Darius Rucker is a big fan of the CMA Awards’ hosting lineup this year. With Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning at the helm of the awards show, the country superstar (and former CMA Awards co-host) thinks it’s sure to be an incredible night.
“Love it. Peyton’s hilarious,” the singer says of the decision to add the Pro Football Hall of Famer to the bill.
“He’s one of my best buddies, and he’s hilarious,” Darius goes on to say. “I think him and Luke are gonna be great at it. I mean, [the script writers for the show] must be in heaven writing that — it’s gonna be awesome.”
Darius and Peyton have had plenty of chances to get to know each other over the years — they’re both huge sports fans, and they both attended Brad Paisley’s all-star Zoom drinking parties during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And now they’ve got a couple more things in common, since not only have they both stepped into the hosting gig at the CMAs, but they’re both one half of all-star hosting duos.
Darius’ hosting partner was Reba McEntire, who shared those duties with him at the 2020 show. Darius says he came out of that experience admiring Reba more than ever before — and he was already a huge fan of hers to begin with.
“Reba has been nothing but awesome to me since I’ve known her,” he says. “Since I came to Nashville, she’s been one of my champions, and also, when we did the CMAs together, I’ve never seen anybody more giving than she was when we did that.”
Most recently, Darius teamed up with Reba as a guest star on ABC’s Big Sky, which features Reba as a series regular this season.
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