CMT Music Awards: Slash, Billy Gibbons, Cody Johnson team for Lynyrd Skynyrd super-jam

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and guitar ace Warren Haynes slipped backstage Sunday with one goal in mind.

"We came in together so we could cuss Slash," Gibbons said as he met a line of reporters ahead of the CMT Music Awards.

He's joking, of course. Gibbons and Haynes join the Guns N' Roses guitarist on stage Sunday for a super-sized Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute. The televised performance takes place live inside the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, the new home of the CMT Music Awards.

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Celebrating 50 years of Synyrd's debut album and commemorating the death of guitarist Gary Rossington, the performance features the aforementioned pickers with country singer Cody Johnson, Allman Brothers keyboardist Chuck Leavell, Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers and "The Honkettes" — backing vocalists Wynonna Judd and Leann Rimes.

The performance includes a one-two punch of to-be-announced Skynyrd favorites with Johnson and Rodgers sharing lead vocals.

Johnson, a road-worn Texas singer known for his rousing country shows, was raised on the words of late Skynyard singer Ronnie Van Zandt, he said backstage Saturday.

"He didn't know me, we never met, but he raised me," Johnson said. "To be on the stage with people like Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and Slash? That's a huge, huge honor."

And when Rodgers steps on stage Sunday, he'll pay tribute to a late friend in Rossington, who died last month at age 71. The two grew close during Rogers' days on stage in rock band Free, among his other career-spanning projects.

Joining the all-star lineup "makes a heck of a sound," Rodgers said.

"Billy and Slash and Warren, they just melted together," Rodgers said. "A very powerful sound."

Or, in Gibbons' words: "Put on your seatbelt, we're gonna tear it up."

The CMT Music Awards airs Sunday at 7 p.m. CST on CBS and online via Paramount+.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: CMT Music Awards 2023: Slash, Cody Johnson lead Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute