Backstage at the 2023 ACM Awards with Lainey Wilson, HARDY, Chris Stapleton and Other Top Winners

Fifteen years ago, Lainey Wilson was in high school making money working as a Hannah Montana impersonator, but deep down, Wilson says, her teen self knew the day would come when she swept the ACM Awards, taking home four trophies, including album and female artist of the year. “Deep down, she knew it,” Wilson told Billboard. “That makes me sound borderline crazy and I think, honestly, anybody who does anything like this has to be a little borderline crazy. Has to really believe it. If you go into this and you don’t believe it, nobody else can believe it.” 

Wilson won female artist of the year for the first time, just one year after winning new female artist of the year. That’s the fastest climb from a win for new female artist of the year to a win for female artist of the year since Carrie Underwood also took one year to make that climb 16 years ago.

She appreciates all the awards, but says the album of the year win for Bell Bottom Country is especially gratifying. “It makes you feel respected,” she says. “Before I was an artist, I was a songwriter. That’s my first true love. That was my escape. I’d come home from school and I was sitting in the bathroom where the acoustics were the best and my mom would sit there listening to me just singing the songs I’ve been writing over and over. I take a lot of pride in my writing.”

HARDY won four awards Thursday night, including visual media of the year for the video for wait in the truck, his murder ballad featuring Lainey Wilson. Though the video tackles the very serious topic of domestic abuse, HARDY says they kept it lighthearted on the set. “That sort of broke up the monotony of doing it over and over again and shooting shots over and over again,” he says. “[We’d]  break away and be happy and make jokes and cross our eyes and look at each other, make fun of each other. And then when it was time to be serious, we were able to just jump back in and be really serious.” He says he and Wilson haven’t discussed any kind of follow up, “but I would love to in the future.” 

HARDY’s immediate future was affected earlier this week when Morgan Wallen, whom he is touring with, was ordered to take six weeks of vocal rest. HARDY has been in contact with his close friend and label mate and says, “He’s doing fine. He’s a little frustrated, but I would be too… But at the end of the day, Morgan’s got to protect his voice. That is his moneymaker. Singers are dependent on their voice and pretty much nothing else to survive. So I completely understand his struggle and his decision and I just wish him the best.” HARDY had three shows left with Wallen and says, “I’m not sure if we’re going to pick something else up. We might just hang out and enjoy our time off.”

The fifth time proved the charm for Chris Stapleton, as he won the coveted entertainer of the year award on his fifth nomination. But no one is more surprised than him that he finally snagged the trophy. “I’m a little in shock about this one for sure,” he told Billboard backstage. “It wasn’t something that you expect to win ever, and me in particular. I don’t find myself as entertaining maybe as I think some of the other people are.” He’s excited by the win, but will still taking it all in. “I’m not sure how I feel about it… I don’t know what it means. 

Compared with high-energy past ACM entertainer of the year winners Garth Brooks and Luke Bryan, Stapleton says, “I just kind of stand there and play.” When reminded that’s worked just fine for George Strait, Stapleton quickly responded, “But I’m not George Strait either. He’s got a catalog of 7,000 No. 1s.”

For Cole Swindell, who came to Nashville years ago to try his hand at being a songwriter, there’s no better award than song of the year, which he won for performing and co-writing his massive hit, “She Had Me At Heads Carolina.” 

“I dreamed of getting a record deal, but you’ve got to have the songs and songwriters are underappreciated in general,” he says. “As a songwriter, I mean that’s the biggest award there is. I love to entertain, entertainer of the year’s big, but song of the year, I didn’t know if I’d ever be lucky enough or fortunate enough to win that and this is a night career wise I’m never ever forget, for sure.” 

The song, which incorporates Jo Dee Messina’s 1996 hit, “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” could lead to more mash-ups of the old and new, Swindell says. I’m glad that I got this one out there and it did so well, but I do think probably sheds light on older music that we all grew up on that people still need to hear.” Still, he says when he and his co-writers first put the songs together, “I was scared to do it. But that’s what you got to do. You got to push yourself and do stuff that scares you a little bit,” he says. “But the only reason I was scared of it was because I respected Jo Dee and the original version so much I didn’t want to mess it up.”

When accepting their sixth trophy for group of the year, Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey acknowledged that people in America are struggling to understand the “divisiveness and shootings” happening in this country and that he understood people are hurting. Backstage, Ramsey further explained his remarks. Last month’s CMT Awards came right after a school shooting in Nashville, while the ACM Awards occurred less than a week after a mass shooting in nearby Allen, Texas. “It’s just always on our hearts and minds,” Ramsey said. “Especially, you know, we’re fathers and the Nashville shooting happened right in our community. This is great that we’re celebrating what we get to do, and we’re very lucky that we get to do it, but there’s also people that are really dealing with some really real heavy stuff. Part of our jobs [as musicians] is to provide some sort of relief. So, you know, if we can provide some sort of relief, even if it’s for a second, then that’s an honor in itself, but I can’t have one without the other personally. So I felt like I should say something.”

On a lighter note, the band was taking over a local Applebee’s to celebrate its win, which is the longest streak of consecutive wins in the category since Rascal Flatts won seven years in a row from 2002-08. “It’s our goal to run up the biggest tab in Applebee’s history,” joked the band’s Trevor Rosen. 

Brothers Osborne have won duo of the year four times in a row, but TJ Osborne says winning never gets old. “We’re really kind of clawed our way to where we are in our career and it’s been a wild ride. In hindsight, I wanted it to go a lot faster but now that we’re here, I would I would truly not change a single thing.”

The duo is changing producers, however. After three albums with Jay Joyce, they are now recording with Mike Elizondo, best known for his work with everyone from Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent to Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor, Maroon 5 and twenty one pilots. “The guy can do absolutely everything,” raves John Osborne. “It’s rare to find someone that’s that proficient in everything and he is able to mold and adapt to what you do. He did that so well with us. We initially tried one song to see how it would feel and we had so much fun. He’s such a lovely human being, such a brilliant talent, that we decided to do another 14 songs. So as far as I’m concerned, I will just want to make music with him in some capacity for the rest of my life.”

Hailey Whitters prevailed in the very competitive new female artist of the year category and she’s still pinching herself. “To get that news, I freaked out,” she says. “I’ve been in [Nashville] 15 years and dreamt about coming to the show. This is my first time, so it’s just been insane.” Not only did Whitters win, she is watching her single, “Everything She Ain’t,” which she performed on the show, climb up the Country Airplay chart. “It’s been so cool. I’m mean, I’ve dreamt of this I would say just from being a young girl growing up in the cornfields in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. Anytime I comes on the radio and I catch it, I just lose my mind. I scream.” She’s also losing her mind over getting ready to open for Shania Twain on tour starting Tuesday (May 16) in Wisconsin. “She’s such an icon. I have old video footage of me dancing around in my underwear to ‘Any Man of Mine.’ Eight-year old Hailey just would not believe she is going on tour with Shania.”