- Jelly roll offered hope for teens behind bars, as he was once where they are now
- Trisha Yearwood won the inaugural June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award
- Kelsea Ballerini is hosting this year for the fourth time in a row
The rapper-turned-country sensation Jelly Roll had one of the most moving moments at the 2024 CMT Music Awards on Sunday as he referenced his rise from prison to being an award-winning country music star.
He won his second award, for Male Video of the Year at the show held in Austin, Texas, for his video for his single Need A Favor.
Lainey Wilson also won her first big award of the evening when she won the complementary Female Video of the Year Award for Watermelon Moonshine.
Jelly Roll (real name: Jason DeFord) was charged with aggravated robbery at just 16, and despite being a minor, he was tried as an adult. He was facing a potential 20-year prison sentence, though he ended up serving around a year in prison and over seven years of probation afterward.
‘Speaking of chances, it’s important that I stand up here tonight and represent those who are looking for second chances,’ he declared.
Earlier, the tattooed hitmaker’s voice began to crack when he accepted his first award for CMT Performance of the year, which was for his performance at the 2023 CMT Awards. He praised his fans for how they had cemented his success.
‘What I am emotional about is, in the last year, you have changed my life in every way I would have never thought my life could be changed,’ he said, growing hoarse with emotion.
Jelly Roll also noted during his Performance of the Year Award acceptance speech that the CMT performance that earned him the award marked the first time he had ever been invited to perform at an awards show.
He also gave a shout out to his ‘beautiful wife’ Bunnie XO, who stood in the audience proudly beaming at him, as well as his daughter back at home.
Jelly Roll proved himself to be a good sport earlier in the show when host Kelsea Ballerini jokingly called him ‘Weird Barbie,’ referencing Kate McKinnon’s hilarious character in Greta Gerwig’s Margot Robbie–starring blockbuster Barbie.
Following fiery opening performances from three-time CMT winner Cody Johnson, three-time nominee Jason Aldean, and one-time winner Megan Maroney, the actor Paul Walter Hauser unveiled Carly Pearce and featured singer and musician Chris Stapleton as the first winners of the evening.
The two stars were honored with the award for Collaborative Video of the Year for their single We Don’t Fight Anymore.
Despite winning in a collaborative category, Pearce accepted the award solo, as Stapleton didn’t attend the show.
She thanked Stapleton for making all of her ‘dreams come true’ by joining her on the song.
After Carly’s opening win, rising star Ashley Cooke was over the moon after being declared the winner of Breakthrough Female Video of the Year for her song Your Place.
‘I’m just taking a minute to soak this in, because I have dreamed of winning an award like a CMT award for so long,’ Ashley gushed. ‘This is my first CMT award and award in general, so thank you so much!’
Warren Zeiders declared that ‘God is good all the time’ when he was next called to the stage after winning the award for Breakthrough Male Video of the Year.
He also declared his father to be his ‘best friend’ and called him his ‘ride or die’ his entire life after noting that they were sitting together at the show.
One of the big honorary awards of the evening was the inaugural June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award, which was previously announced to honor Trisha Yearwood.
The songstress, who is also the wife of country legend Garth Brooks, joked that it’s ‘nice to know you won before you got here’ after the actress Jane Seymour presented the honor to her.
She also thanked the CMTs for naming the award after Cash, whom she called ‘one of the most fierce and coolest, most passionate women I was very luck to also known.’
Trisha praised the living members of the Carter–Cash family for allowing her ‘name to be said in the same sentence as June’s.’ She was seen at the show posing with John Carter Cash, the only child June shared with her third and final husband, Johnny Cash.
Trisha praised June for ‘walking the walk’ and living by her principles.
The Duo/Group Video of the Year Award went to Dan + Shay for Save Me The Trouble, but the country performers weren’t able to attend the CMTs, as they were just ‘about to go on stage in Kansas City’ as their award was announced.
They appeared via video feed showing them crouched down in a crawl space under the stage with just the camera’s light illuminating them.
‘We are about to go on. We just got the good news that we won Duo/Group Video of the Year,’ said Dan Smyers while crouched next to his collaborator Shay Mooney.
‘Go for Dan + Shay. Lower the stairs,’ he added as an entrance behind them opened up.
They crawled through a tiny hole leading to a set of stairs taking them up to their fans.
The fan-voted award show is airing live on CBS from Austin’s Moody Center, and fans can also stream the show live or on-demand on Paramount+ with the add-on Showtime subscription.
This year’s edition is hosted once again by country star Kelsea Ballerini, who served as host for the past three ceremonies. This year, however, marks the first time she will be doing the honors without a co-host.
She opened the show with a hilarious self-deprecating segment highlighting her loss to fellow country star Lainey Wilson at the Grammys, before launching into a segment revealing the inner thoughts of other musicians at the CMT awards.
Ballerini, who previously hosted with Kane Brown, told People: ‘It’s definitely new grounds for me.
‘But it’s my fourth year hosting, so I feel like I’ve learned a lot. And the good thing about CMT is there’s such a light energy, so there’s not a pressure that I feel to be perfect.
‘I just want to be fun, honor the night and help people have a good time.’
On top of hosting, Kelsea has been named as one of the night’s performers. Jason Aldean, Dasha, Trisha Yearwood, Sam Hunt and more will also be hitting the stage.
There will also be a performance paying tribute to the late Toby Keith featuring Brooks & Dunn, Sammy Hagar, Lainey Wilson and more, with Toby’s band will be backing the performance.
Billy Bob Thornton, Emma Roberts, James Van Der Beek, Jane Seymour, Mickey Guyton, and Jelly Roll are among the all-star presenters hitting the stage.
Nominees for this year’s awards show were announced last month.
In the female video of the year category, Ashley McBryde, Gabby Barrett, Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney and Reba McEntire square off.
In the breakthrough female video of the year, Anne Wilson, Ashley Cooke, Brittney Spencer and Tigirlily Gold are competing.
Morgan Wallen, one of the genre’s top stars — and also one of country music’s most controversial — received only one nomination: for male video of the year for ‘Last Night (One Record at a Time Sessions).’
He will be competing against Bailey Zimmerman’s ‘Religiously,’ Cody Johnson’s ‘The Painter,’ HARDY’s ‘Truck Bed,’ Jelly Roll’s ‘Need A Favor,’ Jordan Davis’ ‘Next Thing You Know’ and Luke Combs’ ‘Fast Car (Official Live Video).’
Wallen’s 2023 album, ‘One Thing at a Time,’ spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, making it the most popular album of any style last year. Its run broke a record previously held by Garth Brooks´s 1991 LP ‘Ropin´ the Wind’ by becoming the longest reigning No. 1 country album, ever.
In the breakthrough male video of the year category, Chayce Beckham, Tyler Childers, Warren Zeiders and Zach Bryan go head-to-head.
Other categories include Duo/Group Video of the Year, Collaborative Video of the Year, and CMT Performance of the Year.
There are also 14 first-time nominees this year, a list that includes some acts that go beyond country music – a direct reflection of CMT’s spotlight on genre-blending collaborations.
Those new names include Amber Riley, Ashley Cooke, Anne Wilson, Ella Langley, The Castellows, Tigirlily Gold, Bret Michaels, Chayce Beckham, Hozier, Koe Wetzel, Stephen Wilson Jr., Tyler Childers, Warren Zeiders, and Zach Bryan.
