Trent Reznor Has a CMA Award Due to Lil Nas X. Here’s Who Doesn’t.
As easily predicted, Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus won the 2019 CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year for their collaboration on the genre-bending summer smash “Old Town Road.” The win was announced early Wednesday (11-13) on ABC’s Good Morning America program ahead of the CMA Awards later in the evening, along with Kacey Musgraves winning Video of the Year for “Rainbow.”
As well as the win being rabidly predictable, it’s hard to say that it’s undeserved. “Old Town Road” was an event-and-a-half in 2019, or more like an Odyssey, with all the drama and intrigue any song could possibly accrue following along its flight path to becoming the longest-running #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, regardless of how misguided and manufactured by the media it all was. And if “Old Town Road” was going to win anything, this was the award it was most qualified for. The Musical Event category sometimes features collaborators from outside of the genre, if you want to consider Lil Nas X an outsider to country and not the rightful heir to the country music castle for wearing a cowboy hat and including a ripped banjo sample in his one song that can be construed as country, of course.
But even if you’re a staunch country music purist and want to check Lil Nas X and “Old Town Road” at every turn, it’s hard to get too worked up about the song winning an off-camera, also-ran award. Be happy they gave him something, because otherwise the howls from the media outside of country that love to slam and mischaracterize country music, and that have all employed outright lies to defend Lil Nas X from feigned abuses, would have been incredible, and probably still will be since he didn’t win any and all awards he was eligible for.
Also, for the people who say it’s an offense to not have Lil Nas X on the CMA Awards presentation proper (which are surely coming), trust me, the CMA’s would have given a kidney to have him on the presentation this year. It would have been a ratings boon during this era when appointment television is dwindling in stature. But Lil Nas X announced at the end of September that he was stepping away from the public spotlight for a while. It was Lil Nas X’s decision not to be there. Not the CMAs, or “country music.”
In a strange plot twist to “Old Town Road” winning a CMA Award, so does industrial artist Trent Reznor, known as the sole member of the band Nine Inch Nails. It’s Reznor’s banjo sample from the Nine Inch Nails song “34 Ghosts IV” that Lil Nas X stole for “Old Town Road,” only asking permission to use the sample after the song was blowing up. Reznor was eventually credited as a “producer” on “Old Town Road,” which means he shares in the CMA honor. That’s right, Trent Reznor now has a CMA Award.
And good for him. Trent Reznor has been an incredibly creative and influential musician for decades. But one of the arguments against allowing Lil Nas X and “Old Town Road” free reign in country music has always been that it overshadows artists and bands who devoted their whole lives to the genre, and have never received a dream-making accolade like a CMA Award. For example, with “Old Town Road” winning Musical Event of the Year, it beats out “What Happens in a Small Town” by Brantley Gilbert and Lindsey Ell. Granted, that’s not a particularly great song either, but these two performers are a perfect example of artists who’ve worked within the country fold for years, yet have never been graced with CMA hardware.
In fact the list of country artists that have never won a CMA Award like Trent Reznor and Lil Nas X now have will shock you, and includes Country Music Hall of Famers, and bona fide legends who are household names. Lil Nas X and “Old Town Road” have already won numerous awards, and are likely to win more come American Music Awards and Grammy time. But Country Music Association Awards are supposed to be for country artists. Trent Reznor and Lil Nas X now have one. But inexplicably, these men and women don’t.
Artists Who’ve Never Won a CMA Award
- Marty Robbins – Hall of Famer
- Tom T. Hall – Hall of Famer
- Dwight Yoakam
- Rosanne Cash
- Eddie Rabbit
- Chris Young
- Lee Brice
- Craig Morgan
- Kellie Pickler
- Johnny Paycheck
- David Allan Coe
- Mickey Gilley
- Randy Houser
- Gene Watson
- Sturgill Simpson
- Scotty McCreery
- Clay Walker
- …and many more.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated. A previous version claimed that Marty Stuart had not won a CMA Award. Marty won the 1992 Vocal Event of the Year with Travis Tritt.
November 13, 2019 @ 12:16 pm
Marty Stuart did win Vocal Event of the Year with Travis Tritt in 1992, according to the CMA website.
More to the point, I long for the days when an “event” was about great music rather than “drama”. They created that award for Trio.
November 13, 2019 @ 12:46 pm
Thanks for catching that. The story has been updated.
November 13, 2019 @ 5:58 pm
To be fair, “Trio” was not only an Event, but a Dramatic one as well. But I think even the Event part has been taken out as of late, replaced by gaudy spectacle.
November 14, 2019 @ 1:37 pm
Well, it was dramatic because Dolly, Linda and Emmylou were three great singers getting together to make music. It’s a bit different from the sort of social media controversy Old Town Road represents.
November 13, 2019 @ 12:41 pm
Trent didn’t win anything for “Hurt”? I thought surely he would have, at least somehow video-wise.
