Brad Paisley is one of the few artists to win both the Horizon Award (now known as the New Artist Of The Year), and the Entertainer Of The Year Award. Brad says that he’s really honored to have won both, because there’s a lot of artists…country music legends…that haven’t won just one of them, never mind both. Brad jokes that the Horizon Award is the CMAs saying “we believe in you” while the Entertainer Award is a “pat on the back.” Brad is very thankful for having his name attached to both awards.

So, how rare is it for an artist to win the Horizon/New Artist Award, and then go on to win Entertainer Of The Year? Since the Horizon/New Artist Award was first handed out in 1981, only 6 artists have been named with both honors.

Ricky Skaggs (Horizon 1982 – Entertainer 1985)
Garth Brooks (Horizon 1990 – Entertainer 1991)
Dixie Chicks (Horizon 1998 – Entertainer 2000)
Brad Paisley (Horizon 2000 – Entertainer 2010)
Keith Urban (Horizon 2001 – Entertainer 2005)
Taylor Swift (Horizon 2007 – Entertainer 2011)

(Note: The CMAs switched the name from the Horizon Award to the New Artist Of The Year Award in 2008)

  Brad Paisley talks about the honor of winning both the Horizon Award and Entertainer Of The Year at the CMAs. (:45)
“It’s a huge full circle thing that not everybody gets. They’re been people that won either one that’s for sure, but it means a lot because…the Horizon Award, which is the New Artist Award, has this, sort of…’we believe in you, we believe you’re going to do great things, and you’ve already done something worth this,’ but that’s a great feeling. But then the Entertainer feels like ‘we knew you could do it’ or something (laugh) that’s so much more of a pat on the back as opposed to…the Horizon Award is a shove, it’s like ‘go,’ but the Entertainer’s is like a big embrace, it’s a hug and it’s a really hard earned award not everybody gets that. There have been some amazing artists, and legends that didn’t win that, and very thankful to have.”