The Academy of Country Music announced the special honorees for the 2025 ACM Honors show on Wednesday, with honorary awards set to go to top songwriters and executives in Nashville as well as a number of country’s stop stars. The ceremony will take this year at a new location, Nashville’s recently opened Pinnacle, on Aug. 20.
Eric Church, Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Rissi Palmer, Randy Travis and Lainey Wilson will be awarded from among the ranks of artists. Mac McAnally and Jessi Jo Dillon represent the songwriters’ world in this year’s kudos, while Lori Badgett and Ben Vaughn will be celebrated for behind-the-scenes work in Nashville, and the film “Twisters” will get its own ACM Honors trophy. (The awards for Wilson and Dillon were previously announced.)
Performers for the event will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets go on sale to Academy members and ACM newsletter subscribers in a Thursday presale, and the general public can begin buying tickets through AXS on Friday.
“Twisters” will receive the ACM Film Award, something that obviously isn’t given out every year, for a project that prominently features country music, as this movie’s country-focused 29-track soundtrack did. The trophy had previously gone to films ranging from “A Star Is Born” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” all the way back to the 50-year-old “Nashville.”
Country superstar Eric Church and Ben Vaughn will each be bestowed — posthumously, in the latter’s case — with the ACM Icon Award, generally seen as the Academy’s highest lifetime honor. Vaughn was one of the most visible and longstanding leaders in the Nashville music business, serving as president-CEO of Warner Chappell Music Nashville until his death in January. Past Icon recipients range from Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard to Joe Galante and Mike Dungan.
Luke Combs, one of the country stars whose appeal has turned out to translate the most in parts of the world where the genre is not as dominant, will be getting the ACM International Award for his furthering of country music overseas.
Recording artist and radio host Rissi Palmer will be receiving the ACM Lift Every Voice Award, presented to someone who is a leader in ensuring underrepresented voices have a platform in country. Still one of the few Black women to have had an impact on the mainstream country charts, Palmer has made an impact with her Apple Music program “Color Me Country,” now in its fifth year.
The ACM Lifting Lives Award is going to Jelly Roll for his philanthropic work and contributions, including his advocacy for the causes of at-risk youth, the prison community, fentanyl abuse and mental health treatment.
Randy Travis will pick up the ACM Milestone Award, designated specifically for work accomplished in the past calendar year, with the Academy citing his work in the use of AI to replicate the singing voice he lost and advocacy for stroke awareness and health care rights.
Mac MacAnally is set to get the ACM Poet’s Award, an honor bestowed upon Nashville’s most venerable songwriters.
The ACM Service Award will go to Lori Badgett, which goes to an artist and/or industry leader who has been devoted to furthering the work of the Academy itself. Badgett is a mainstay at City National Bank in Nashville, where the Academy says she “now plays an integral role in serving a majority of the city’s country music” professionals, and she has been the chairman of both the Academy of Country Music and its charitable arm, ACM Lifting Lives.
The ACM Spirit Award has been reserved for top star Cody Johnson. This award is earmarked for an artist who has continued on in the tradition of Merle Haggard, with the Academy citing his success while adhering to a traditional country sound.
Among the honors that were previously announced, Lainey Wilson will get the ACM Artist-Songwriter of the Year Award, while Jessie Jo Dillion will pick up the ACM Songwriter of the Year Award bestowed upon tunesmiths who do not double as recording artists.
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