Brothers Osborne Clarify ACM Awards Comment:  'If You’re Upset About That, Maybe You’re Part Of The Problem'

T.J. Osborne and John Osborne in the ACM Awards press room (Photo: Denise Truscello/Getty Images for ACM)

EMI RECORDS NASHVILLE duo BROTHERS OSBORNE won the ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARD for Duo of the Year for the third time last night (3/7), but the moment was not without controversy. After T.J. OSBORNE quipped in his acceptance, “About a week ago they pulled our single from Country radio, so we needed a little bit of wind in our sails," many took to social media to question exactly what he meant. The song he was referring to, "I'm Not For Everyone," peaked at #32 on the Mediabase Country chart last week, its 39th on the chart.

While the identity of the "they" in OSBORNE's comment was never made clear (label or radio?) the duo elaborated on the comment almost immediate afterwards when they were asked about it in the backstage press room.

JOHN OSBORNE said, "I can speak for my brother here and say that comment was made in jest. It's not completely wrong, but that was made more like in fun, in the moment. Some people in radio have been really great to us," he continued. "Not entirely, and that's OK, so we kind of keep pushing and trying to persevere, and what has kept us going for, I'd say, the past eight years are these [awards]. It has kept wind in our sails, not only what it does in terms of the fanbase and the notoriety, but what it does for us as people that are fighting what we feel like is an uphill battle even when we do win. It puts the wind in our manager's sails and our label's sails, our band and our crew. It's a lot bigger than people know. These things really, truly do keep you going."

T.J. added that they feel "like we’re underdogs the whole time. That’s part of it, is that we don’t get necessarily a lot of the love that some of the other artists do on radio. I’m not necessarily criticizing anyone specifically for that, but it’s just a fact, and ... tonight, I guess some people were ... upset that I said that. Like, I said a true statement ... Our single literally got pulled last week, and we just won an award. If you’re upset about that, maybe you’re part of the problem.”

Responding to another question about different paths to success in a career, JOHN said, "There is more than one way up the mountain ... As days go on, as we progress and things evolve within the industry, there are a lot more avenues. To have a lot of success at radio is really amazing and has done a lot of people a lot of good, has changed their lives, but there [is] more than one way to do it. At one point there wasn’t, and now there are a lot of ways. We see people getting successes through winning awards, and our beautiful industry lifting us up, and other people building their careers just via the internet with no record deals at all. So there are a lot of opportunities for lot of artists, and... that is amazing. I think that’s incredible, and it's a beacon for us in this music industry.”

Watch the backstage interview here.

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