Congrats To Trent Reznor On His First CMA Award Nomination
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images For The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Trent Reznor can now add a CMA nomination to his list of accolades. As can Lil Nas X, for that matter. The Country Music Association announced their 2019 nominees today. And while “Old Town Road” was — as expected among the conservative CMA voters — shut out of all the major categories, it did manage to pick up a nomination for the Musical Event Of The Year.
While that might seem like a made-up category created to explicitly recognize something like “Old Town Road,” which straddles the line between country, pop, and rap, it in fact has been given out since 2004, and usually goes to a song with a particularly attention-grabbing collaboration.
The “Old Town Road (Remix)” nomination goes to both the artists and producers of the song, which means that Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus, YoungKio, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross are all up for the award. (“Old Town Road” samples a track from Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV, hence Reznor and Ross’ credits — it also landed them their first Billboard #1 song.)
“Old Town Road” will compete with Maren Morris & Brothers Osborne’s “All My Favorite People,” Brooks & Dunn & Luke Combs’ “Brand New Man,” Garth Brooks & Blake Shelton’s “Dive Bar,” and Brantley Gilbert & Lindsay Ell’s “What Happens In A Small Town” for the Musical Event Of The Year category.
In other nomination news, Maren Morris received the most nominations, with six total, and Kacey Musgraves received three nominations: for Song Of The Year (“Rainbow”), Female Vocalist Of The Year, and Video Of The Year (“Rainbow”). Golden Hour won the Album Of The Year CMA in 2018.
The full list of CMA nominations can be found here.
UPDATE: The CMA nomination has elicited a winking acknowledgment from Trent Reznor, seemingly the first time the NIN frontman has commented on the hit at all:
