The longest-running country music award show, none other than the ACMs, will return in less than a week on Sunday night, May 17.
Taking the stage at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, the 61st annual Academy of Country Music show will host the likes of Ella Langley, Zach Top, Cody Johnson, Riley Green, Red Clay Strays, Miranda Lambert, and more. Over the years, though, country music’s star-studded night has produced some pretty hilarious on-stage moments, including the show’s monumentous 50th anniversary, where, interestingly, Matthew McConaughey made a cameo.
Back in 2009, the “Interstellar” actor was tasked with presenting one of the biggest awards of the night for ACM Entertainer of the Year. However, before handing the shiny silver cowboy hat trophy off to first-time winner Carrie Underwood, he took it upon himself to send a little shout-out to his fellow Texas native, George Strait.
He starts by setting the scene back to 1987, when he and his brother left their hometown of Longview, Texas, for a short road trip to the Oil Palace in Tyler, Texas. Somehow, on the mere 40-minute drive to go see none other than the up-and-coming singer, Dwight Yoakam, the boys still found themselves a bit of an adventure.
Truly, what fun is a road trip if you don’t make some new memories by putting on a fake act and completely changing your personalities in a new city? Before he had even entered the Hollywood scene, the two brothers put their acting chops to good use after they happened to meet some ladies, and the conversation came up about “what they do for a living.”
On queue, both McConaughey and his brother chimed in, “Well, we have an exclusive contract with George Strait, we custom make his boots.” Then, in the creepiest yet somehow charming manner, he told the ladies, “In fact, out in the parking lot in the truck of our white Corvette, we have the next year’s new edition white ostrich quill George Strait signed series that he’s going to wear on tour next year.”
Talk about a pickup line that would only work for McConaughey. The ladies excitedly begged to take a sneak peek, and Mr ‘Alright Alright Alright’ noted, “We obliged.” And for those wondering if the fable actually worked, he ended the story by confirming, “The point of the story is we got lucky that night. Thank you, George!”
The crowd erupted in laughter, including Strait, who seemed to approve of the conniving scheme, and even Underwood started her acceptance speech joking through her happy tears, saying, “I don’t know what to say, I got nothing– I wanna see those boots, Matthew.”
To top off the joke, sure enough, a year later, McConaughey returned to the show and dropped off a pair of black cowboy boots for the “Blown Away” singer. Check out the full onstage moment and Underwood’s reaction below before this year’s ACM Awards return to Prime Video this Sunday, 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT, hosted by Shania Twain.