Seriously, Hank, what were you thinking?

You've got to hand it to the CMT Music Awards. They've racked up enough clout that Robert Plant actually showed up to collect his award for something called the Wide Open Country Video of the Year with Alison Krauss at Monday night's ceremonies. (Their "Raising Sand'' album is stellar, by the way.)

But the highlight of the three-hour broadcast wasn't seeing the Led Zeppelin lead singer looking about as uncomfortable as ghostly Nicole Kidman in a room filled with big-brimmed hats and weird sideburns, it was looking on in utter horror at the getup Hank Williams Jr. wore on stage. And apparently not as a joke, either.

Bocephus strutted out mid-song to join Brad Paisley on his new single, "I'm Still a Guy,'' which, of course, ups the the irony factor of what he had on. It was his standard black jeans and T-shirt, this one with "Steel Curtain'' in big letters. Not exactly fashion forward, but hey, Hank's an American music icon, so we'll cut him slack.

But then ... the belt. Some gawdawful "Gladiator''-like thing that was riding rather high, implying at first glance to be GPS -- Grandpa Pants Syndrome. You know, crank up the pants and then cinch tight to avoid droopage. Except, this belt wasn't through his belt loops, it was around his untucked T-shirt! The country outlaw who sings about spitting "some Beechnut in that dude's eyes and shoot him with my old 45'' belted his T-shirt! Wow, haven't seen that since the over-sized neon T's of the '80s on MTV ... and pretty sure never on a guy.

How are we supposed to take his "Are you ready for some football?'' battle cry serious after seeing that?

But there is a bright side. It took some of the heat off the shrunken opera house curtain LeAnn Rimes was wearing and almost made you forget about the painfully awkward attempt at humorous banter between the painfully awkward pairing of co-presenters Tom Arnold (Why? Ever?) and Jewel. And at least ol' Bocephus looked more confident wearing his belted T than the Artist Now Known As Miley Cyrus' Career-Sucking Father did in his cowboy hat.

-- Kendra Meinert, kmeinert@greenbaypressgazette.com