for the 2010 Academy of Country Music Awards.
Hint: One of those two artists has a man-crush on Trace.
Trace Adkins is on stage drinking a bottle of water.
Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
His hair is down.
Trace Adkins is an extremely imposing man.
12:14 p.m. Blake Shelton has joined Trace to rehearse their number, Blakes recently-released Hillbilly Bone.
I believe this song is a euphemism, though I do not know for what.
12:20 p.m.Above the stage, a diamond-shaped frame is hanging from the grid.
In the center of the frame is a diamond-shaped video screen.
But one might say that, if one were so inclined.
12:31 p.m.Blake and Trace are running through Hillbilly Bone again.
Chorus girls dressed up like guns.
Speaking of: Laura Bell Bundy coming up later!
12:32 p.m.My favorite part of this rehearsal is Blakes fiddle player, who is on stage sans fiddle.
She is very enthusiastically miming along instead.
She is also about one-third the size of Trace Adkins.
12:35 p.m. All right, folks, were going to do a pyro test on the stage.
This is going to happen twice during the number.
The pyro went off at the end, kind of looked/sounded like the stage sneezed.
Blake: No no no!
EW: Is that where my hillbilly bone is located?
I feel like its something maybe Im too prudish to understand.
Blake: Your hillbilly bone is not located where my hillbilly bone is located.
Know what Im sayin?
Its not necessarily a gender thing.
But everybodys hillbilly bone is located in a different spot.
EW: Can you pinpoint that location when you meet people?
Blake: Not exactly, but its a good excuse for staring at certain parts of a persons body.
And itll be like, Hey, dude, what are you looking at?
and then Ill say, Oh, no!
I was I think thats probably where your hillbilly bone is.
And then we strike up a conversation.
EW: You clearly have a deep affection for Trace.
Blake: Who doesnt?
EW: Man-crush levels, or just respect and admiration?
I used to think.
Until I started spending a lot of time around Trace Adkins.
And he definitely brings out a side in me I didnt know I had.
Hes just so… manly.
In a way that makes me feel girly.
Thats the only way I can explain it.
Did it accomplish what you were hoping?
Blake: I think it worked.
So I think its definitely a good idea.
I just think theres a couple little tweaks we can do to make it even better.
EW: Are you going to bring anything to the performance that I didnt see during rehearsal?
Blake: Me and Trace are pretty much straight-ahead country singin kind of guys.
Then he and the B&D band run through the song hell be performing on the tribute show.
Theres a nice little Ronnie-esque nasal gloss to Jasons vocals.
2:25 p.m.Jack Ingram comes wandering in and we chat for a bit.
2:32 p.m.A pack of very lithely muscular young men and women just walked in carrying backpacks.
Methinks these are Laura Bell Bundys dancers.
2:45 p.m.Jason Aldean has now been reunited with his band and theyre running through Crazy Town.
This dude is just solid, all the time.
The adults are sort of listlessly clapping and attempting to dance to the relatively hard-rock Aldean sound.
It is hilariousy awkward and, without question, my favorite thing that has happened today.
2:57 p.m.Crazy Town is on run number three.
No clarification was given.
I mean, they arein.
A good smattering of folks comply, though none with the enthusiasm of our sparkly female friends.
3:30 p.m.Oh my goodness!
Somehow the notion of texting 5 to vote for George Strait just seems wrong.
I would wager the Venn diagram of internet-free Americans vs. George Straits fanbase has alotof crossover.
They are playing invisible brass instruments.
They are making me insanely happy.
Oh my goodness, Dierks says, as she descends from the sky on a giant golden horseshoe.
(Horseshoes are her trademark.)
Shes wearing a headset mic so she can sing and dance at the same time.
I decide it is her private tribute to Brooks & Dunn.
she says when she finishes, clearly out of breath.
Does anybody have some water?
4:25 p.m.Interviewed Jack Ingram.
He, too, was heavily distracted by LBB as we spoke.
If you know what I mean.
4:37 p.m.Current discussion in arena: is LBB the Country Lady Gaga?
5:02 p.m.This time, the fake announcer lady tells us LBB is going to leave us hungry for more.
Someone (Im pretty sure it was LBB) yells out, Are you making these up?
just as the music track starts to drown her out.
Theres a hole in the floor, says LBB, stopping the dance number.
Guys, if that happens, youve gotta jump out of the hole.
Its a live show, advises a stage manager.
If he jumps out of the hole, will you shut the hole?
5:09 p.m.Were doing a pyro test, then one last full run of the LBB number.
The pyro corresponds to gunshots.
I got my chorus girls after all!
How are the nerves now?
LBB: Theyre going away.
I think when you practice something, it takes away your fear.
EW: And it doesnt explode until you get off it.
Youre also super out of breath.
Is it the singing and dancing simultaneously, or the altitude, or what?
LBB: Its the dryness, and you know what?
That song is usually three and a half minutes, and has a lot of breathing breaks in it.
And for cut it down for the show, we cut em all out.
Im not worried about it.
And if its not fine, its not fine.
EW: This is going to be your introduction to a lot of the mainstream country audience.
What are they going to see and think?
LBB: Theyre gonna see a story song, being told with music and dance.
And nothing more scandalous than a stomach.
Ive done a lot of situps.
I dont know what theyre gonna think.
Im sure there will be some people who are shocked.
Im sure there are gonna be some people who want to jump on stage.
I wish they would, actually.
You okay with that?
It was not easy to look this smokin hot.
And if Im bustin my ass to look like this, I want somebody to acknowledge it.
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How does this not suck?
