Luke Bryan's immediate reaction to learning Blake Shelton was named People's Sexiest Man Alive was one of disbelief, confusion, anger and finally acceptance.

The "Light It Up" singer was shown the cover of the latest edition of People magazine on Tuesday night (Nov. 14) prior to his performance at the 2017 CMA Country Christmas special taping in Nashville. His reaction was a series of words and long, long pauses.

"Oh ... oh my goodness," he starts when seeing his longtime friend on the cover. Then, after a few seconds of silence: "Blake Shelton. Sexiest man alive. I'm speechless."

From there, Taste of Country and other media watched as Bryan went through something of a truncated version of the seven stages of grief. "He's taken so many things from me and now this? Who in the hell is choosing this? Am I being punked?"

Nope, it's true, Luke. Shelton would reveal his cover less than an hour later during an episode of NBC's The Voice. "I can’t wait to shove this up Adam [Levine]'s ass,” he tells the mag. "As proud as I am and honored that you guys asked me, that’s really the only thing I care about."

Bryan's tongue was firmly planted in cheek as he responded to this news. Indeed, he was smiling as he finally uttered acceptance.

"Alright, well (another long pause), I guess we're all stuck with it."

Bryan performed "O Holy Night" during the 2017 CMA Country Christmas special, explaining that his new recording of the song was inspired by country singer John Berry's classic recording. The special airs on ABC on Nov. 27.

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