Garth Brooks just made a HUGE announcement! The reigning country music superstar, who is the reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year announced during a virtual press conference that he is removing himself from the list of nominees this year, and likely every other year.

“There’s one tweet in there that really stuck in my head,” Garth said during the press conference. “It said, ‘Hey, man. This guy, why doesn’t he just step down and leave the entertainer for the next generation?’ 100% agree … With all the love in the world, we are officially pulling ourselves out of Entertainer of the Year.'”

Garth first went to the Country Music Association and asked if they could remove his name from the list of nominees, before making the announcement in the press conference.

“The CMA came back and said, ‘It’s not our call. We cannot pull you out of our awards,'” Garth explained. “So today we sit here and humbly ask with all the gratefulness and love in the world, we are going to do it ourselves. We’re going to pull ourselves out of Entertainer of the Year.”

Garth won the CMA Entertainer of the Year Award last year in a category that included Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Chris Stapleton and Keith Urban.

Garth teased the announcement earlier this week, during his weekly Inside Studio G Facebook series.

“This Wednesday, 10 AM Central — that’s Nashville time — we’re gonna bring you into a press conference,” Garth said, adding at the time that his last one was when he announced his Stadium Tour at Notre Dame in 2018. “This one’s going to be a lot more … intimate. And dealing with something not as commercial as that, but something a little more along the personal lines meets career lines.

“This should be a pretty good thing,” he continued. “And you’re surrounded with the Nashville press, which are the sweetest people on the planet. They’ve always taken care of me, even when they didn’t like what I was doing, they’ve always been very respectful in how they stated that.”

Garth has won a total of seven CMA Entertainer of the Year Awards, which is why he felt like it was the right time to walk away from the ceremony.

“My number is seven,” Garth explained. “We feel very lucky with seven. And it’s time for somebody else to hold that award, know what that entertainer feels like, because they’re all out there busting their butts.”

Garth also won six ACM Awards for Entertainer of the Year. An official announcement for the plan for the 2020 CMA Awards, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, has yet to be annonced.