Jason Aldean Forgets CMA’s Are Rigged After Nominations

The nominations for the 45th Annual CMA Awards were announced this week, with one of the big winners being Jason Aldean, who is up for Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Single of the Year for his country rap song “Dirt Road Anthem”. If the voting falls in line with sales numbers, there’s a very good chance Aldean could virtually sweep the awards show. When talking to The Boot, Aldean seemed excited about the the nominations.

We’ve been to so many awards shows without me being up for anything, so to go to an awards show and be nominated, and in this case basically in most of the categories, it will be a whole different experience for me, a whole different thing to look forward to….In the past, we’ve gone to hang out and see everyone. This time it will be that, plus we might get to bring home an award or two. For me it’s a whole different excitement level and a whole different reason for being there.

But Jason Aldean seems quick to forget that less then a year ago, just before the 2010 CMA’s, he, along with prickly-haired Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts was panning the CMA’s and their nomination process, calling it rigged. Jason Aldean told The Associated Press:

The average fan doesn’t understand how all that stuff works and the industry probably doesn’t want them to. Fans watch a show and they get all up in arms because their favorite artist wasn’t nominated or didn’t win an award they were nominated for. Bottom line is it’s not based on anything, man. It’s based on who can rally the most troops for their guy, and sometimes this guy wins and sometimes that guy wins. It’s just kind of the way it all shakes down.

Huh. So it looks like Aldean’s views on the CMA’s have changed, now that he’s sitting on the brink of sweeping them off the strength of a rap country song. At the request from Saving Country Music to the Aldean camp to explain the sudden sea change in Aldean’s CMA stance, they sent over this video message they said would clarify everything:

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