Charlie Worsham chatted with Billboard on the red carpet of the 2023 CMA Awards.
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00:00 You're here with Charlie Worsham.
00:01 How's it going tonight?
00:02 - Oh, what a great night for country music.
00:03 Fired up!
00:05 - What makes tonight so great?
00:07 - It's a homecoming of sorts,
00:08 almost like a family reunion, you know?
00:10 We've all been out on the road all year,
00:12 getting to the end of the year,
00:13 everybody's a little tired, a little crispy,
00:15 but we haven't been able to hang with each other,
00:17 and tonight we get to all catch up,
00:19 celebrate each other's victories,
00:21 and I'm just so proud to be here.
00:23 It's my first time as a nominee,
00:26 and I'm excited to have new music out
00:28 with all my buddies who I'm gonna see tonight,
00:30 so big stuff.
00:32 - Yeah, big stuff.
00:32 You sort of have like a superstar project out right now.
00:35 How did you go about putting that together?
00:37 - You know, I've had the best crooked line journey
00:41 in country music the last 10 years or so,
00:43 where I've ended up playing on the road
00:45 with some of my favorite folks,
00:46 playing on some of my favorite records,
00:48 including Laney Wilson's "Bellbottom Country,"
00:50 Luke Combs, "Growing Up and Growing Old,"
00:51 and it hit me one day driving to the studio,
00:53 you know, I've been a part of everybody else's stories,
00:55 about time I holler at 'em and make 'em a part of mine,
00:57 so I just started texting my friends,
00:59 and Luke and Laney and Kip Moore, Elle King,
01:02 Dierks Bentley, everybody just jumped right in,
01:04 and we figured out the perfect song to collaborate on,
01:07 and we now have compadres.
01:09 - I love the title.
01:10 It's also, it's nice to see people show up for you,
01:12 and you know, not everyone asks for that all the time.
01:15 - Absolutely, you know, but the truth is that,
01:17 you know, collaborations are such a part of the fabric
01:20 of country music, have been for such a long time,
01:22 and I feel like we're seeing a renaissance moment for that,
01:25 and so to get to be a part of that story
01:27 as it's happening means a lot to me,
01:29 because every one of these collaborations,
01:30 there's a long history between us, you know,
01:33 and I got more I wanna get to, you know,
01:34 like Brothers Osborne, John and I were in a band together
01:37 for three years when I first moved to town.
01:39 He was always my older brother, you know.
01:41 - Yeah, is there anyone maybe less obvious
01:43 outside of country music that you think
01:46 could work really well on a,
01:47 if you did a follow-up to this project?
01:48 - Are you kidding me?
01:49 Yeah, I mean, this would be a little bit of a,
01:51 you know, bucket, huge bucket list,
01:53 top of the bucket list in big, bold letters,
01:54 but I think Keith Richards is way more hillbilly
01:58 than anybody knows, and I would love to unlock that.
02:01 - That would be amazing.
02:03 - Yeah.
02:03 - He watches these, so he'll definitely see this.
02:05 - Yeah, so Keith, Keith, as they say, come on, man.
02:09 I'll be in England, I don't know,
02:11 sometime in the next six months, and holler at me, yeah.
02:14 - All right, I need to ask,
02:15 we're seeing some cool pins tonight.
02:16 Is there a story to this one?
02:18 - This came with the suit.
02:19 This was, Ted Baker thought this was a great idea,
02:21 and I thought, you know, it almost looks like a magnolia,
02:24 which is the state flower of my home state, Mississippi,
02:26 so I'll take it, and it always, you know,
02:29 I'm calling this my country preacher look.
02:31 Feel like if I was a circuit preacher in Mississippi
02:33 where I grew up, I could do pretty well in this suit.
02:36 - It's working, for sure.
02:37 - Thank you.
02:38 - And then just our last one,
02:39 before you get in there tonight,
02:40 what are you most excited to see
02:41 in terms of the performers?
02:42 - Oh, goodness, I mean, I sound like a broken record,
02:45 but Lainey Wilson just blows everybody away every time.
02:49 She was at the BMI Awards last night
02:50 singing "Strawberry Wine" for Maitreya Suburbs,
02:53 Icon Award, and Ashley McBride, though, too.
02:56 Ashley sang last night as well, and she always kills it.
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