A look ahead to the 50th ACM Awards
For the first time, the Academy of Country Music awards will take place at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
The first to test out the big stage was rising star Cole Swindell, nominated for new artist of the year, kicked off two days of rehearsals leading up to Sunday's show, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford.
"That's the good thing about being a new artist sometimes, you are the first one up sometimes and you get to experiences things first," Swindell said.
He said his heart was racing.
"To see my logo and everything, it was unbelievable," he said.
Even veteran Luke Bryan sees this year's show as something different. Bryan's up for four awards, including entertainer of the year. He's also co-hosting the ACMs with Blake Shelton.
"It's not a jokefest up there. This is ceremonial; very, very important award show where we're honoring a lot of people; get up there and be class acts," Bryan said.
This year the ACM awards turns 50. To celebrate, the show packed up and moved from Las Vegas to Texas, where it comes natural to do things big.
"This show for the 50th anniversary will probably be the biggest awards show in history," ACM executive producer Rac Clark said.
Clark is expecting a crowd upwards of 70,000 people, which he said would be the largest audience ever for a live television award show. To pull it off, the organizers had to take a state-of-the-art football stadium and transform it. It took a month to build multiple stages, rig elaborate lighting and plan seating for thousands.
Right now, posters mark where the stars will sit, including legends like Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and George Strait.
In the front row, Miranda Lambert is up for the most nominations with eight. Across the aisle, Dierks Bentley with seven. And pretty much every other country star like Taylor Swift, Keith Urban and Jason Aldean will be in attendance.
"It's going to be a cool night. I cannot believe I'm going to be a part of it," Swindell said.
"That's what the fun part of show business is, just having moments where you are like, 'Ahh! We gotta make this thing happen.' So it will be that way. It will be fun, walking up there and making it happen," Bryan said.
But for all the planning that goes into this show, some things you just can't control. One of the big nominees Lady Antebellum had a near disaster on their way here Thursday when their tour bus blew a tire and went up in flames. Fortunately, they got off the bus and no one was hurt. The band will be rehearsing here later Friday.