BMIIt was a lot like Elvis had entered the building, as BMI presented Mac Davis with its Icon award Tuesday night in Nashville. Known for his solo hits as well as for acting and the songs he wrote for The King, Davis recalled accidentally coming up with a number one pop hit in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, after his producer complained he gave all his good hooks to Presley. He returned with “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me” as a joke. Jay DeMarcusJoe Don Rooney, and Gary LeVox traded leads as Rascal Flatts delivered the song that went to number one in 1972. 

CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan dared to poke fun at the night’s honoree, before embodying Elvis onstage.

“I catch a lot of flack for my tight jeans, but they flashed a picture, Mr. Mac and all the women at my table verified that your jeans are way tighter than mine back then!” Bryan quipped. “I also want to know how you wrote a lyric that tells a woman to shut her mouth, so, uh, that’s pretty amazing,” he joked, before launching into “A Little Less Conversation.”

The crowd cheered as Philip Sweet kicked off Little Big Town‘s version of “In the Ghetto,” with Kimberly Schlapman and Karen Fairchild joining in on harmony parts, before Jimi Westbrook took the second verse. 

I met Billy Strange and Nancy Sinatra and they introduced me to Elvis,” Davis recalled as he accepted the traditional silver bucket that accompanies the BMI Icon award. “I want to thank them for that. I want to thank Elvis for being Elvis, just the few times that I was in that inner circle, I was in his home a few times and at his dressing room and I tell you, it’s like branded on me, because I watched him when he first came to Lubbock, Texas and he stood on the back of an old flatbed truck out in the parking lot of the Hub Motor Company and the girls were just screaming and yelling and climbing up and trying to get to him, and I said, ‘Man, I want to do that!'”

Rodney Clawson was named Songwriter of the Year as the 2015 BMI Country Awards continued, commemorating his work on seven of the most performed hits of the past year. Brett Eldredge‘s “Beat of the Music” was honored as BMI’s Song of the Year.

Nashville’s week of awards shows culminates Wednesday night with the 49th Annual CMA Awards, live from Bridgestone Arena at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are hosting.

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