2018 ACM Awards Fail to Pay Tribute to Fallen Country Greats From Past Year
When we saw the expansive list of performances scheduled for the 2018 ACM Awards Sunday night (4-15) in Las Vegas, we knew something would need to be axed from the presentation to make room. During most every awards show in the modern era, country music or otherwise, there is usually a segment where the artists, entertainers, and/or dignitaries of note who have passed away in the last year are honored with at least a quick graphic or some other note to remember their legacy, if not an outright tribute performed in their memory by today’s stars.
Sometimes these segments stir dissent because fans feel they’re too short, and often a name or two is inadvertently left out, which is natural. But to not have an In Memoriam segment at all is a little unusual, especially when you’ve had so many significant deaths recently, like country music has since the last ACM Awards installment.
Perhaps you can’t run down every single artist who has passed away in the last year that has some affiliation with country music. But how long would it have taken to at least mention the name of Daryle Singletary, who passed away tragically at the age of 46 in February, leaving behind a 3-year-old, 5-year-old, and two 7-year-olds? Why not just give a passing note to Don Williams and Troy Gentry who passed away on the same day in September? Troy Gentry died in a tragic helicopter accident, and Montgomery Gentry was nominated for the ACM Vocal Duo of the Year every year between 1999 and 2009. Or how about Glen Campbell who won 10 ACMs in his career, including a Lifetime Achievement Award? Or Mel Tillis who is yet another one of many artists who’ve passed since last April?
In fact for all of the talk heading into the ACM Awards about the proximity to the biggest massacre in modern United States history at the Route 91 Harvest Festival site in Vegas, there wasn’t really much memorializing going on at all, or even any mentioning of it. While the media made a big deal about the significance of the event, aside from an opening segment where Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Maren Morris, and Thomas Rhett remembered the victims in a short speech, and some images of survivors in the crowd and such were captured quickly on camera throughout the night, there really wasn’t much mention of it at all.
Comparatively, the CMA Awards in November 2017 had a stirring tribute, both for the Route 91 Harvest Festival victims, and an extended In Memoriam segment as Carrie Underwood sang. Historically, the CMAs have always outclassed the ACMs, but where the CMAs stepped up, the ACMs seemed to side step the opportunity when it was theirs to seize being so close to the tragedy, perhaps not wanting to come across as opportunistic, or perhaps not wanting to broach what has become a politically contentious subject.
Host Reba McEntire did a great job on the evening weaving in wit and reverence in the right amounts, but would it have killed the producers to give her even 15 seconds to mention the names of Singletary, Campbell, Williams, Gentry, and Tillis, if nobody else? This was former Grand Ole Opry manager Pete Fisher’s first go-round operating the ACM Awards since taking the top spot at the organization, and he may have not had time to fully implement his vision for the awards this year. Some of the nominations were strange, including “Whiskey and You” from Chris Stapleton’s older album Traveller being nominated for Song of the Year, and only four nominees in the New Female Vocalist of the Year category.
No presentation is going to be perfect, and no matter what you do with an In Memoriam segment, someone is going to complain about who got left out, how long it was given, or how well it was done. Lets face it, remembering the dead is a downer, and in the fast-paced world of music presentations when you’re trying to keep the television audience attentive, it’s risky to dive too deep into the effort. But making some kind of effort you think would be better than making no effort at all.
April 16, 2018 @ 8:02 am
Williams, Campbell and Singletary would only remind people how good country music was…..can’t have that now.
April 16, 2018 @ 8:11 am
Oh wow, so sorry we missed seeing them promise a tribute to someone then splash a picture of them on the wall for fifteen seconds. I can’t believe we didn’t get that riveting and emotional tribute!
April 16, 2018 @ 8:16 am
They probably didn’t want to pay tribute to people.
let’s face it, if any of these dunderheads who like Jason Aldean found out about Glen Campbell or Mel Tillis, half of them would be too ignorant to get it and the other half might stop listening to Jason Aldean and the big record companies need people to be uninformed about his lack of talent in order to keep them engaged.
it’s like the simulation. don’t tell people its trash and dont let them find out so you can get rich.
April 16, 2018 @ 8:23 am
Make a list read the names of those who had passed them have a moment of silence ..that wouldn’t be hard don’t need a song..we know there music
April 16, 2018 @ 8:26 am
That’s what happens with ignorant, shallow minded, superficially conscious, pretentious idiots.
April 16, 2018 @ 1:06 pm
It ain’t country any more it is something else but us old people can remember what country music really was I am 78 and still remember it for what it was
April 17, 2018 @ 3:04 pm
What do you expect. Pete Fisher is in charge. He ruined the Grand Ole Opry with his attitude toward the older members, so why would he have a segment to honor those who have passed.
