Yallwire News

Kid Rock is returning as host of the CMT Music Awards!

The Detroit rocker, who made his hosting debut last year, is thrilled to make an encore performance - for reasons other than being the night's main man. "Hosting the CMT Awards was a wonderful bridge to a great after party," he tells Us Weekly. "I'm looking forward to crossing that bridge again this year."

The "Born Free" singer is also nominated for an award for Collaborative Video of the Year for his song "Collide," which features Sheryl Crow, his touring partner for the summer.

Although most of his music leans more towards hip hop and rock than traditional country music, Kid Rock claims he actually fits right in.

"It's a community of people who write and sing songs about what's going on in their environment, which might not necessarily be the mainstream, popular culture, but it influences heavily," he tells The Boot. "In that aspect alone, it was something I felt very close to just from being in hip hop and loving country music at the same time. The people is what I'm getting at, everyone's very nice. I don't think it's the craziest thing in life to say one of my main mottos is to surround yourself with good people. That's the first thing I always try to do, and country music has some of the nicest and best people in the world."

The CMT Music Awards, which will include performances by Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Sugarland and Jason Aldean, will air live on both CMT and CMT.com on June 8 at 8:00 PM ET.