Keith Urban Reacts to His CMA Award Nominations

Keith Urban is up for four CMA Awards, including the highest honor, Entertainer of the Year. But instead of anxiously sitting at home waiting for the nominees to be announced last week, Urban was filling his favorite role of all -- acting as a dad to his two little girls.

“I was driving, so I couldn’t respond to any of the texts,” Urban recalls (quote via ABC News Radio). “I must’ve gotten 15 texts in the space of about 15 seconds, and dropped our second girl at school and then got home and then sat in the garage calling everybody to thank them. It was amazing.”

In addition to Entertainer of the Year, the singer-songwriter is also up for Album of the Year for 'Fuse,' Male Vocalist of the Year and Musical Event of the Year for his duet, 'We Were Us,' with Miranda Lambert.

Urban is no stranger to the stage at the CMA Awards. He's amassed a total of eight of the coveted trophies, taking home Entertainer of the Year in 2005 and Male Vocalist of the Year in 2005 and 2006, although he couldn't accept the award the latter year because he was in rehab.

“I was right back there in that moment with deep, mixed feelings, mixed feelings of how devastating and emotional and chaotic everything was then, and how living life a different way the last eight years to land at a different place is extraordinary," he recounts.

The 48th annual CMA Awards will air live from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 8 PM ET on ABC.