Image Courtesy ABC/CMAVirtually every country star on the charts right now will appear on the CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock special Tuesday night on ABC. The three-hour event features quite a few collaborations, including Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood singing “Somethin’ Bad” and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill teaming up for “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s.”
Look for Brantley Gilbert, Justin Moore and Thomas Rhett to sing their hit, “Small Town Throwdown,” and Justin is also teaming up with Motley Crue‘s Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx for a cover of their rock hit “Home Sweet Home.” Bon Jovi‘s Richie Sambora joins Zac Brown Band for “Wanted Dead or Alive,” and Rascal Flatts goes a capella for a cover of Pharrell Williams‘ pop hit “Happy.”
Flatts band member Jay DeMarcus tells ABC News Radio, “They asked us to do that on the show, which was kind of a surprise. I guess the producer of the show saw it on YouTube, and wanted us to do that. So, it should be pretty fun.”
Little Big Town returns for a second go-around as hosts of the special, but they still haven’t gotten completely comfortable interviewing their fellow country stars. In fact, LBT’s Kimberly Schlapman and Karen Fairchild admit to just about losing their composure while interviewing the super-fit Tim McGraw.
Karen says with a laugh, “Kimberly and I were so bad with the Tim McGraw interview. I don’t know how they’re gonna edit that. We just turned into giggly schoolgirls.”
Karen and Kimberly even measured Tim’s body fat during the interview, but they got Faith’s blessing before taking stock of his fitness.
“She gave us a little insight,” Karen says of Faith. “She said he didn’t have any body fat.”
Little Big Town’s Jimi Westbrook handled the Luke Bryan interview this year. He even got the country hunk to autograph a copy of the People Country issue naming Luke Country’s Sexiest Man.
Jimi says with a laugh, “He gave it to me. He said, ‘Keep working. You’ll get there.'”
Blake Shelton, Hunter Hayes, Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Cole Swindell, The Band Perry and Keith Urban are among the other stars performing on CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock, airing Tuesday night at 8 ET on ABC.
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio
