CMA Awards red carpet report: Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus

The CMA Awards are happening right now, but our Dennis McCafferty was on the red carpet earlier as all the stars arrived and he took the time to fill us in on all the happenings. Read on for his full report, including which country starlet still doesn’t trust shopping online and what Miley Cyrus thinks of sharing her birthday with Thanksgiving:

Kellie Pickler (at left, shown on the red carpet), who was our first ever USA WEEKEND Breakthrough Video of the Year winner at this year’s CMT Awards, says she’s looking forward to her next video, which will be shot with one of her BFFs and fellow country superstar, Taylor Swift. “It’s a song we wrote together called Best Days of Your Life,” Pickler told me, of the song she’ll be performing tonight. “Taylor is like a sister to me. I’m very protective of her.” And while holiday shopping is just around the corner, don’t think you’ll catch Pickler shopping online. “I don’t do any of my shopping there. I’m still nervous about putting my credit card info online. I guess I’m stuck in the ‘90s,” she said.

The first thing you notice about Lady Antebellum, nominated for vocal group of the year, is that this must be the tallest country trio in history. Dave Haywood is 6’1”, Hillary Scott is 5’9 (“But tonight I’m 6’1”,” she told me) and Charles Kelley is 6’6”.  As Kelley put it, “We’re the tallest and thinnest act in country music.” But don’t expect that to last for long, as Thanksgiving is a big deal for this group, especially Kelley. “We have 60 people over at our house,” he said. “That’s a lot of turkey and a lot of hams going into the oven.” So of course I asked him what his official duty was for the holiday. “I’m the one who gets to stay outside and play basketball with all the little kids.” Nice work – beats washing the dishes.

Click on read more below for more scoop from the red carpet, from Darius Rucker, Taylor Swift, Josh Turner and Miley Cyrus.

Darius Rucker, who hit it big with Hootie and the Blowfish but has
successfully crossed over into country when his recent album, Learn to
Live, and song, Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It, went to No. 1 on the
Billboard country charts. He’s excited because he’ll be on a float for
the first time at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “I’ll be on a
Gibson guitar float, singing my new single,” he said. “It’s gonna make
Thanksgiving very special for me and my family. My kids are so excited
to watch. I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year when
I was a little boy.” I happen to know that Rucker is also considered
one of the best golfers among music stars, and he told me his handicap
is now at 8.3 (yes, they apparently do handicaps using the decimal
system).  He said he still gets playing time in even though he’s busier
than ever. “I’m playing three or four times a month now, which isn’t
bad. But I’m used to playing 20 times a month so for me that is bad.”

Taylor Swift has made a huge leap in the country music food chain, as
she’s nominated for female vocalist of the year this year after winning
the award for best new artist last year. But tonight all she could
think about was her dress, which, frankly, was killing her. It was a
sequin and crystal Kaufman Franco gown (at right), and she said it “must weigh 30
pounds. It’s the heaviest dress I’ve worn. It feels like a bag of
rocks.” That sounds almost as rocky as some of her relationships, which
inevitably end up serving as fodder for her albums. “If a boy is going
to get involved with me in any way, he should know that I’ll probably
end up writing a song about him,” she said. “That’s why they better be
nice to me."

Josh Turner was our cover boy for last year’s CMA Awards story, along with Martina
McBride, so by now he should be an old pro at this but he says he never
gets used to it "I still feel like a rookie, it’s always a new
experience for me,” he said. Josh’s music and songwriting is always
close to the American experience, for better or worse. Both of us
acknowledged that these are tough times, but Josh remains optimistic
about the future. “It’s really hard for a lot of Americans right now to
go through what we’re going through,” he said. “But like I wrote in my
recent song, Everything is Fine, you need to remember that no matter
how tough things get, no matter how tough the economy is and no matter
how tough the wars we’re fighting overseas can be, we need to
concentrate on the important things in our life.”

As we noted earlier today, Miley Cyrus turns 16 on Nov. 23, so, like
me, her birthday always falls right around, if not on, Thanksgiving.
Personally, I always hated this because, frankly, I’m not a big fan of
the traditional turkey dinner. Especially when it sits in the oven for
hours and gets dry. Sorry, folks, no amount of gravy can make a dry
bird taste moist. Miley, however, feels just the opposite.  “I love
having a birthday at Thanksgiving time,” she said. “It means I’m always
going to have all my family around on my birthday.  We don’t get to see
each other as much any more so that makes it all the more special. It
also means I get to have the best cake and the best food on my
birthday.” 

(Photos by Eileen Blass/USA TODAY)