Jason Aldean will pay tribute to the late Toby Keith by performing Keith’s 1993 debut hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” on the Academy of Country Music Awards on Thursday, May 16. The song was Keith’s first hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. It reached No. 1 that June, his first of 20 No. 1 country hits. Keith died on Feb. 5 at age 62 following a two-year battle with stomach cancer.
Aldean’s performance will be a case of one ACM entertainer of the year paying tribute to another. Keith won the award in 2003 and 2004. Aldean won it three years running from 2016-18.
Keith won 14 ACM Awards. Aldean has won 15, including artist of the decade for the 2010s.
Hosted by 16-time ACM Award-winner Reba McEntire, the ACM Awards will stream live for a global audience on Prime Video from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on Thursday, May 16, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. A Prime membership will not be required to watch live. The full rebroadcast will be available directly following the stream on Prime Video and available the next day for free on Amazon Freevee and the Amazon Music app.
The 2024 ACM Awards will feature collaboration performances by Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan; Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani; and Nate Smith featuring Avril Lavigne. In addition, Post Malone is booked for the show. He is expected to perform “I Had Some Help,” his new single featuring Morgan Wallen, though that has not yet been announced.
The show will also feature performances by McEntire, Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Parker McCollum, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson.
The 59th Academy of Country Music Awards is produced by Dick Clark Productions. Raj Kapoor is executive producer and showrunner, with Patrick Menton as co-executive producer. Damon Whiteside serves as executive producer for the Academy of Country Music, and Barry Adelman serves as executive producer for DCP. John Saade continues to serve as consulting producer for Amazon MGM Studios.
DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a Penske Media Corporation (PMC) subsidiary and joint venture between PMC and Eldridge. PMC is the parent company of Billboard.
