Clint Black, his wife Lisa Hartman Black and their 21-year-old daughter Lily Pearl Black were all smiles as they arrived to the 2023 ACM Honors last month in Nashville.
Clint Black was one of several artists awarded at the 2023 ACM Honors in Nashville last month, receiving the ACM Poet’s Award.
The ACM Poet’s Award is presented to a country music songwriter for outstanding and longstanding musical and/or lyrical contributions throughout their career, with special consideration given to a song or songs’ impact on the culture of country music. Along with Black, this year’s recipients of the award also included Mary Chapin Carpenter and K.T. Oslin.
Wife Lisa Hartman Black And Daughter Lily Pearl Black Were By His Side
Clint Black attended the ceremony with his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, and their daughter, Lily Pearl Black, walking the red carpet ahead of the show with his family.
The family coordinated their outfits for the appearance, with Lisa and Lily Pearl both in pale pink while Black wore a black suit and his signature black cowboy hat. Posing on either side of Black, his wife and daughter made sure he stood out for his special night.

Lady A Honored Clint Black With A Heartfelt Performance At 2023 ACM Honors
During the show, Clint Black was honored not just with his trophy but also with a song, as Lady A performed Black’s 1993 hit “A Bad Goodbye,” a duet between Black and Wynonna. The song was the first single from Black’s album No Time to Kill and went to No. 2 on what is now the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It also gave Black his first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 43.

Lady A also presented Black with his award, prompting him to tear up as he began his acceptance speech.
“I’m Very Moved, Almost To Tears”
“My eyes are already sweating,” he joked as the crowd applauded him. “I’m always so moved to watch each of these wonderful recipients, and I just love to see people’s lives and their careers and their achievements laid out before them and see them honored.”
“Watching it happen to me?” he continued. “I’m very moved, almost to tears because I’m taking it all to heart.”
“I’d like to say that I’m very humbled to be given this award, but it wouldn’t be truthful,” Black said to laughs from the audience. “I’m gonna think much, much more of myself now.”
The singer/songwriter also acknowledged that success doesn’t happen “because one guy wanted it to.”

“This only happens because so many people come together and get behind a guy or a girl and make things happen for them,” he said. “I had that growing up. A lot of encouragement, and they’d always say, ‘You’re gonna be a big star.’ I said, ‘Okay.” And then they’d say, ‘Don’t let it ruin you!’ So the fear set in, and I tried to watch out for the ruin.”
“I Can’t Help But Take It To Heart”
Black echoed that statement to American Songwriter, explaining that what he appreciates most about his ACM honor “is that people I either don’t know or don’t know well, decided, ‘That guy gets it.’ [These] are people who aren’t attached to me in the business, who want to honor me that way.”
“I can’t help but take it to heart,” he said. “I’m always careful about what I let my ego do, but that one got me. It really got me feeling like I’ve done good work.”
The Poet’s Award was an apt honor for Black, as he began writing poems as a teenager before turning them into songs.

“I fell in love with poetry,” he recalled. “I loved the rhythm of it. I’d been exposed to it through songs I listened to, but seeing it on paper had a different kind of impact on me than listening to songs did.”
At 15 years old, Clint Black wrote a song he called “total crap” and revealed that he was inspired to fully dedicate himself to honing his songwriting when he saw Reba McEntire give an interview.
“She was talking about how many songs she listens to find 10 and the number was about 1000,” Black explains. “I remember thinking, ‘I don’t want to be in that position, I’d rather write them.’ I knew if I didn’t keep up, I was going to be listening to hundreds of other people’s songs trying to put together an album [and] I really went to work trying to make it a craft.”

2023 ACM Honors
The 16th Annual ACM Honors was filmed on Wednesday, August 23 at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dubbed “Country Music industry’s favorite night,” the 2023 ACM Honors recognized several special honorees, including Tim McGraw (ACM Icon Award), Chris Stapleton (ACM Triple Crown Award), Charlie Daniels (ACM Spirit Award), Clint Black (ACM Poet’s Award), Mary Chapin Carpenter (ACM Poet’s Award), BRELAND (ACM Lift Every Voice Award), Kane Brown (ACM International Award), HARDY (ACM Artist/Songwriter Of The Year Award) and more.
The coveted awards show also featured performances from BRELAND, Keith Urban, Lee Brice, Brandy Clark, Priscilla Block, Jordan Davis, Billy Ray Cyrus, FIREROSE, Sara Evans, Chris Janson, Lady A, Nelly, Bailey Zimmerman, Dennis Quaid, The War And Treaty, Trisha Yearwood, Brett Young as well as the show’s host Carly Pearce, among others.

Randy Travis, Big Kenny, Marty Stuart and Storme Warren were also on hand to present.
Carly Pearce returned as the show’s host for the third consecutive year. “The Academy of Country Music has played such a crucial role in the rise of my career in the last several years, giving me opportunities to expand my artistry with hosting,” Pearce previously shared in a statement. “To be able to come back as the host of the ACM Honors for the third year in a row, I feel so grateful and excited for what I know will be such a special night!”
ACM Honors premiered on Monday, September 18 at 8/7c on FOX. The show will also be available to stream on Hulu on Tuesday (Sept. 19).
For more information and to see other 2023 ACM Honors performances and honorees, click HERE.