Riley Green, Carly Pearce and more stars are calling out the CMA Awards for reportedly denying fellow country singer Sammy Kershaw‘s request to walk the red carpet at the Wednesday, November 18, awards show.
“If you haven’t earned the right to be there then nobody has… disappointing to say the least,” Green, 38, wrote to Kershaw, 68, via Instagram on Thursday, November 5.
Earlier on Thursday, Kershaw penned a lengthy statement claiming that he’d received “some disappointing news and it really hurts me.”
“I have to share my disappointment with the CMA as they have denied my request to walk the red carpet for a few minutes at this year’s CMA Awards, and I have to say I’m pretty sad about it,” he alleged.
The “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” singer explained that the alleged snub was particularly upsetting since he and his wife, Mendy Gregory Kershaw, “don’t get to attend these events very often, due to touring and schedule conflicts.”
“After adjusting my touring schedule, booking our flights and hotels, she was really looking forward to us sharing a special evening together celebrating country music,” he added. “Then, to find out I was denied the red carpet two weeks before the show, after being strung along for several months and expecting we would be attending, WTF?”
Pointing out that he’d been made “a lifetime CMA member” in 1992, Kershaw questioned why he would ever be denied red carpet access by the awards organizers.
“I’m blessed to still be out on tour every year, performing for the greatest fans in the world and doing what I love,” he wrote. “I believe there should be room to recognize the artists who have spent their lives contributing to this organization’s success.”
His statement concluded, “I love country music, but never in a million years would I think that a successful country music entertainer (and I’m not the only one) would not be able to walk the red carpet. It’s extremely hurtful, embarrassing and very disappointing. I guess the next time I attend the CMA’s, it will be in tribute after I’m gone, if I’m lucky.”
Us has reached out to the CMA Awards for comment.
The country music community rallied around Kershaw, with Pearce — who is nominated at the 2026 CMA Awards in the Musical Event of the Year category for her and Green’s collaboration “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay” — assuring Kershaw that “many of us wouldn’t be here without artists like you.”
“I’m team Sammy,” three-time CMA Award nominee Jake Owen insisted.
Many fans were upset as well, blasting the CMA Awards’ alleged snub as “crazy” and “BS” in Kershaw’s comments section.
On top of receiving a lifetime membership in the Country Music Association in 1992, Kershaw also was nominated for a Horizon Award by the CMAs in 1993. (He lost that breakthrough artist award to Mark Chesnutt. The prize has since been renamed New Artist of the Year.)
Kershaw scored a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with 1993’s “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” and also charted with 10 more Top 10 singles, including “Anywhere But Here,” “Third Rate Romance” and “National Working Woman’s Holiday.”
The 60th Annual CMA Awards will air live on ABC and Disney+ Wednesday, November 18, with Lainey Wilson hosting from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for the third consecutive year.
