CMT Blog: CMT Music Awards

By now, most of you have seen the music video for "Thug Story," Taylor Swift and T-Pain's rap collaboration that premiered during the opening segment of the recent CMT Music Awards show. And judging by the comments posted on the CMT.com blog, many of you loved it, appreciating the tongue-in-cheek humor behind the song and video. On the other hand, others hated it, suggesting that the collaboration could potentially signal the end of country music as we know it. Well, additional behind-the-scenes footage has now surfaced from the video shoot that took place in the parking garage of Nashville's Sommet Center just a few days before the awards show. In watching it, it strikes me that Swift and T-Pain obviously have a great sense of humor. And regardless of how rich and famous you may be, a sense of humor is something that money can't buy.

Yesterday, I wrote my 1,000th blog. You can see that big fat number right next to my name on CMT.com's blog page. So I spent a completely inordinate amount of time sifting through those 1,000 blogs trying to find some kind of rhyme or reason or pattern in the way people respond. I gave up around midnight when all I had determined was that sometimes you just strike a nerve. And sometimes you don't.

I could pour out my heart about a new album. Rave about lyrics. Rant about haters. Or I could try to put into words my devotion to Garth Brooks' music. I could talk nonstop about concerts and awards shows and the battles of the blondes. But in a way, this blog is a bit like the music business it's intended to cover, because it's really all about timing. If I wrote something particularly controversial, it could very well fall on deaf ears if, say, Taylor Swift had a new single out that day or Kenny Chesney broke his foot.

Still, you can't help but notice when the comments for a particular blog start to rack up higher numbers than others. So I give you the top blogs, if comments matter as much as I think they do:

Mark Chesnutt made some remarks about Taylor Swift's music.

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Hell hath no fury like a rocker scorned. Joe Elliott, frontman for Def Leppard, took to the pages of Rolling Stone to defend Taylor Swift to the post-show critics who thought she was a little breathless during their performance of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" during last week's CMT Music Awards. He explained that right before she joined them onstage, she'd picked up an award, run down the stairs, gone to her dressing room, changed her clothes, then headed back out to the stage. "Literally, she's running up the ramp, trying to put her in-ear monitoring in and clip the pack to the back of her skirt, so she can try to sing this thing," says Elliott. "She's such a bundle of energy." And as for her own love of the rock band, Elliott explains it thus: "Her parents are responsible for her Def Leppardness." And while Def Leppard likes doing the cross-genre collaborations ("it just gets you out of your homogenized bubble, and expands your brain, expands your musical horizons"), their summer tour kicks off tomorrow (June 23) in New Jersey, sans Swift.

Leave it to Taylor Swift to be an overachiever. "Thug Story," her humorous rap collaboration with T-Pain, now holds the record as the most-streamed video premiere ever on CMT.com. Not bad, especially considering that the two artists spent all of 90 minutes in the studio to put the finishing touches on the lyrics and record the audio track. (It can often take that long to set the volume and EQ levels on the microphones in the studio.) When the producers of the CMT Music Awards were looking for an unexpected way to open the show, Swift was excited when approached about working with T-Pain. Accepting the offer, she quickly arrived at a different take on one of her hits and said, "We'll take 'Love Story' and make it 'Thug Story.'"

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What's not to love about Taylor Swift's look at the CMT Music Awards? Although she wore a heavily beaded greige tiered mini dress, piles of blond curls, chandelier earrings and strappy sandals, I don't think she has completely walked away from the sundress and cowboy boots thing. However, this was a big event with a long line of photographers ready to capture her dressier look. (Not the gray camouflage cargos and extra small white tee she wore in the video with T-Pain.) And now Cosmopolitan magazine wants to know if you think her look was totally sexy or too much. Too much what, they don't say. But right now, the majority is ruling in favor of Swift's look. So if you're a Cosmo girl, cast your vote to Love It or Leave It.

This just in: You don’t have to be a woman to love a man in a cowboy hat. The guys over at gaywired.com seemed to think the men at the CMT Music Awards looked super hot, and they want to know who your favorite cowboy is. Their "Country Music Crushes" survey lists some nice choices, including some out-of-genre types, like presenter Luke Wilson, rockers Def Leppard and collaborator T-Pain. But no matter what your sexual preference might be, it’s difficult to see past the list of hot country artists. The list is lengthy, and they want to know whose spurs you’d most like to see hung up in your corral. While I think they’re taking the cowboy clichés way too far, I have to say I agree with the hot list. You needn't be gay to vote, and the list of responses also includes this choice: "None, I'd rather see cutie Taylor Swift than these cow-blah's."

It's quiet in the CMT offices today, following the big awards show a few nights ago. But if you were wandering our silent halls, you'd hear me cracking up in a distant corner. See, I decided to put in Rodney Carrington's new album, El Niño Loco. It's hilarious. Carrington is a famous comedian but did you know he sings, too? During the first few lines, a lot of these catchy songs sound exactly like mainstream country -- until you realize what he's really singing about. (You can probably guess with "White Shirts and Rain.") Rather than simply repeating a punch line at the end of a chorus, Carrington sprinkles in ridiculously clever phrases throughout the verses, too. If you like the sillier side of Joe Nichols or Blake Shelton, you're sure to get a kick out of El Niño Loco, especially the title track. And I was in stitches the first time I watched this video for "If I'm the Only One." If you don't have any co-workers in sight, check it out.

Like a lot of country fans, I have (well, had) this fantasy image of Nashville in my head -- with artists, songwriters, producers and label folks out and about, talking about good country music and eating barbecue at Jack's on Lower Broadway and grabbing a Goo Goo Cluster before they head into the studio. Like it's all music, all the time.

Then I went to The Brass Stables. Fantasy shattered. Seeing a naked woman dance around a pole to Zac Brown Band's "Chicken Fried" has changed the way I will hear that song. Forever.

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I refuse to add to the overwhelming glut of reports on the winners at last night's CMT Music Awards. I will, however, give you my two cents on the awesome things that happened at the show that didn't really get awarded.

Like "Thug Story." The fact that Taylor Swift's "collaboration" with T-Pain was packed with self-deprecating humor was a huge relief to me. I was crossing my fingers that we wouldn't have to take her seriously as a rapper. So hearing, "I'm so gangsta, you can find me bakin' cookies at night/You out clubbin', but I just made Caramel Delight!" was just perfect.

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It's true that Kellie Pickler did have a pet monkey for a while, as you may have heard in Bill Engvall's jokes during the CMT Music Awards last night. After some hard-hitting investigative reporting, CMT.com has learned that the former American Idol contestant doesn't have the monkey anymore.

"It became really challenging because she can't travel really well when we are on the bus," the singer told reporters backstage. "She couldn't fly and I had to go to L.A. for two to three weeks and work and they're illegal in California. So I didn't take her and plus I couldn't fly with her. My sister, Courtney, wanted one so bad. Well, I let her keep Ella the monkey while I was gone. And when I came back, Ella was so attached to Courtney. I mean, she wouldn't eat. She was depressed. And I said, ‘Courtney, would you like to be the mother of a monkey? Because she wants you to adopt her.' She's like, ‘Oh my gosh, please!' I was so glad because I knew she was going to be in good care. She comes and visits but she loves Courtney way more than me."

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