Always a bride’s maid, never a bride. With the CMA Awards coming back around once more, Dierks Bentley knows the feeling all too well — even though he’s the best singer in country music.
Poking a little sarcastic fun at his buddy and frequent CMA adversary, Chris Stapleton, the good-natured Bentley called in to Audacy’s Gunner and Cheyenne for a recent chat about all things “Beers On Me” and the 55th Annual CMA Awards, where he dropped a totally-joking bombshell. It seems Bentley is nominated in the Male Vocalist of the Year category — again — and he’s honestly getting tired of never winning.
“I’ve been nominated a few times; I think I’ve been nominated for Male Vocalist, honestly like maybe 12 times,” he says. “It’s a lot, and I’m super grateful for each one. I’ve never won that award, but I do get nominated a lot. I’m like the Susan Lucci of Male Vocalist nominations, but I’ll take it.”
According to some quick Wikipedia research, Lucci is the All My Children actress who was nominated 21 times for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, but only won once, in 1999 with her 19th nomination. It’s quite interesting that Bentley has this information ready to rattle off in radio interviews, but regardless, the country star went on to say a trophy would help prove what he’s known all along.
“It would be nice to win,” Bentley says. “I’ve been telling people for years I’m a better singer than Chris Stapleton, and no one believes me. If I had this hardware that’s backed by scientific data, people might actually start believing me when I say, ‘Yo, I’ve been telling you I’m a much better singer than Chris Stapleton, and look I have this plastic trophy here to prove it.’ It would really help put an end to the argument because I just don’t understand how people don’t understand that.”
Bentley goes on to explain that he is actually very honored to be nominated, whether he wins or not, and that it truly is very difficult to outshine Chris Stapleton in a singing competition. We’ll see what the CMA voters think November 10 at 8/7c on ABC, when the 55th Annual CMA Awards air live from Nashville. Bentley will get a chance to prove his point, when he takes the stage with BRELAND and HARDY to perform their new single, “Beers On Me.”