Brantley Gilbert may not exactly be the biggest of stars to many people but to his fans, fans who buy his music and go to his shows, the ‘outlaw’ has a way of getting under their skin. His music is about them and their lifestyles as much as its’ about Gilberts and they support their favorite star in a big way. This happened Sunday, November 23 when the Valory Music Co. recording artist won an American Music Award for his Gold-certified third album Just As I Am. The fans chose Brantley’s album over Eric Church’s The Outsiders (2014’s best-selling country album to date) and Garth Brooks’ 2013 box set Balme It On My Roots: Five Decades of Influences (which has sold just under one million copies in a year).
“I wasn’t expecting this,” a stunned Gilbert said onstage. “It was an honor just to be considered for this award, to be in the same category as two people I really look up to and respect in this business...I wanna give credit to the people that don’t get all the bright lights and get to take one of these home: the fans, call’em friends or whatever you want to, this one’s for y’all!”
The award is Brantley Gilbert’s first major award. The album debuted with 200,000 albums sold, topping the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. The album picks up where his Platinum-certified Halfway To Heaven left off marrying 80s rock n’ roll machismo and down home themes.
Currently winding down the second leg of his Let It Ride Tour, selling out major venues nationwide – including a December 5 date at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and a Florida run before shutting it down for the year. Joining Kenny Chesney’s The Big Revival Tour in 2015 for its stadium shows, the low-slung writer/artist who’s been compared to Waylon Jennings, Kid Rock and David Allen Coe will head to Europe for a run in February and March.
“Country music isn’t necessarily what people think.” Gilbert explains. ”It’s of the people, working people who know how hard it is to get by – and do it with everything they got. They live proud, they work hard and they love like it’s all that matters. When you write songs that hit like that, you don’t necessarily need a fiddle to connect...”
In other American Music Awards news, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum and Luke Bryan also won awards in the artist categories.
Lisa Adams
>>>marrying 80s rock nâ roll machismo and down home themes. âbout time someone used the right marriage of terms...