Veteran CMA Awards host Luke Bryan has thoughts on why Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter album missed the show’s nominees list this year.

Buzz swirled around the pop superstar — whose first official full country project came out in March — after she was excluded from the list. Some, including Beyoncé’s father and former manager, believed that race was a factor in the snub.

In an appearance on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live, Bryan says he believes that Beyoncé might have received nominations if she’d spent more time connecting with the country music community.

“Everybody loved that Beyoncé made a country album. Nobody’s mad about it,” he states.

“But where things get a little tricky and, you know, if you’re gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit,” Bryan goes on to say. “… Like, Beyoncé can do it exactly what she wants to do. She’s probably the biggest star in music. But come to an awards show and high five us. And have fun and get in the family, too.”

“And I’m not saying she didn’t do that,” he hedges.

Read More: Why Was Beyoncé Shut Out at the CMA Awards?

As she prepared to release Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé recalled an instance where she “did not feel welcomed” in the genre. She was presumably alluding to the 2016 CMA Awards, where she performed with the Chicks to mixed reviews.

After the fact, one unnamed manager alleged to Billboard that he saw Alan Jackson walk out of his front-row seat in protest of Beyoncé’s performance, and though the evidence that it actually happened is pretty slim, the anecdote quickly became a prevalent piece of awards show lore.

Cowboy Carter came during a year that also produced Post Malone‘s foray into country music, F-1 Trillion. Post undeniably dove head-first into the country music world during his recording process, teaming up with Brad Paisley, Morgan Wallen, Chris Stapleton, Dolly Parton, Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson and more of the genre’s hottest A-Listers for his album.

Beyoncé took a different tactic, though her album does include features from Parton and another country music legend, Willie Nelson. She put a spotlight on up-and-coming Black country artists, including Shaboozey, Tiera Kennedy, Willie Jones and more. She also honored the history of Black artists in the genre with a feature highlighting Linda Martell, the first Black solo female artist to play the Grand Ole Opry.

Bryan will host the 2024 CMA Awards alongside Peyton Manning and Lainey Wilson. The show airs on ABC on Nov. 20.