Carrie Underwood Talks Meltdowns, Previews CMA Awards With Brad Paisley (BONUS: CMA Awards Spoilers!)

Preparations for tomorrow night’s CMA Awards are intensifying, and so is press…and spoiler availability. On Sunday night, country superstars and co hosts for the 7th year running Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood took to the mics for their annual pre-CMA press conference with radio, during which they discussed Brad’s parenting advice for Carrie, whether they’ve ever had to hold back on jokes that they wanted to tell, how they are approaching their traditional comedic recaps of the year when so many of the headlines have been so tragic & serious, and more.

Carrie also shared a humorous tale of 1 of her recent hormone-related meltdowns (hint: the prospect of trading in 1 car for another can be really emotional, you guys!):

Check out more of the press conference here:

Meanwhile, here’s what we know about tomorrow’s show (SPOILERS ahead), in no particular order:

Kenny Chesney will perform his recent #1 smash “American Kids” (source.)
Miranda Lambert and Meghan Trainor will perform Trainor’s #1 smash “All About That Bass.” Makes sense for a country show! (OK to be fair, the CMAs have always had guests from out of genre, Trainor is a Nashville-based songwriter, and since pop fans appear to be more receptive to female acts right now than country fans, maybe the outreach isn’t such a bad idea.)
-Miranda Lambert will have a 2nd performance, her new single “Smokin’ & Drinkin’,” featuring Little Big Town (source).
-Little Big Town will also perform their current single “Day Drinking” with pop superstar of the moment Ariana Grande, in a medley with something else (source). UPDATE: The “Day Drinking” mashup will be with the Jessie J/Ariana Grande/Nicki Minaj smash “Bang Bang” (there’s a typo in the tweet):


Hunter Hayes, Jennifer Nettles, and Hillary Scott will team with Michael McDonald and the rest of the The Doobie Brothers for a performance (source, thanks @Amanda522).
-Brad Paisley will perform his current single “Perfect Storm.”
Jason Aldean will perform his recent #1 smash “Burnin’ It Down” (source.)
Blake Shelton will perform his next single, “Lonely Tonight,” featuring the wonderful Ashley Monroe (source).
Dierks Bentley will perform his humorous summer smash “Drunk On A Plane” (source).
-Carrie Underwood will perform her current single “Something In The Water” in its live television debut (source).
Luke Bryan will perform “Roller Coaster” (source).
Lady Antebellum will perform their most recent #1 hit “Bartender” (source).
Cole Swindell will perform “Chillin It,” likely a short performance that leads into him reading the names of the broadcast radio CMA winners (source, thanks @JasontheScott for the heads up)

Also performing on tomorrow night’s telecast, which starts at 8 PM Eastern: Eric Church, Florida Georgia Line, Hunter Hayes, Tim McGraw, Kacey Musgraves (juicy rumor of the day: she will have the surprise legendary duet partner teased by Executive Producer Robert Deaton – could it be Loretta Lynn? Martina McBride spilled in a now deleted tweet that she would be sharing a dressing room with Loretta, Faith Hill, and Trisha Yearwood today), Thomas Rhett, George Strait, The Band Perry, and Keith Urban.

Presenters include Lilly Aldridge, Connie Britton, Garth Brooks, Lucy Hale, Tim Tebow, Steven Tyler, Darius Rucker, Trisha Yearwood, and CMA Awards nominees Lee Brice, Brandy Clark, Brett Eldredge, Martina McBride, and Kip Moore. Nominees include Carrie Underwood, The Swon Brothers, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, and Nashville Star alums Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves

We’ll be live-blogging and live-snarking the festivities, so come and join us then, won’t you?

About Deb B 432 Articles
Also known as Windmills, I cover country music news and live televised country events, in addition to recapping ABC's 'Nashville.' Additionally, I occasionally do long-form chart analysis that has been cited by Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The Guardian, The New Republic, NPR, and more.