Out With the Old, In With the New? Sammy Kershaw’s CMA Snub Strikes a Nerve With Fellow 90s Country Star

As the scope of country music continues to broaden to include other genres and styles of performers, there will occasionally be backlash to the newcomers entering the country realm. And while it can be difficult for traditionalists to accept new artists in the country music world, it can be even more disconcerting to witness legends become excluded from the conversation. Or, in the case of Sammy Kershaw, the red carpet at the CMA Awards on November 18, 2026.

Kershaw has a multitude of Top 40 country hits under his belt, including “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful”, “Cadillac Style”, and “Anywhere But Here”. Yet, according to a November 6 announcement on his Instagram, the powers that be at the Country Music Association denied Kershaw’s request to walk the red carpet. Soon after, fellow 1990s country star Mark Chesnutt took to Facebook to air his grievances about this stunning update from his colleague.

“Well that’s about right,” Chesnutt wrote. “The CMA doesn’t care about us old 90s guys any more. It’s a shame they don’t respect the stars that dominated the charts in the past thirty years or before that but they sure roll out the welcome mat for pop stars and Hollywood movie stars and even hip hop artists. Anything but country music gets the performance spots on the show.”

Sammy Kershaw’s Snub Struck a Nerve With Mark Chesnutt

Mark Chesnutt continued in his Facebook post, “Rock n Roll honors its history and respects its legends while country music industry executives seem to ignore its rich history and its legends. Thank God there’s still a lot of people that love traditional country music. They keep coming to our shows and showing their love and respect for the music we’ve made for nearly forty years now and we’ll keep working for them and not for those who don’t matter to US!”

It’s clear that the snub struck a nerve with Chesnutt, and considering he’s in the same generation of country music artists as Kershaw, it’s easy to see why. Like Kershaw, Chesnutt achieved most of his commercial success in the 1990s, with songs like “Brother Jukebox”, “I’ll Think Of Something”, and “It Sure Is Monday”. Interestingly, Chesnutt has had a positive relationship with the CMA in the past, having won two CMA Awards for New Artist Of The Year (then the Horizon Award) and Vocal Event Of the Year in 1993. Kershaw has only received one nomination from the Country Music Association for the same Horizon Award that Chesnutt won.

In less than an hour after Chesnutt posted his rant to his social media page, thousands of country fans flooded the comment section to show their support. “This makes me so angry,” one user wrote. “I would go to all you guy’s shows over some of these newer ‘country’ musicians any day!” Another wrote, “CMA is a joke now. They are scared Sammy Kershaw was going to sing ‘real country’ songs.”

At the time of this publication, it doesn’t appear that the CMA has responded to Chesnutt’s post or commented on why Kershaw wasn’t given permission to walk the red carpet.

Photo by Ron Wolfson/Dick Clark Productions via Getty Images