Taylor Swift and George Strait Are Both Being Honored Monday

Taylor Swift was 18 when she wrote the line that went around country music websites this week. George Strait, she said, has "an awesome, dry, subtle sense of humour." Holler says it comes from her MySpace page, and the line was written after the 2008 CMA Awards. Holler and American Songwriter ran it on Wednesday, 21 October, and IBTimes UK followed on Thursday, 22 October.

That is why the timing matters. Strait is collecting an award on Monday, and Swift is being inducted at the same event.

What happens Monday

The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame will honor George Strait with its Career Maker Award on Monday, October 26, 2026, at its annual gala at the Music City Center in Nashville. The Hall announced it on September 8. Strait joins Reba McEntire, who received it in 2018, as the only recipients.

According to the Hall, across Strait's 40-plus-year career he has recorded 264 songs written or co-written by 72 Hall of Fame songwriters. Forty-four of those writers were not in the Hall when he first cut their songs. Sixty-five of the songs were Top 40 singles.

"George Strait has played an integral role in helping more than 40 songwriters achieve induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame," board chair Rich Hallworth said in the announcement.

Gretchen Peters, the Hall's board vice chair, co-wrote "The Chill Of An Early Fall," which Strait recorded in 1991. In the Hall's release she said that having him record her song "felt like nothing less than a stamp of approval from Country music itself."

Strait said in the release: "I'm so honored to be receiving the Career Maker Award from the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame."

Where Swift fits

On August 11, 2026, the Hall named its Class of 2026: Taylor Swift, Lyle Lovett, Bruce Channel, Shawn Camp and Lee Thomas Miller, MusicRow reported. The Hall later named J.I. Allison, who died in 2022, as a sixth member, to be inducted posthumously. The Hall's own biography of Swift says she is its youngest inductee ever.

The Hall says the Class of 2026 is inducted at the same gala, its 56th anniversary event, on Monday, October 26. That is also the night Strait receives the Career Maker Award.

The Hall's announcements say the gala includes unplugged performances by surprise guest artists. In recent years, artists including John Anderson, Clint Black, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Taylor Swift have taken part. The Hall has not named this year's performers.

The quote everyone ran

Swift was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2008 CMA Awards, which were held on Wednesday, November 12, 2008, at the Sommet Center in Nashville and broadcast on ABC. She also presented the award for new artist, which she had won the year before when it was called the Horizon Award.

"While I was backstage before presenting the Best New Artist award, I talked to George Strait for a while," she wrote, according to Holler. The line everyone ran followed: "I think it should be known that George Strait has an awesome, dry, subtle sense of humour."

The same post has the Shania Twain story that Holler also used. Twain walked up, introduced herself, said she wanted to meet Swift and told her she was doing a great job. Swift wrote that she was "completely star struck," and that after Twain walked away she realized she did not have her camera. "Then I cried," she wrote.

What Strait has said about her

We found no public response from Strait to the quote, or from his representatives.

What is on the record is Swift's side of it. She turned 17 in December 2006, and she opened several dates of George Strait's 2007 tour, which ran from January 11 to March 3, according to Wikipedia's list of her live performances. At an Academy of Country Music tribute to Strait in 2009, she told the story of asking him how he handled a room that size. She said he answered: "Just do it for about 25 years and it'll feel real natural." American Songwriter reported that on August 16, 2024.

American Songwriter described "Run," Strait's 2001 single, as her "absolute favorite" song of his. She sang it on April 6, 2009, when the Academy of Country Music honored him as Artist of the Decade at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. That performance was at the 2009 tribute, not on the 2007 tour.

What is actually confirmed for November

Swift is going to the 60th CMA Awards on Wednesday, November 18, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. She said so in an Instagram story in September: "LOOKS LIKE I HAVEN'T YEE'D MY LAST HAW THANK YOU CMA!!!! See you there Nov 18." Fox 17 Nashville and iHeart reported it as attendance. iHeart said her last CMA appearance was in 2016. Lainey Wilson hosts for a third consecutive year.

Swift is nominated for Single of the Year for "I Knew It, I Knew You," which she wrote and produced with Jack Antonoff. Holler wrote on 21 October that she is "performing to the CMA Awards next month." Holler's CMA Awards guide says performers are yet to be announced, and we found no announcement of one.

Strait has no announced role at this year's CMAs. The Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received in 2024, goes to Brooks and Dunn this year.

The song she is nominated for

"I Knew It, I Knew You" came out on June 5, 2026. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, her 15th, as well as number one on Hot Country Songs and the Billboard Global 200.

On October 17, 2026, at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles, Swift performed the song with a full band for the first time. Variety called it her first band performance since the Eras Tour. She also performed "The Fate of Ophelia" that night. The gala honored John Carpenter, Colman Domingo and Charlize Theron.

That was four days before the Strait quote resurfaced.

Official pages

Taylor Swift: Instagram, X, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube.

CMA Awards: Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube and the 60th CMA Awards nominees.

George Strait: official site and YouTube channel.