Garth Brooks was honored at the Nashville Songwriters Association Awards. He received the Kris Kristofferson Lifetime Achievement Award. Brooks now stands with Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, and Bill Anderson—collectively known as the “Mount Rushmore” of recipients.

After the show, Garth Brooks said he “never considered himself a songwriter until he heard Luke Combs sing the sh_t out of “Beaches of Cheyenne.” Brooks says the song was originally written to be funny, but the line “every night she walks the beaches of Cheyenne” changed the course of the song. After Combs’ performance, Garth jumped to his feet with enthusiastic applause.