Before the 2012 CMT Music Awards got underway, the stars walked the purple carpet actually located inside Nashville's Bridgestone Arena. ABC News Radio had a spot on that carpet and caught up with several of the show's top winners and performers:

- Journey closed out the CMT Music Awards performing their signature hit "Don't Stop Believin'" with Rascal Flatts. That collaboration was actually supposed to happen awhile back on a special edition of CMT Crossroads. The members of Rascal Flatts and Journey were going to trade off vocals on each other's hits for the show, but fate intervened.

Journey's Jonathan Cain tells us their lead singer, Arnel Pineda, hurt his knee, so they had to pull out of that special. They were happy to finally collaborate with the Flatts though. Jonathan said, "We're kind of getting together for the first time. It just seemed like a good time to do it."

Click here to view a slideshow of all of the CMA Music Awards winners

- Lady Antebellum opened the CMT Music Awards performing a mash-up of their hit "We Owned the Night" with pop group Hot Chelle Rae and their hit "Tonight Tonight." That collaboration actually grew out of the real-life relationship between the two bands.

Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott grew up in Nashville as the daughter of country singer Linda Davis. Three of Hot Chelle Rae's members are also second generation Nashville musicians and songwriters, so their paths had crossed with Hillary's many years ago.

Hot Chelle Rae's Nash Overstreet tells ABC News Radio, "I actually went to school with Hillary when we were like 10 or 9 or something like that. We've been hanging out with them for a couple of years. It's been awesome to see them succeed."

The idea to mash up their two songs actually came from Lady Antebellum's Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood. Charles explains, "Luckily, Dave put together this track and kind of mashed it up and showed it to 'em. Everybody was flipping out over it."

- Jason Aldean won his first CMT Music Award Wednesday night for CMT Performance of the Year, but he spilled his big news of the night on the purple carpet. Jason revealed the title of his new single is "Take a Little Ride," and it will hit the airwaves in the next three to four weeks.

Jason's last album, "My Kinda Party", has gone double-platinum, so anticipation is running high for his next album too. He's been in the studio the last few days working on the project. Jason says, "It is officially done and ready for people to hear it. So, I'm excited."

- Thompson Square took the Duo Video of the Year trophy for "I Got You," and the win means even more to them since it was decided by a fan vote. Before the show, the duo's Keifer Thompson explained, "It's always fun to come to Nashville and do an awards show, but the fan-based ones are really special to us."