Midland will be heading into next weekend’s ACM Awards as winners. It was about a week ago that the guys got an early-morning call from Reba McEntire, letting them know that they had won New Vocal Duo or Group. Mark Wystrach explains how it happened and how they were able to have the moment filmed. “To be honest,” he says, “we were completely surprised. Our tour manager had led us to believe that we had a phoner with a local radio station for a ticket giveaway. And it was early in the morning and we had a late show the night before and hadn’t had much caffeine and were pretty groggy. So when we sat down and started the phone call they had filmed it saying that the radio station wanted footage because we were giving the tickets away to their fans. So we just went along with it and then sure enough, Reba McEntire comes over the phone and all of us kind of looked at each other, and when she said that we had won ACM New Vocal Group of the Year.”
If you’ve seen the video, then you know there was an extended moment of speechlessness and disbelief before the guys realized it was really Reba and they had really won. Mark says, “Immediately we were flushed with emotions and just kind of, for the first time, at a loss for words and we just hugged and just started kind of yahooing. It was just really surreal, one of those really wild surreal moments and just Incredibly exciting. It’s our first big victory and one that we won’t soon forget.”
Midland, who just released their new single, “Burn Out,” will be performing on Sunday night’s ACM Awards, and they’re also up for two more trophies in the Single of the Year category for “Drinkin’ Problem” and Group of the Year. The 53rd annual ACM Awards will air live from Las Vegas on April 15th on CBS.
Midland – ACM win reaction :57
Mark Wystrach – “To be honest, we were completely surprised. Our tour manager had led us to believe that we had a phoner with a local radio station for a ticket giveaway. And it was early in the morning and we had a late show the night before and hadn’t had much caffeine and were pretty groggy. So when we sat down and started the phone call they had filmed it saying that the radio station wanted footage because we were giving the tickets away to their fans. So we just went along with it and then sure enough, Reba McEntire comes over the phone and all of us kind of looked at each other, and when she said that we had won ACM New Vocal Group of the Year, immediately we were flushed with emotions and just kind of, for the first time, at a loss for words and we just hugged and just started kind of yahooing. It was just really surreal, one of those really wild surreal moments and just Incredibly exciting. It’s our first big victory and one that we won’t soon forget.”