Jason Aldean and Chris Stapleton Are the Big Winners at ACM Awards

— -- It was Little Big Town's Kimberly Schlapman who said it best at the 51st Annual Academy of Country Music Awards as she accepted the Vocal Group of the Year trophy: "Thanks, Chris Stapleton, for not being a vocal group!"

That category was one of the few Stapleton didn't win last night in Las Vegas.

In a repeat of his sweep of the CMA Awards in November, Stapleton scooped the trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year, New Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year for "Traveller" and Song of the Year for "Nobody to Blame."

In fact, Stapleton's winning night was foretold by co-hosts Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley, who devoted much of their monologue to joking about everyone in country music trying to take credit for his "overnight" success. Both hosts claimed responsibility, since Stapleton co-wrote Bryan's hit "Drink a Beer" and sang on Bentley's album "Riser," but then various artists stood up in the audience and claimed they made Stapleton a star -- including Jason Aldean, Charles Kelly, and Carrie Underwood, who showed off a sequined Chris Stapleton T-shirt which she claimed to have purchased in 1978, the year Chris was born.

When Bryan asked who else in the audience wanted to take credit for Stapleton's success, the entire arena got to its collective feet.

This was Bentley's first year co-hosting the ACMs after years of "Bluke" -- the team of Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan. In fact, Shelton showed up unexpectedly to duet with Bryan on the night's first song and then wished the new duo of "Lierks" luck.

In non-Chris Stapleton winners news, Miranda Lambert nabbed her seventh Female Vocalist trophy, and Thomas Rhett won his first-ever ACM award for Single of the Year for "Die a Happy Man."

"Holy crap!" he exclaimed, wiping his mouth. "My heart is beating a million miles a minute and I have lipstick on my lips from kissing my beautiful wife!"

Meanwhile, Jason Aldean won ACM's biggest prize -- Entertainer of the Year -- which he'd never won before. "I was just starting to think this wasn't in the cards for me," he said, adding, "I may be rough around the edges a little bit, but I love this business, I love the people in it and I love the fans that support it...this has been one of the best nights of my professional career."

As usual, though, the ACMs weren't so much about the actual awards as they were about the performances: there were 22 musical performances in all. Many artists used the show as an opportunity to debut new material, such as Kenny Chesney with his new track "Noise," Jason Aldean with "When the Lights Come On," Charles Kelley with "Lonely Girl" and Carrie Underwood with "Church Bells."

The show made a big deal of the non-country stars who appeared: Nick Jonas played guitar and sang with Kelsea Ballerini on "Peter Pan," while ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons joined Miranda Lambert for a rendition of that band's classic, "Tush." But no performance was teased more than Katy Perry's collaboration with Dolly Parton, who Katy called "my personal hero, and a strong woman."

There were also two tributes: a standing ovation for late ACM winner Joey Feek of Joey + Rory, who passed away March 4, and a clever salute to some late rock legends, courtesy of Eric Church. While performing "Record Year," Eric dropped in snippets of songs by David Bowie, The Eagles' Glenn Frey, heavy metal legend Lemmy of Motorhead and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots, all of whom died in the past few months.