Toby Keith to Get All-Star Salute on CMT Music Awards Featuring Lainey Wilson, Brooks & Dunn, Lukas Nelson and More (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Toby Keith, whose history with the CMT Music Awards goes back to having co-hosted the earliest incarnation of the show, will get his due in the wake of his recent death, as an all-star salute is planned for Keith on Sunday night’s three-hour CBS telecast.
The tribute will feature performances by one of the hottest figures in country music, Lainey Wilson, along with his fellow industry veterans Brooks & Dunn, whose Ronnie Dunn is a fellow Okie.
Rocker Sammy Hagar, who featured Keith on an episode of his TV series “Rock & Roll Road Trip” in 2022, will join the lineup paying homage.
Set for what’s being billed as special appearances saluting the late singer are Lukas Nelson and Roger Clemons. Nelson’s father, Willie, had a smash duet with Keith, “Beer for My Horses.” Baseball legend Roger Clemens’ friendship with Keith included the singer inducting the ballplayer into the Houston Sports Hall of Fame. (Clemons also has a strong tie to the telecast’s host city, Austin, having risen to fame with the University of Texas at Austin’s Longhorns in the early 1980s.) The tribute marks a homecoming of sorts, as Keith co-hosted the CMT Music Awards when it aired under a slightly more unwieldy name, the CMT Flameworthy Video Awards.
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