Follow-Up: Support Widens for Kershaw After CMA Red-Carpet Denial, as Chesnutt Speaks Out and a Fellow Singer Offers His Own Spot
The 60th annual CMA Awards will be held on November 18 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, in Davidson County, Tennessee. The dispute that began on the evening of November 5, when 1990s country star Sammy Kershaw posted that the Country Music Association (CMA) had denied his request to walk this year's red carpet, widened on November 6. After Riley Green, fellow country singers including Carly Pearce, Jake Owen and Meghan Patrick spoke out in Kershaw's support; Mark Chesnutt, who rose to fame in the same decade, published a long Facebook post on his behalf, and fans launched a petition calling on the association to invite Kershaw onto the carpet.
In his post, Chesnutt wrote that Kershaw would not be allowed to walk the red carpet at the big CMA Awards: "Well that's about right. The CMA doesn't care about us old 90s guys any more." He said it was a shame the association did not respect the stars who dominated the charts over the past thirty years and before, while rolling out the welcome mat for pop stars, Hollywood movie stars and even hip-hop artists, adding that "anything but country music" gets the performance spots on the show. He contrasted the country industry with rock and roll, saying rock honors its history and respects its legends while country music executives seem to ignore the genre's rich history and its legends, and he thanked fans for nearly forty years of showing up for traditional country music. According to Country Now, the post had drawn more than 10,000 likes and over 1,300 comments within about 40 minutes of publication.
Other artists weighed in under Kershaw's original post and on their own accounts. Pearce wrote: "Many of us wouldn't be here without artists like you." Owen's comment was a single line: "I'm team Sammy." Patrick questioned how influencers with, in her words, zero talent had been allowed on the carpet in previous years while Kershaw was not; Greylan James expressed a similar view, and Trey Lewis called the decision "outrageous."
Singer Drew Baldridge went further. In an Instagram Story he offered to give Kershaw his own red-carpet place: "I'll give my spot up for you, Sammy Kershaw... If you don't deserve to be there then I definitely don't."
On November 6 a fan also started a Change.org petition titled "Invite Sammy Kershaw to the 2026 CMA Awards," arguing that with this year's ceremony set to celebrate 1990s country, a red-carpet appearance for one of that era's defining artists would be a fitting tribute, and urging the awards committee to extend the invitation.
In his original post Kershaw said he had only wanted to walk the carpet for a few minutes with his wife, Mendy, that he had rearranged his tour schedule and booked flights and a hotel, and that after months of waiting he was turned down two weeks before the show, which he called "extremely hurtful, embarrassing and very disappointing." His manager has said the association's stated reason was an overwhelming number of requests and updated criteria Kershaw did not meet, and that he could buy tickets at roughly $800 or more apiece without a guarantee of being seated with the artists. The CMA has still not publicly responded to Kershaw's post; according to The Tennessean, its request for comment to the CMA also went unanswered.
Source: Mark Chesnutt's Facebook post
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 马克·切斯纳特演出资料图（USAG- Humphreys摄，CC BY 2.0，经Wikimedia Commons），非本次事件现场图
- 2026-11-06Sammy Kershaw Says the CMA Denied Him the Red Carpet: Manager Says He Could Buy $800-Plus Tickets Instead
- 2026-11-06Follow-Up: Support Widens for Kershaw After CMA Red-Carpet Denial, as Chesnutt Speaks Out and a Fellow Singer Offers His Own SpotThis story
