Who would have predicted that Morgan Wallen and HARDY would team up with Post Malone for a country performance?
The three musicians joined forces on stage during the 2023 CMA Awards at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday for a medley of classic country songs — both recorded by Joe Diffie.
HARDY, 33, and Wallen, 30, opened the show together, going back-to-back while wearing matching double denim as they sang 1993’s “John Deere Greene.”
Then, halfway through the show, the pair were joined by none other than Posty, 28, who took to the stage in an orange jacket and camouflage cap because he really looked like a country star. He also voiced the part as the trio performed 1994’s “Pickup Man.”
In the end, they enjoyed themselves, celebrated a successful performance and the country’s great evening continued.
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Wallen also took the stage for his own performance, performing “Man Made A Bar” alongside Eric Church.
The “Last Night” musician was nominated at this year’s ceremony in four categories: Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, International Award for Artistic Achievement and Album of the Year for One thing at a time. HARDY also received four nominations at the 2023 CMA Awards for Single of the Year, Song of the Year, Music Video of the Year and Music Event of the Year, all for his single “Wait in the Truck” featuring Lainey Wilson.
Before the show, HARDY told Audacy that the trio’s performance would include “a big announcement.” The announcement ended up being for his next release, Hixtape: Vol. 3: Difftape, the first two tracks of which are now available.
“There is a plan and I can’t talk about it yet, but it will all make sense after the awards,” he said. “I can’t go too much into why we’re doing it, but it will all make sense at that point and after the awards because we have a big announcement.”
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DURABLE.
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Post Malone’s appearance at this year’s ceremony marked his first, with HARDY recently telling Audacy that he’s been “manifesting” performing with the “Rockstar” rapper for “years.”
“He bent a bit here, but I started to follow [Post Malone] when he had like 300K followers on Instagram,” HARDY said. “I was on ‘White Iverson.’ [train]like the first thing he ever put out, and I was like, ‘this is dope,’ and I’ve been with him ever since.”
This performance may not be Post Malone’s last in the genre. In an interview with The Howard Stern Show last year he talked about wanting to record and release a country album.
Check out PEOPLE’s full coverage of the CMA Awards for the latest news on country music’s biggest night.
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“To be honest, there’s nothing stopping me from picking up a camera or setting up in my studio in Utah and just making a country album and just putting it on fucking YouTube,” Post Malone said. “There’s nothing stopping me. I might face some consequences later from the label and s—. But, there’s nothing stopping me from doing it.”
The 2023 CMA Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning, airs live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on ABC and will stream exclusively on Hulu the following day.
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Source: HIS Education