Clint Black Honored as BMI Icon During BMI Country Awards: ‘Truly Humbling’

The BMI Country Awards celebrated the top songwriters and music publishers driving the past year’s 50 most-performed songs in the country music genre during a star-studded celebration held Nov. 18 at BMI’s Nashville office. The evening was led by BMI president/CEO Mike O’Neill and hosted by BMI’s chief revenue and creative officer Mike Steinberg, as well as BMI Nashville vice president of creative Clay Bradley, who called the evening “the greatest parking lot party in the world.”

Clint Black was celebrated for more than three decades of crafting songs that have considerably impacted country music, when he was presented with the BMI Icon Award.

Black has been affiliated with BMI since 1993 and has earned 20 BMI Country Awards during his career. He’s also earned 13 No. 1 Billboard Hot Country Songs chart hits, among them “Summer’s Comin’,” “Walkin’ Away,” “A Good Run of Back Luck,” and “When My Ship Comes In.” Black has been a writer on the majority of his biggest hits, while also etching a multi-faceted career that has included roles as a musician, actor and producer. He’s earned five ACM Awards, four CMA Awards and a Grammy.

An illustrious lineup of artists took part to honor Black throughout the night with their renditions of his songs. Midland performed “A Better Man,” while Jamey Johnson performed “Untanglin’ My Mind.”

“Thank you for such an indelible mark that you’ve left on music,” Johnson told Black.

Riley Green performed a rendition of “Killin’ Time,” while Randy Houser and Wynonna earned a standing ovation for their performance of “A Bad Goodbye,” which Wynonna and Black originally released in 1993.

Beyond the performances, other artists and music executives feted Black through video segments, including acclaimed journalist/author Robert K. Oermann, Sony Music Publishing Nashville CEO Rusty Gaston, artists Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, Darius Rucker, Bill Anderson, Luke Combs, late night television host Conan O’Brien and actors Billy Bob Thornton and Matthew McConaughey.

In a video tribute, Bryan said of Black’s 1989 Killin’ Time album, “It never left my stereo, my speakers… that album changed my life.”

Black attended the awards with his wife of 34 years, Lisa Hartman-Black, and their daughter Lily Pearl Black, who is following in her father’s footsteps as a singer-songwriter.

In accepting his BMI Icon Award, Black recalled how songwriting was a formative part of his childhood, and how his father showed him the liner notes on a Merle Haggard record. “He taught me how to read the liner notes. He’d say, ‘There’s the artist, there’s the songwriter, there’s the producer…’ He said, ‘It’s usually Billy Sherrill, if it’s good.’ From that point on, I wanted to be a songwriter. Being up here, standing up here, I can tell you, it’s the best job. I’m so grateful. To all of you who sang my songs to me tonight, it was a real treat and a real honor… I’m in such great company here tonight.”

Black also added, “You don’t do what we do without a long train of people behind you, pushing you up the hill. There have been a lot of people in my life who are as much responsible for this moment as I am…Seeing how many of my friends and fellow artists pitched in to make this special is truly humbling. It’s unexpected and that makes it twice as good.”

The evening also celebrated 38 first-time award winners, among them Seth Ennis (for the Dylan Marlowe/Dylan Scott collab “Boys Back Home”), MacKenzie Carpenter (for Megan Moroney’s “I’m Not Pretty”), Thomas Eriksen (for Kane Brown’s “Miles On It”), Zach Top for his own hit “I Never Lie,” Tucker Wetmore for his hit “Wind Up Missin’ You,” Chase Matthew for his hit “Love You Again,” and Nevin Sastry for Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”

Charlie Handsome took home BMI country songwriter of the year honors, for his work in crafting hit songs including “I Had Some Help,” “Love Somebody,” “Guy for That,” “This Town’s Been Too Good to Us,” and “Pour Me a Drink.”

“This is probably the first time a rap/hip-hop producer won songwriter of the year in country,” Handsome said, drawing cheers from the crowd. He later added, “I started keeping this circle around me. If you stick with the best writers you know, and work with people who are better than you, you can win.” He also praised many of his musical and industry cohorts, including Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, ERNEST and HARDY.

The Wallen/Post Malone collaboration “I Had Some Help,” which spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, was named song of the year. Co-writers on the song Ernest Keith Smith, Handsome, Hoskins, Wallen and Chandler Paul Walters were honored, as were the song’s publishers, Big Loud Mountain, Sony/ATV Songs LLC and Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.

For a third consecutive year, Warner-Tamerlane was named BMI country publisher of the year. The company published 32 of the 50 most-performed songs of the year, among them Luke Bryan’s “Love You, Miss You, Mean It,” Zach Bryan’s “28,” “Tourniquet” and “Pink Skies,” the Ella Langley/Riley Green collaboration “You Look Like You Love Me,” Cody Johnson’s “Dirt Cheap,” Jelly Roll’s “Halfway to Hell,” “I Am Not Okay” and “Liar,” and Bailey Zimmerman’s “Holy Smokes.”