CMA To Honor John Huie With Lifetime Achievement Award

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John Huie

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) Music Agent and Co-Founder of the CAA Music Nashville office John Huie will be honored by the Country Music Association with its 2022 CMA Touring Lifetime Achievement Award. Huie will be presented the honor at the 2022 CMA Touring Awards on Jan. 30 at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works.

It was also announced that twelve-time CMA Awards winner and two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year Keith Urban will host the awards. The previously revealed nominees for the CMA Touring Awards include many professionals in different roles in the touring world.

The CMA Touring Lifetime Achievement Award is for an individual who has accomplished the highest level in the country music field of touring. The award was established to recognize an individual who has achieved both prominence and stature at the highest level. The individual receiving this award has positively impacted and contributed to the growth of touring throughout a course of years that have proven to have an unprecedented historical impact on country music fans and the industry alike, and whose presence will have a long-term positive impact on the genre and CMA for generations to come.

“It’s a humbling experience,” Huie shared of the honor. “It gave me a sense of pause and reflection. It’s an exclamation mark on a career. It’s nice to be honored and humbly accepted.”

He began his career at CAA in 1992, joining Ron Baird in opening the first satellite office for CAA. Since that time, the CAA Nashville office has grown to become a dominant industry force. He has helped guide the growth of the agency’s Music City operations from two employees to more than 80 specializing in booking, tour marketing, and brand partnerships.

In 1978, Huie began his career in Macon, Georgia, at The Paragon Agency, where he booked tours for acts like The Charlie Daniels Band and The Allman Brothers. After a year, he moved to New York City and opened Frontier Booking International (F.B.I.) with Ian Copeland. While at F.B.I., Huie was instrumental in breaking artists such as The Police, The Go-Go’s, and Joan Jett. In 1984, he left F.B.I. and created his own agency, H-1, where he led the contemporary Christian music industry in crossing over artists such as Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith into mainstream appeal. In 1987, H-1 was purchased by International Creative Management (ICM) and Huie moved to Los Angeles where he ran ICM’s Contemporary Music division for five years.

In 1999, Huie won a Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country, Or Bluegrass Gospel Album for The Apostle soundtrack, for which he served as a producer. He has been honored numerous times throughout his career, including being named Pollstar’s Third Coast Agent of the Year eight times. In 2015, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In 2022, he was awarded the GMA Leadership Award.

Huie served on the Country Music Association Board of Directors as well as the CMA Foundation Board, which focuses on equitable access to music education. He is President of the Southern Chapter of the T.J. Martell Foundation for Cancer Research and serves on the boards of The Onsite Foundation and The Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation. Additionally, he is an Advisory Board member of Lipscomb University’s College of Entertainment & The Arts and Porter’s Call, a counseling service for artists.

LB Cantrell
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