Kenny Chesney doesn't want his fans to vote

Just after winning entertainer of the year for the fourth straight time during Sunday's Academy of Country music awards, Kenny Chesney decided to bite the hand that feeds by declaring the award shouldn't be chosen by the fans. The nerve!

The ACM prize was picked by fan voting for the first time this year, and even though Chesney has tied with Garth Brooks and is approaching the five-time mark achieved only by Alabama, he says the whole audience participation thing is a bad idea, the AP reports.

"The entertainer of the year trophy is supposed to represent heart and passion and an amazing amount of sacrifice, commitment and focus," he said backstage. "That's the way Garth won it four times, that's the way I won it, that's the way (George) Strait won it, Reba (McEntire), Alabama all those years. That's what it's supposed to represent."

He called the selection process "a sweepstakes to see who can push people's buttons the hardest on the Internet," saying he was calling out the industry and not his fans. In the past, ACM members chose the winner, but really, in an awards show that keeps giving the trophy to the same people five years in a row, is it really fair to call a fan vote a popularity contest?

[Photo: AP]

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Comments

[Maire]

Ungrateful? Fan voting is always so biased. It has nothing to do with talent but with popularity. Look at American Idol if you want proof. Let those in the industry decide.

[SMC]

Well, that does it for me! I won't buy another record, cd, ticket, video or any thing else that will make even more money for that totally selfish and ungrateful Chesney "boy"!!! In fact, I think I'll trash what I have.The nerve of him to act as if he has done this on his own! WHO does he thinks he is!!!? I join forces with Rene now... HAHA!