Chris Janson won the ACM Award for Video of the Year, for his hit single, “Drunk Girl.” Reba McEntire surprised Janson with the news backstage ahead of the ceremony.
“I saw you performing at the Ryman,” McEntire told Janson. “That was the first time I saw you perform, and I thought, ‘Man, that guy’s got more energy than anybody I’ve ever seen before in my life, so congratulations.”
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The ACM Award for Video of the Year for “Drunk Girl” marks Janson’s first-ever ACM Award win.
“I would definitely say this is definitely one of the top three highlighted moments in my whole career,” Janson shared with PopCulture.com and other media backstage at the ACM Awards.
“I was totally taken by surprise … My whole team knew including my wife, which I can’t believe she didn’t tell me. I heard Reba in typical Reba fashion, loud and proud and ready to be there, and it was awesome. I was standing backstage and I heard Reba coming down the hall in typical Reba fashion.
“If you ever could have planned it, it was exactly how I would have wanted it to be,” he added. “She changed my life once again … she’s my favorite female entertainer of all time.”
The message of “Drunk Girl” is an important one to Janson, who is the proud parent to two of his own children as well as two stepchildren with his wife, Kelly, which he fondly calls his “bonus children.”
“If our daughters get into a ‘Drunk Girl’ situation, we want them to be treated with great reverence and respect,” Janson told PopCulture.com. “As far as our boys, it’s almost more importantly, for our boys, and I have two of each. We want them to be the difference in the boy and a man. There is no exception to the rule. There is no room for error in that matter. And so, that’s what we wrote into it and that’s the hearts we put behind it.
“To have a Top 10 single on the radio and to have the nominations and all the great praise it’s been getting, that’s validation of how something’s working,” he continued. “You just write stuff from your heart, and usually it works.”
“Drunk Girl” was from Janson’s sophomore Everybody album. His third record, Good Vibes, will be out later this year.
Photo Credit: Getty images/Kevin Winter