April 16, 2018 @ 8:30 am
Carrie singing “Softly and Tenderly” at the CMA’s was indeed a great tribute, even if there were some complaints about the camera work in relation to the images of those lost. It’s yet another example of how the CMA’s have been routinely upstaging the ACM’s for however many years now.
November 19, 2018 @ 9:10 am
Sadly, the CMA’s omitted the tribute this year. Carrie’s song over last year’s was haunting and beautiful.
April 16, 2018 @ 8:31 am
They didn’t even mention Merle Haggard’s name after he passed. I think the ACMs just don’t have Memoriam segment. And who cares? Does it really matter? Does it make an artist’s career any greater or less if they take 30 seconds to recognize his/her death? I always thought those segments to be ridiculous and a little too late. I also don’t believe in funerals, so to each their own. But a memoriam segment wasn’t the reason that show was good or bad.
April 16, 2018 @ 8:37 am
They let Alan Jackson, Reba McEntire and Toby Keith be part of a tribute to 1993. Isn’t better to allow them that moment when they are still alive than giving them a few seconds after they are dead?
April 29, 2018 @ 8:01 pm
I thank the idols that thank that crap that they call country is country are totally insane they won’t no a country song if it hit Tim up side there head . That crap they are putting out is a joke and insulting too people as myself who loves real country music
April 16, 2018 @ 9:07 am
I completely disagree. Remembering the dead is basic human decency and respect. And in the country genre in particular, with its pride in continuity from one generation to the next (however much that is currently breaking down), this is especially true. It may not make an artist’s career any greater, but it does honor that career. The Academy of Country Music needs to get its act together and do the right thing next year.
April 16, 2018 @ 9:51 am
Does the Country genre really still have “pride in continuity” anymore? That is probably true amongst the “traditionalist” fanbase, but the modern, radio Country fanbase that so much of the music showcased last night is aimed at, I don’t think they really care.
I mean, we are in the Bobby Bones generation of Country fans now, i.e. fans who likely have no idea who Don Williams or Glen Campbell were because they grew up listening to Nickelback and Britney Spears and transitioned to Country radio because modern Pop music is aimed at tweens and teens and Sam Hunt/Jason Aldean/Maren Morris are basically diet Nickelback and Spears anyway.
April 16, 2018 @ 10:16 am
Hence, my parenthetical comment: “however much that is currently breaking down”
So, yeah, I basically agree, but even the urban pop acts in country music, like Sam Hunt, Kane Brown, Kelsea, Maren, etc., all talk about their country influences that they grew-up with, even though they’ll also talk about other genre influences. It’s their way of trying to claim legitimacy in the country genre, knowing that continuity (however superficial or fake) is still important for how the country genre thinks about itself.
April 16, 2018 @ 10:23 am
Does the Country genre really still have “pride in continuity” anymore?
No, at least not as far as it’s represented by Nashville and Music Row. The Texoma and Americana folks do, along with many other non-mainstream folks who don’t fit under those umbrellas, but that’s as far as it goes anymore.
April 20, 2018 @ 8:26 am
Country isn’t Country anymore, it’s pop music for the most part. Country has it’s Grass Roots in alot of forms from Gospel Music. This sentiment was represented in honoring & eulogy of those that came before us. Its common descency & respect.It is these former Artist alive or dead that have paved the way for the present artist of today. Without Hank Williams Sr, Lefty Frizell, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Conway or George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Tanya,Patsy Cline then George Sraight, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks,Dwight Yokum, Reba, might not have been inspired to sing Country Music. Even current artist are inspired from their predecessors. Chris Stapeltons hit Tennessee Whiskey would have never been without ole Possum.. You don’t disrespect the hand that feeds you or paved the way so you can sit up there & sing something they would have probably changed the channel to. I honestly have not listened to “current” country in almost 20 years. I’ll continue to listen to my old school songs..
April 16, 2018 @ 6:18 pm
Agree with you. I’d much rather see/hear Alan, Reba and Toby perform than hear a litany of names read off to a crowd that doesn’t even know who those people were. The show is performance-driven. They’d probably lose their network TV contract if they did the type of backward looking show that a small number of people are demanding.
April 17, 2018 @ 5:02 am
You are not a true country fan if you truly are this disrespectful!
April 17, 2018 @ 11:32 am
Grandma’s Carrot Celery Pecan Jell-O® Salad
Directions
Spray a 3-cup gelatin mold with cooking spray.
Dissolve orange gelatin in boiling water in a bowl; stir in cold water, salt, and reserved pineapple juice. Chill until partially thickened, about 45 minutes. Mix carrots, celery, pecans, and pineapple into gelatin and pour into prepared gelatin mold.
April 16, 2018 @ 8:33 am
It almost seemed as though the program was going out of its way NOT to make too much mention of the incident in Vegas . And as you point out , Trigger , perhaps it WAS intentional and perhaps they were ‘following orders ‘ from higher-ups .
