Toby Keith To Skip CMA Awards

He may be up for an award this year but Toby Keith has decided to skip the CMAs.

Keith, who was nominated for the Best Music Video of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards for his song Red Solo Cup, said that he’s going to skip the CMAs so that he can do something fun.

Keith said:

“Hell no, I ain’t showing up. I gotta go get a root canal that day, or something fun.”

Our Country reports that Keith has been nominated for 28 CMA Awards over the course of his career but he’s only won twice. Keith won in 2001 for Male Vocalist of the Year and in 2005 for Music Video of the Year. The country star has not been nominated for a CMA in the last 7 years.

The country singer said that he was surprised by this year’s nomination. Not only because he hasn’t been nominated for 7 years despite releasing several successful albums, but because Red Solo Cup is his first song to truly cross over onto pop stations.

Toby Keith told Taste of Country:

“Isn’t that crazy? But, you know, it’s the only song I ever had cross over and play on the pop stations. Ever. All of my peers that are hard ticket sellers, successful people, at the top of the game we play every day, about every one of them has had a certain amount of crossover play: Taylor, Tim, Keith, Flatts, Faith. I was always the one guy in that generation that didn’t. [Pop stations] were always like, ‘He is so country, we’re not going to play him.’ And I always took pride in that.”

Do you like Toby Keith? Do you think he’ll win best video for Red Solo Cup at the CMAs?