Very well-deserved. Tonight, Cody Johnson took home the coveted ACM Award for Entertainer of the Year, his first time taking home an EOTY trophy at any major country award show: View this post on Instagram He also took home the award for Male Artist of the Year, and he was nominated for four awards in total, also including Single of the Year and Visual Media of the Year for “The Fall.” CoJo gave a beautiful speech when accepting his EOTY trophy, and he also dedicated the award to his friend Luke Combs, who he toured with and opened for in Australia in August of 2023. It was during that tour that Combs’ wife, Nicole, gave birth to their second son, Beau Lee, while he was still Down Under, so he had to watch it all and be part of it through FaceTime. Combs has spoken at-length about how hard it was, and still is, to miss such a major life event, and Cody took time to acknowledge how hard that was, and how he appreciates how much Luke has done for the genre and everything he has sacrificed, and of course, it doesn’t get harder than missing the birth of a child and it was an incredibly classy move by Cody, and I wouldn’t expect anything less from this true Texas gentlemen: “I want to dedicate this to somebody you guys probably didn’t expect me to dedicate this to. There’s a man that was up for this award that I personally watched devote his life to country music, and I was there the night in Australia when his wife gave birth to one of their sons. And I watched the anguish, and I watched the defeat on his face for not being there because he was across the world playing music in a sold out arena. And the next night, right after it, I watched him get on stage and absolutely murder the stage and go on stage and play country music and preach the message of country music to a bunch of Australians across the world. So tonight, I want to dedicate my first Entertainer of the Year award to my buddy Luke Combs. I love you, brother. Thank you.” Cody is a father of three himself, and it’s clear how much he respects Combs (who wasn’t in attendance tonight) and everything he has done for the genre. He also spoke about how he doesn’t look at his phone when he gets home form the road, but it makes him that much more excited to get back to his live shows, noting how much he loves and appreciates his fans. Cody released his most recent album Leather in 2023, and is set to release his 10th studio album Banks of the Trinity on June 26th. View this post on Instagram Luke recorded a song Cody co-wrote called “I Ain’t Now Cowboy” on his recent album The Way I Am: The post “I Watched the Anguish”: Cody Johnson Dedicates His First EOTY Award to Luke Combs in Emotional Speech first appeared on Whiskey Riff.