Ashley McBryde on Postponing the ACM Awards Due to Coronavirus: ‘I Can’t Argue With It’ (Exclusive)

Although she is nominated for three ACM Awards, Ashley McBryde will have to wait until September to find out if she is a winner, due to the ceremony’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Arkansas native is nominated for two trophies, both as songwriter and artist, for “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” as well as for Music Event of the Year, for her part in the Miranda Lambert collaboration, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” Although McBryde is disappointed by the change in plans, she also understands why the decision was made.

“I can’t argue with it,” McBryde told PopCulture.com. “Whatever we have to do to keep it from becoming a really, really, really bad emergency is what we’re going to have to do. And if I can’t work, that’s okay. I’ll just try not to spend so much money on Amazon’s movies.”

McBryde, who like most artists is on an indefinite hiatus while bars, clubs and venues close all over the country, had already prepared herself for a different ACM Awards experience, which she predicted might be much closer to home.

“I was really holding on,” McBryde acknowledged. “I was like, ‘I haven’t looked. ACMs, I bet you they’re just going to move them to Nashville and then they’re just going to broadcast.’ It’ll just be a bunch of musicians and necessary personnel doing an award show, which I would imagine would involve entirely too much alcohol and a lot of people being relaxed and cutting up.”

McBryde might be disappointed, but she is still keeping her sense of humor about the entire situation.

“I joked, I said, ‘Man, they’ll do anything to keep ‘Girl Goin’ Nowhere’ from winning this award.’” McBryde said with a laugh.

The 36-year-old is remaining calm in the face of so much uncertainty due to coronavirus, and even recently traveled to attend her nephew’s wedding, which she said she couldn’t miss. Still, she made sure to take time to shop with her brother while out of town.

“We were already depleted supplies-wise because of the tornadoes,” McBryde said. “So we grocery shopped in Alma, Arkansas and traveled with it all week and then brought it back with us. What sucks is, is there a pandemic? Absolutely. Should we be as careful as possible? Absolutely we should. What we shouldn’t do is panic because panic causes this entire other emergency.”

McBryde’s Never Will album will be released on April 3.

Photo Credit: Getty / Ethan Miller