Country star Taylor Swift’s opener for CMT Awards sounds dreamy; Def Leppard, T-Pain on bill

Taylor Swift’s CMT opener sounds simply dreamy

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Taylor Swift’s top-secret CMT Music Awards opener promises to be nothing but a dream.

Show staffers and crew have been sworn to secrecy about the opening segment, but country and pop queen Swift and host Bill Engvall were in plain sight Monday shooting a portion of it at the Sommet Center, the site of Tuesday night’s 2009 CMT Music Awards.

“I can see how you think that,” Swift said repeatedly to Engvall in the scripted dialogue. “But that’s my next dream, you know. I want to be in the NFL.”

Fantasy-football sequence or not, the 19-year-old was set to perform with veteran rock band Def Leppard, her co-headliner on a recent episode of “Crossroads” series, for which they are CMT Awards nominees.

On Sunday backstage at the CMA Music Festival, Swift also confirmed reports that rapper T-Pain would play some part in her appearance on tonight’s show.

“Well, the T-Pain thing, it’s not really specified what that collaboration is yet,” she said. “It’s been really fun to keep that a secret, because we’ve never confirmed if it’s a performance or if it’s something else. You never know. You know, you should watch it.”

The 2009 CMT Music Awards airs at 8 p.m. EDT.

CMT is owned by Viacom Inc.

On the Net:

2009 CMT Music Awards: www.cmt.com/cmt-music-awards/