposition to the organization and the awards. Make no mistake about it, no matter how this matter resolves (or doesn’t), the decision by the CMA to not address it in a prompt manner was a major mistake.

Even corporate country talking head and syndicated DJ Bobby Bones said as much on Saturday (11-7), calling it a “PR disaster for the CMAs … It’s just gonna get worse and worse ’till someone clears it.” But Sunday came, and still no resolution, with scores of articles, and thousands of social media posts, memes, viral videos, etc., all sending the situation to the top of the country music zeitgeist and beyond. Now Monday morning has come, and still nothing.

In January, the Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern announced she would be retiring at the end of 2026. Though there are probably more people cheering on her departure now than there were previously, the truth is her tenure at the CMA was pretty unremarkable. However, what she continued to preside over was a level of exclusivity both at the CMAs, and the Country Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony (also the domain of the CMA) where only a select few get to participate in the process.

Brittany Schaffer, who is the former Dean of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University has been named as Sarah Trahern’s replacement as CMA CEO. She started training on the job on September 1st. Schaffer will officially take over on January 1st, 2027. It is in the midst of this leadership change that the read carpet fiasco is unfolding. Perhaps that is part of the reason for the slow response from the CMA.

People can dream big about destroying the CMA or launching some alternative or rival to it. The Academy of Country Music and the ACM Awards were originally launched as this very thing after West Coast country performers felt like they were being left out of the process in Nashville. That original charge to feature mostly West Coast-oriented performers was abandoned just a couple of years in. But even though the ACM Awards do rival the CMAs somewhat, the CMA is still the overarching organization that continues to govern country music as much as any single organization can, while the ACM is pretty much just an awards show with a charitable wing.

The Americana Music Association was founded in 1999 in large part due to how both aging artists and more independent artists were being overlooked in the industry. Ironically, now the AMA draws much ire annually for not being inclusive enough.

People who really know their country music history will also remember ACE. In 1974 after Olivia Newton-John won a CMA Award, a host of more traditional country artists met at the home of George Jones and Tammy Wynette and formed their own organization called “ACE,” or the Association of Country Entertainers. Others involved were Porter Wagoner, Jim Ed Brown, Dottie West, Brenda Lee, Faron Young, Conway Twitty, Hank Snow, Mel Tillis, and Dolly Parton. The organization didn’t last very long.

You’ve seen some say that the same sentiment behind Sammy Kershaw did not, or would not exist in previous generations. But this is the reason Waylon Jennings wrote “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way,” and had a #1 hit with it in 1975. This is the reason George Strait and Alan Jackson recorded “Murder On Music Row,” and won the CMA Vocal Event of the Year in 2000, and Song of the Year in 2001. This is the reason in 1999 when George Jones was told he had to sing an abbreviated version of his song “Choices” at the CMA Awards, Alan Jackson stopped down his own song to launch into “Choices” in protest.

Ironically, one of the special features the CMA has announced for the 2026 awards show is a “’90s tribute,” making the snubbing of Sammy Kershaw that much more ironic, and illustrating how the organization wants to capitalize off the current popularity of the era, but doesn’t want to do the actual work of honoring many of the artists who made the era so popular and important. Most of the planned tribute is said to be contemporary stars performing ’90s hits.

Perhaps now the CMAs ’90s tribute will be augmented to include some actual ’90s country stars, including Sammy Kershaw. But even if corrective action is taken now, it took a massive uproar to make it come about, the event might still suffer a serious boycott by fans.

Making sure that aging artists, independent artists, traditional artists, and up-and-coming artists are given equal opportunities is the entire reason an outlet like Saving Country Music was founded. It was in the aftermath of Blake’s Shelton’s “Old Farts and Jackasses” quotes that the outlet became part of a bigger national conversation. It was also in this aftermath that we saw the rise of Sturgill Simpson, Cody Jinks, and eventually, Chris Stapleton as Bro-Country started to draw the ire of the public, and listeners looked for something more.

Just what effects will the massive uproar over Sammy Kershaw’s denial have on the music itself? Only time will tell. It comes at a time when twang and classic country sounds are already in a resurgence, including in the mainstream, and especially with younger listeners. This is no longer about “old farts” as Blake Shelton once said. It also comes at a time when back catalog music is more popular than the current music coming out today. Listeners both young and old would rather hear the music of the past than what is being released today.

But instead of just channeling all the energy created by the Sammy Kershaw situation into hating on the CMAs, artists and active grassroots fans should make sure they’re also using this moment to pool resources, make important connections, figure out solutions to the issues plaguing aging and independent artists, including eliminating the intrinsic biases against aging artists at places like the CMA.

The red carpet is a silly tradition that’s based around prestige and fashion that in conventional circumstances is probably not worth even arguing over. But in this instance it exposed a deeper bias towards certain performers that many informed fans know has always been there, and never left. The next question needs to be, “What do we do about it?” Do we just shake our little fists, capitalize off it for social media traction or exposure, or get busy with the hard work of deconstructing the systems and attitudes that have put country legends in the back rows and out to pasture for too long?

From the very founding of the genre over 100 years ago, country music has always been about honoring the past and paying it forward. As soon as this ceases to be a priority in the genre, country music itself as we know it ceases to exist.

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