{"id":17837,"date":"2019-08-21T21:10:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T03:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1810824"},"modified":"2019-08-21T21:10:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T03:10:14","slug":"acm-honors-shane-mcanally-says-i-really-didnt-know-you-could-be-in-country-music-and-be-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/acm-honors-shane-mcanally-says-i-really-didnt-know-you-could-be-in-country-music-and-be-gay\/","title":{"rendered":"ACM HONORS: Shane McAnally Says \u201cI Really Didn\u2019t Know You Could Be in Country Music and Be Gay\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span> 20m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Like so many gifted country songwriters, Shane McAnally came from a small town in Texas. And he was obsessed with Barbara Mandrell. And he never knew you could write songs for country singers \u2014 superstars like her \u2014 to sing. But once he navigated that uncertain path, he arrived. And now he is the ACM\u2019s songwriter of the year. It\u2019s McAnally\u2019s second win in the category.<\/p>\n

At the 2019 ACM Honors ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium on Wednesday night (Aug. 21), Midland took the stage to present the award to their collaborator and friend. \u201cShane is one the most charismatic, abundant and funny people we\u2019ve met,\u201d the trio shared. \u201cFrom the bottom of our hearts, your talent and your abundance and your lust for life flows through you. And you are a magnet. People all want to be around you. We love being around you when we get to sit down and make music together.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it was finally McAnally\u2019s turn to accept, he went back to talking about his Texas roots, and about his love for Mandrell who was in the crowd for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would watch the ACMs, and I was obsessed with Barbara Mandrell. But I didn\u2019t know the path. I didn\u2019t realize that the real heroes were the ones who wrote those songs. I had no idea. I didn\u2019t know you could write songs, and superstars would sing them. So I came to town thinking you had to sing your own songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I am just still in awe of this wildest dream: that I get to write songs that people I love and look up to sing and put on the radio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Then came the tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I talk about that wildest dream, I have to acknowledge the fact that truly, beyond my wildest dreams, not only did I not know that writing songs could be a job,\u201d he said, \u201cI really didn\u2019t know you could be in country music and be gay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came out to my mom, she was so scared that I wouldn\u2019t get to have this dream. But this town has never for a minute made me feel anything but loved and accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n

McAnally thanked his team, his family, his husband and his children. \u201cI do have to acknowledge my husband. And it\u2019s so cool to get to say that from this stage. We are living our truth and our dream. I love country music and I love this town.\u201d<\/p>\n

While McAnally is involved of many parts of the country music world, this award is reserved for someone known most predominately as a songwriter. Ross Copperman, Dallas Davidson, Luke Laird, Shane McAnally, Lori McKenna and Roger Miller have also been named as songwriters of the year.<\/p>\n

\n
Alison makes her living loving country music. She’s based in Chicago, but she’s always leaving her heart in Nashville.<\/div>\n

@alisonbonaguro<\/a><\/div>\n

via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alison Bonaguro 20m ago Like so many gifted country songwriters, Shane McAnally came from a small town in Texas. And he was obsessed with Barbara Mandrell. And he never knew you could write songs for country singers \u2014 superstars like her \u2014 to sing. But once he navigated that uncertain path, he arrived. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 04:32:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}