Blake Shelton Leads The Gambler Tribute at ACM Awards — Blake Shelton Acm Awards Performance
Blake Shelton's blake shelton acm awards performance led a "The Gambler" singalong at the ACM Awards, turning the show into a tribute to Kenny Rogers and Don Schlitz. Shelton used the slot to honor the songwriter behind the tune and the singer who took it to No. 1.
"That particular song is like two legends came together and made one of the most important pieces of music in country music history…I would say it’s in the top 10, at least it’s in my top 10 of all time," Shelton said. He added, "I always love it when these award shows take time to honor someone that we’ve lost."
Shelton and The Gambler
Don Schlitz wrote "The Gambler," and the song had already been recorded by Bobby Bare and Johnny Cash before Kenny Rogers made it his own. Rogers performed it in 1978, and it later reached No. 1 on the US Hot Country Songs chart, which is why Shelton framed the tribute around one song instead of a longer medley.
The performance also put two separate losses back in the same frame. Schlitz died last month at 73, while Rogers died in March 2020, and Shelton made clear the show’s tribute slot was meant to acknowledge both men rather than treat the song as a nostalgia cue.
ACM Awards on Prime Video
The ACM Awards streamed on Prime Video and Twitch, and Shelton thanked Amazon for the setup during the broadcast. "The good thing about this thing being on Amazon, like a streamer, is I don’t think there’s really these timing restraints. I think they can just do whatever," he said.
That flexibility helped the show land a tribute that relied on pacing as much as song choice. Special appearances and surprises were being kept secret around the broadcast, so Shelton’s segment worked as one of the night’s few explicit acknowledgments of country’s recent losses.
Country Music Hall of Fame
Schlitz was a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry, which gave Shelton’s performance a wider institutional meaning than a standard awards-show cover. By centering the tribute on one of country’s most durable songs, the ACMs gave viewers a clean snapshot of how the genre remembers its writers: through the records that outlast the first chart run and through the stage spots that still draw attention years later.
For viewers, the practical takeaway was simple: Shelton used a prime awards slot to honor both the writer and the singer who made "The Gambler" a standard, and the broadcast format gave the show room to let that tribute breathe.
