Sam Hunt's feeling nervous ahead of his 2024 CMT Music Awards performance, and he knows why

Did you know it's been a while since Sam Hunt performed onstage at an award show?

"I did a run of award shows for a few years there and haven't done any in a while, especially the country music award shows," Sam shares ahead of his 2024 CMT Music Awards performance, before talking about some changes he's noticed.

"There are a lot of new acts and the artists who I would call peers [have] changed. There was a time when I kind of knew everybody and had at least a cordial acquaintance relationship with everybody, and now there's a lot of them that I don't know," he says.

"It'll be interesting, I think, to play in front of what feels like a slightly different award show audience in terms of the industry and my peers [that] would have been there maybe in 2016 and 2017," Sam explains. "Maybe there are a few more butterflies, just because I'm not quite as comfortable or don't necessarily feel as a part of the current club, you know?"

"But I think that'll be fine. There are a lot of folks that I still know, and a lot of familiar faces will still be out there," he says. "And of course, the fans that have been with me for a long time."

So, what can fans expect from his "Locked Up" performance?

"I'm going to try to recreate some of that Folsom prison vibe," Sam teases. "I don't know if we settled on exactly how much they're going to let us do with how we're going to recreate that scene, but we're going to try to go for it if we can."

The 2024 CMT Music Awards airs live Sunday, April 7, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+. 

Sam Hunt's Locked Up EP arrives Friday.

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