Ignoring the fallen greats ….people who made the country music industry the success that it still is….was simply disrespectful and unforgivable .This kind of thing is not an oversight and this omission undermines many of the positive attributes of the program ( Reba ) as well as playing down the contributions of those greats in the eyes of newer artists . These were the shoulders the young stars stand on .
April 16, 2018 @ 8:41 am
While I did not watch the ACM awards show, I can’t say I’m surprised.And it’s not just the ACM’s either.Someone told me they watched the CMA’s after Kitty Wells passed,and no tribute was given to her with very little mention of her passing.
April 16, 2018 @ 8:50 am
It’s all about short-term commerce with these bullsh*tters.
Their main advertiser next year should be Skittles.
Next.
April 16, 2018 @ 3:28 pm
”short-term commerce ”
dead on C..
shit , disposable trendy songs , for the most-part,slapped together to make $$$$ not to hit home , resonate, or relate to MOST people lyrically ….and certainly not melodically . although I thought last nights offerings were better overall than years past …
April 16, 2018 @ 9:17 am
Four of the truly, all-time great country musicians have passed. And for the record, Glen Campbell was one the best guitarists/session players ever! He did a really cool interview with the great guitarist/session master Steve Lukather of Toto awhile back and they both played each others guitar riffs and talked all things guitar. Daryle Singletary and Don Williams’ voice and lyrics were the quintessential country sound that resonated perfectly. And Troy Gentry was a great songwriter/vocalist/engineer/guitarist. R.I.P. to all of these great men that will certainly be missed.
April 16, 2018 @ 9:33 am
Well, as I have put it before, Nashville is pandering to an audience that doesn’t give a shit about any music that came out before about 2010, so this isn’t surprising.
Still bullshit though.
April 16, 2018 @ 10:47 am
I have to say that I put that mess on at work last night and I prayed to high heaven no one would walk in and see me watching that crap. What an embarrassment!!! Save the couple nods to actual country (I don’t consider fluff 90s pop country amazing like some of the audience members attempting to sing along), there was not a go—amend thing country about that sh~~show last night! I have never seen so many worthless goobers in rhinestones and dork hats in my life!!! Wth?? That ain’t my country, and you boys need to take your skinny jeans, doufus haircuts and sneakers back under the rock yall crawled out from!!!! Where are the real men???
April 16, 2018 @ 3:35 pm
‘that ain’t my country, and you boys need to take your skinny jeans, doufus haircuts and sneakers back under the rock y’all crawled out from!!!! Where are the real men???”
I may be really REALLY old school here …but man you nailed it with the ‘doufus haircuts ” comment , Countrygirl . Everyone seems to go so far out of their way to look , sound and act trendy its almost embarrassing to see it . And Keith Urban just looks SOOO out of touch ….like he doesn’t know what era he belongs in no matter how he dresses. But the kings have to be FGL ….what the hell was up with THOSE ‘country’ costume and that ‘Jesus” hairdo ??
April 16, 2018 @ 10:54 am
Also, I just have to say, they might be the nicest people on earth but is Little Big Town not the most tacky, ill advised fashionably challenged group you’ve ever seen??? .. For years now!!!! No taste whatsoever!!!!
April 16, 2018 @ 11:11 am
Heroes were not honored but Aldean was. What a joke. Can you imagine how many lives he could’ve saved if he’d said get down!!!! Run!!!! He only thought of himself. That ain’t no entertainer of the year.
April 16, 2018 @ 12:09 pm
Yeah, I can imagine. Probably Zero.
There’s no reason to think that Jason Aldean yelling anything would have saved any lives. The visual of him running off the stage was more communicative than anything he could have said into the microphone. And everyone in the crowd heard the shots and saw the pandemonium just as much as clearly as Aldean did.
And the killer at the hotel room window kept firing as long has he had time and ammo. The crowd was right there in front of him.
April 16, 2018 @ 3:13 pm
BS. The crowd was confused and thought they heard firecrackers or it was part of the show. If he had announced there was a problem more lives wouldve been saved. You’re in denial. Accept it and make excuses to the victims families.
April 16, 2018 @ 6:10 pm
Oh, shut up. I haven’t heard of any “victims’ families” blaming Jason Aldean!
A maniac was firing a semi-automatic weapon into a crowd. People tried to run, but they were penned in. It was an arena. Jason Aldean communicated the crisis by fleeing the stage. To blame the singer on the stage–and to come up with some fantasy of how Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard would have been heroes in such a situation is just sick. Heck, Cash and Haggard were both using various drugs and fighting addiction for significant stretches of their careers. Maybe they’d have been disoriented at the sudden sound of gunfire and unable to do or say much at all. Who knows? Nobody.
