The sudden death of his brother-in-law caused Luke Bryan to be unable to accept his CMT Artist of the Year award Tuesday night (Dec. 2), but the country star was watching the show and was touched by a song Lady Antebellum performed in is honor - and by the outpouring of concern from his fellow artists. Keith Urban, Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley made it a point during the show to send well wishes to Bryan and his family.
The country star's brother-in-law, Ben Lee Cheshire, passed away on Saturday (Nov. 29). Cheshire was married to Bryan's sister Kelly, who died in 2007. Bryan immediately left for Georgia to be with his family members and to attend Cheshire's funeral.
Bryan was certainly not forgotten during the CMT Artist of the Year awards broadcast.
"One of my buddies, Luke Bryan, is not here tonight, dealing with some family stuff in Georgia," Aldean said after accepting his Artist of the Year trophy from Kenny Chesney, as quoted by Billboard. "Just want to say I'm thinkin' about you, you and your family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all. Hurry back to the country music world."
When Urban accepted his Artist of the Year award, he said, "I want to send my love and prayers out to Luke and all your family tonight too, brother. You're right here tonight, brother."
In Bryan's absence, Lady Antebellum agreed to sing Bryan's hit, "Drink a Beer," with one of the song's co-writers, Chris Stapleton. While Bryan didn't co-write the song, it spoke to him because of the deaths of his brother Chris and sister Kelly, according to Taste of Country.
"Family comes first, and sadly, Luke's family faced a tragic loss this weekend with the death of his brother-in-law Lee," Lady A's Charles Kelley said before the performance. "So tonight, we wanted to perform a song that's very special to Luke."
Bryan was watching and offered, through Twitter, his first comments since Cheshire's death on Saturday:
That was amazing. Truly. Thank you Charles, Dave, Hillary and Chris! Beautiful!!! Thank you fans for your love.
- Luke Bryan (@LukeBryanOnline) December 3, 2014
