Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Costner isn't what he'd call a "natural-born host." So when the folks at Country Music Television asked him to emcee their first annual "CMT Artists of the Year" show on Friday, he immediately said no.

"A lot of nerves go with something like this," said Costner in a recent phone interview. He said no again and again until executive producer John Hamlin sat him down and brought up Costner's country band, Modern West. That's when Costner realized he wasn't being asked to host solely on his star power as an actor.

"To be honest, how this happened, it happened because of the music, not because of my desire to do a show," said Costner.