April 17, 2018 @ 12:29 am
Give me a break and I don’t have to shut up. Aldean didn’t communicate crap. He ran like a sissy boy, with no regard for his fans. You saying Johnny and merle were dopes up is what’s sick. How dare you?
April 16, 2018 @ 11:21 am
I can’t imagine Merle Haggard or Johnny Cash hearing ‘shots fired’ in their earpiece and doing nothing to help their fans. They made a mockery of the acm awards forever.
April 17, 2018 @ 8:23 am
Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard both acknowledged and spoke about and wrote about their personal experiences with addiction and redemption. Try to act like an adult, not some 12-year-old fangirl who believes her idols are perfect and anyone she doesn’t like must be the Devil incarnate.
If you’re on a stage, totally exposed. and bullets are being fired in the direction of the stage, you get the hell off. That’s what any normal human being would to.
April 16, 2018 @ 12:32 pm
Each year the show dims, soon there will be NO MORE LIGHT !! 🕯
April 16, 2018 @ 3:18 pm
Didn’t even think about watching the ACM’s this year. As far I’m concern it is just another bad rerun from last year. Same artists, same songs, same winners.
April 16, 2018 @ 3:26 pm
This is the first time they have not done a inMemoriam , usually they do a very good job of honoring the dead.
April 16, 2018 @ 3:38 pm
They couldn’t honor the Vegas victims if they were going to honor plastic poseur Aldean. Boycott they acm and everything about it.
April 16, 2018 @ 3:45 pm
The ultimate snub: acm awards Vegas 2018
#vegasstrong
April 16, 2018 @ 3:54 pm
I bet it’s almost safe to say the CMT awards in June will say very little,if any,about these guys passing,considering the disrespect they gave George Jones and Merle Haggard when they passed.
April 16, 2018 @ 4:07 pm
Man I don’t know what we’re gonna do about country. Seriously. I think it’s time to kick some ass
April 16, 2018 @ 6:06 pm
If Pete Fisher brings the attitude to the ACM that he brought to the Grand Ole Opry, then I feel sorry for the ACM. He has absolutely no respect for older country artists or traditions. The ACM and Awards Show will only get worse in my opinion. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to find out that not having a memorial segment was Pete’s idea.
April 16, 2018 @ 6:18 pm
ITS SO SAD THEY DONT EVEN PAY TRIBUTE TO LOST ARTISTS WHO HAVE PAST AWAY THEY WILL ALL BE LEGENDS SOME DAY THEY NEED A PRODUCER WITH A HEART TOO !! KATHERINE LOFTIN ELMORE AND WE WILL MISS EVERYONE WE LOST FOR SURE SOME WENT WAY TO SOON FOR SURE !!!
April 17, 2018 @ 1:17 am
Problem is all those guys are country, and the ACM’s want nothing to do with country.
April 17, 2018 @ 5:24 am
I am 70 and as a child I listened to THE GRAND OPRY on Saturday nights
along with my mama, daddy and grandparents since we did not own a tv.
To me that was REAL country music. For about the last five years I have not wanted to turn a radio on, if I want to listen to REAL country music I get out my collection of old record albums and the record player and my collection of old 8 tracks and the 8 track player. The old timers of REAL country music sang from the heart and that makes all the difference to me.
April 17, 2018 @ 11:01 am
Don’t let Maren Morris see this. She went OFF on Rolling Stone for criticizing the lack of Vegas tributing.
April 17, 2018 @ 3:43 pm
I was so disappointed they said nothing about the passing of our great country music singers. It was heartless of them!!!!
April 7, 2019 @ 9:09 pm
I agree total
April 17, 2018 @ 5:41 pm
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/country/8337821/jason-aldean-acm-awards-las-vegas-shooting-survivors-rehearsal-video
April 18, 2018 @ 1:56 pm
I wonder if Alan Jackson ever once thought about doing his rendition of “It Must Be Love” in memory of Don Williams over “Chattahoochee”. Keep in mind, Alan is the man who had the bean bags to sing “Choices” in honor of George Jones back in late 1999 at the CMA award show as well as leaving when he saw Beyonce and the Dixie Chicks take the CMA award show stage together in late 2016 and it wouldn’t surprise me if we never see Alan take the award show stage again anyway and so this would have been the perfect time for Alan to put his final word out there should it really be his final opportunity to ever do such a thing in such a way should he have any more awesome thoughts to share with the world that he wrote stopped turning after 9/11 took place. If our legends are going to be pushed aside now, then I can’t think of a better person than Alan to say “Bite me!” to whoever has come up with such a disrespectful idea to ignore those who are no longer here and if they didn’t want Alan or anyone else in such a game, they shouldn’t have let it be known how the game is played in the first place!
God bless you and AJ and what is left of real country music always!!!
Holly in East Tennessee
April 18, 2018 @ 4:58 pm
The highly respected and great Mel Tillis!! What’s wrong with these people?