November 13, 2019 @ 4:19 pm
Well then consider this his makeup prize a la Carrie
November 13, 2019 @ 12:46 pm
How did Reznor not already have hardware for Cash’s cover of Hurt?
November 13, 2019 @ 1:19 pm
“Hurt” won single of the year, which is a singer award and not for the songwriter.
November 13, 2019 @ 1:10 pm
Is the CMAs going to feature bull ridin and boobies tonight!?
November 13, 2019 @ 1:17 pm
Of course. Doesn’t it always? Lots of half-dressed dancers with pink hair gyrating to rap music too. Now that’s country!
November 13, 2019 @ 1:36 pm
Aggc,
That’s right. And they will be scantily clad women who whine because all they are seen for are sex objects. Heck, you bait the mousetrap and then complain when a mouse shows up. Duh! I wonder if Carrie Underwear would sound as good if she wore something covering the knees.
November 13, 2019 @ 3:55 pm
no
November 15, 2019 @ 1:06 pm
Don’t even suggest it! I love those knees!
November 13, 2019 @ 4:36 pm
Kacey Musgraves has been teasing us for a long time. Maybe tonight she incorporates the stripper pole into her act.
November 13, 2019 @ 2:08 pm
I had to go look up Dwight. I’d have bet the house “Streets of Bakersfield” won Vocal Event/Duet/Collaboration of the year. I did find this (whatever it is) listed:
Country Music Association Award for International Touring Artist (2007)
Dwight did get some kind of CMA award.
November 13, 2019 @ 4:54 pm
I thought the same thing re Dwight and Buck.
But looking back now, I seem to recall that there was no “Vocal Event” category back then.
At some point later, the CMAs came up with the “Vocal Event” category to distinguish between one-shot collaborations like Dwight and Buck–or Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett; Toby Keith and Willie Nelson, etc.–and continuing duo acts like Brooks & Dunn or Montgomery Gentry.
November 13, 2019 @ 2:09 pm
The Country Music Association wears a crown of shit upon its liar’s chair.
November 13, 2019 @ 3:15 pm
it almost seems that unless you’re in it ONLY for the fame , fortune and ego ( and your label is holding a gun to your head ) its become hipper to distance yourself from these three ring circuses and go on about your business . even the serious artists understand what it really all about …..MARKETING !
oh …and this . aside from the fact that they may be the LEAST ‘country’ of ANY group , how the hell does LADY A’s ‘name keep coming up ? are they still in the music business ? I can’t recall hearing anything from them up here in the great white north for a long long time. even the little big starland vocal band abba clones has an actual good COUNTRY song on the radio right now ( OVERDRINKIN ) and they are possibly the worse offenders of the genre since the band perry .
November 13, 2019 @ 4:33 pm
I’ve gotta admit I’m amazed by some of the “never-won-a-CMA”ers on that list.
Marty Robbins?
To be fair, “El Paso” would have won a bunch of CMA’s–had the CMA’s existed when that single and the “Gunfighter” album were released. But I know I’ve seen a video of Marty performing “My Woman, My Woman, My Wife,” where he (somewhat) jokingly brags that it won “Song of the Year.” I guess it wasn’t a CMA that he was referring to.
And how could Dwight and Buck not have won at least “Vocal Event” or Duet for “Streets of Bakersfield”?!
November 19, 2019 @ 4:12 am
The Robbins song won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1971.
November 13, 2019 @ 4:39 pm
IMO at this point, a CMA is now something to be ashamed of. Change my mind.
November 13, 2019 @ 8:00 pm
Is it really a crime that Kellie Pickler doesn’t have a CMA??
November 14, 2019 @ 6:41 am
Trent Reznor wrote “Hurt”, this he has country credentials as far as I’m concerned. That other asshole jabroni, no. He’s an embarrassment and so is Billy Ray “Zac Brown Sr” Cyrus
November 14, 2019 @ 12:31 pm
Sure, Trent Reznor does have some country cred, and I have a lot of respect for him. I had my dalliance with Nine Inch Nails when I was young and pissed off. But that’s kind of missing the point. Are we really going to give a CMA Award to someone because someone else stole a banjo riff from one of their songs when guys like Dwight Yoakam has never received one?
November 14, 2019 @ 7:39 am
I can’t fault Reznor for his win as he was basically an unwitting participant in the song’s creation. But I can be disgusted at Cyrus who saw somebody else’s star rising and immediately attached himself to it in a bid to boost his own diminishing fame.
November 14, 2020 @ 11:32 pm
I’m really late to this but it was actually Lil Nas who reached out to Billy Ray to get onto the song. Cyrus actually said he didn’t want to sing it cause he thought he would ruin the song but they wanted him for “country cred”. Although he probably knew what criticism was coming, I wouldn’t see it as him attaching onto him for fame.
November 19, 2019 @ 4:13 am
The No Award club is a pretty good club. They’d have a better show than the CMAs.
November 19, 2019 @ 10:00 am
By far …..