Backstage at the CMA Awards Wednesday night in Nashville, some of the stars celebrated by focusing on their families.

John Osborne of Brothers Osborne admitted that his wife Lucie Silva didn’t know that when he and brother TJ took the stage to accept Vocal Duo of the Year, he was going to tell the world that she’s pregnant with twins.

He sweetly explained that when he saw Lucie sitting in the audience, “My heart filled up…I just wanted to tell the world. I hope that was O.K., Lucie!  I’m sorry if it wasn’t!”   John also joked that he’ll raise the twins as a musical duo who’ll eventually succeed him and TJ in the country music world.

Jordan Davis also had family on his mind: He and his brother Jacob shared the Song of the Year trophy for co-writing “Buy Dirt.” “I mean, I shared a room with the guy ’til I was 16 years old, so we’re pretty close,” he noted. “So this is something that nobody’s ever gonna be able to take away from us.”

Double winner Lainey Wilson brought her father, who’d recently been very ill, as her date, and told reporters, “He’s grinning ear-to-ear. This is the most I’ve seen him smile in months!”  She described the event as a “full circle moment” for her dad, because as a kid, Lainey said, “He used to roll a picnic table out to the side of the highway…and play his guitar for the cars passing by.”

Lainey also saluted the country music “family,” saying the women she beat in the Female Vocalist category — Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce — are like a “sisterhood.” “Every single girl in the category, I look up to…a lot of the girls have given me advice…they have listened to me cry,” she said. “They are rooting me on, and I feel the love. It’s so genuine.”

Matthew Ramsey of Old Dominion mourned a recently departed member of the country music family — Alabama‘s Jeff Cook — by praising the legendary group for giving them “examples of the right way to do something,” and for “changing the direction” of country music. “We wouldn’t be here without ’em,” he admitted.

And Entertainer of the Year Luke Combs said one lesson he’s learned with all his success is “just being present.” He added, “My wife is here, our son is home and my parents are still around…[so it’s] just being thankful for the things that I have right now…I get to live my dream everyday with people that I love living it with.”

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