CMT Awards: Trisha Yearwood quotes Scripture while accepting June Carter Cash humanitarian award
Country star Trisha Yearwood quoted Scripture while accepting the first-ever June Carter Cash Humanitarian Award at the 2024 CMT Music Awards for her work with Habitat for Humanity and her animal rescue organization Dottie's Yard.
"I only hope with this to be a big a part of my community and as good a friend to fellow artists as she was,” Yearwood said while accepting the award, referring to Carter Cash, at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, Sunday night.
“It can be really hard to stand up for what is right and what you believe in. June just did it. She walked the walk. She didn't just say what she believed, she lived it, and she was strong in a very human way. So I just want to say that my hope is that we can all learn a little bit from June Carter Cash's legacy and be a little bit more real, be a little bit more vulnerable, be a little bit less about me and a little bit more about us."
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The singer, 59, who also has a cooking show on the Food Network and is married to fellow country star Garth Books, said she’s committed to furthering her philanthropic endeavors. She quoted Luke 12:48, which reads, in part, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
"This is not one of those, 'Oh, look what I can do. Look what I accomplished.' I really look at this as a challenge and calling just to be better,” she added. “Garth and I believe to whom much is given, much is expected, and if you know me, my mantra is 'love one another,' so my challenge to all of us is to not just say it, but to go out there and do it. Thank you."
According to CMT, Yearwood has also been involved in the American Cancer Society, MusiCares, the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential, the Starkey Hearing Foundation, the Susan B. Komen Foundation, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
"Trisha has a unique ability to rally a community, whether that may be families in need with Habitat for Humanity or uplifting her fellow artists and entertainers trying to carve a path in the industry," wrote the awards show's executive producers in a statement.
Yearwood "embodies the bold strength of June, who tirelessly devoted herself to service and community, and the namesake for this award," the statement added.
"Both multi-hyphenate trailblazers eloquently crafted a script for others to model, letting their hearts and authenticity guide their personal, professional and public lives," concluded the statement.
Earlier in her speech, Yearwood praised Carter Cash as a “force” who was also married to a “force,” adding: “I know a little bit about a life like that. I know it wasn't always easy, but she found ways to make sure to keep shining in her own light and she had no bigger fan than her husband Johnny Cash. I also know a little bit about that."
She is "one of the most fierce, one of the coolest, most passionate women,” Yearwood said of Carter Cash, and thanked the whole Cash family” for "allowing my name to be said in the same sentence as June's" and said, "It didn't take very long to see that she embodied the very essence that this award is about."
In a 2022 interview with The Christian Post, John Carter Cash, the only son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, referred to his mother as his father’s “great love” despite their tumultuous early years.
“Throughout my early years, my parents were very close. And everything was wonderful,” John Carter Cash said. “Their marriage almost fell apart in the late 1970s, early 1980s — his addiction was just as bad as it ever had been. But I watched him change his life again; I watched him go through recovery. My mother also forgave my father, and they turned their relationship back around. They were incredibly close until the end of their lives.”
John Carter Cash credited his mother with helping his father return to his Christian roots despite his struggles with addiction.
“It was the love that endured,” he added. “It wasn’t happily ever after all the time, but they were together, through it all, to the end. ... I know he would change the fact that he wasn’t there for my sisters during the 1960s when he was splitting up with their mother. But at the same time, the path that he took led him to my mother; it led him to where he was supposed to be. And I'm very grateful for that.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
