The country duo won for Best Country/Duo Group Performance.
Brothers Osborne's "Younger Me" delivered the country duo its first ever win at the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards -- and their first-ever acceptance speech also proved quite moving.
T.J. and John Osborne scored the win in the Best Country/Duo Group Performance on Sunday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where the brothers rocked shiny gold and purple tuxedos. During his acceptance speech, T.J. spoke about the significance of the win just over a year after he came out as gay.
"I never thought that I would be able to do music professionally because of my sexuality," said T.J. during the pre-telecast ceremony. "And I certainly never thought I would be here on the stage accepting a GRAMMY, after having done something I felt like was going to be life-changing, and potentially in a very negative way."
He also added, "And here I am tonight, not only accepting this GRAMMY Award with my brother, who I love so much, but I'm here with a man that I love and who loves me back. I don't know what I did to be so lucky. Thank you."
T.J. was referring to his partner, Abi Ventura, whom the country singer brought as his date to last year's CMA Awards. Shortly after coming out, T.J. told CBS This Morning that the country community was incredibly accepting of him.
"It has been amazing, honestly," he said. "It's a hard thing to describe and a very difficult thing to go through, and I even had support around me. But once I finally came out, I didn't really understand the magnitude of how much people cared about me and loved me and supported me."
"Had I known that the whole time, I would have probably done it a long time ago and saved myself a lot of strife," he continued. "Anyone out there, if you're dealing with that, there's people that love you and people that support you a lot. Be encouraged by that."
Not to be outdone, John's GRAMMYs acceptance speech also tugged at the heartstrings. He said, "We all have a younger self in us. Thank them, because they got you here, and take care of that person."
Brothers Osborne, who had been nominated for nine GRAMMYs before Sunday's win, produced "Younger Self" in response to T.J. coming out. T.J.'s the first openly gay artist signed to a major country label, and now the track's the first country song with an LGBTQ+ theme to win a GRAMMY.
The 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards are Sunday, April 3 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET, airing live on CBS and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+. Stay tuned to ETonline.com for complete GRAMMYs coverage, including a complete list of winners.
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