Reba McEntire was on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night (Feb. 20) to promote her upcoming new album and hosting gig at the ACM Awards, and she came armed with a joke ... sort of.

McEntire is hosting the ACMs for the sixteenth time in 2019, and she's seen it all over the years. One particular incident that happened during the live broadcast stands out to her.

"One time years ago they came to us and said, 'We can't find Keith Urban's guitar, he can't go on stage without his guitar. So Dick Clark says, 'Reba, get out there and stall.' I went, 'What?! No, write something for me.' Well, I thought, 'I can tell a joke.' I did get booed off a stage one time in 1978 for telling a horrible joke. So I thought, probably not a good idea to do that. So I went out there and said, 'Are y'all having a good time?' And it was just crickets," she recounts.

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"Pretty soon here comes Dick Clark out there and put his arm around me and said, 'All right, folks, we're going to tell you what's going on.' He was just honest with the audience, and I said, 'Hmmm, lesson learned from the professional.'"

Asked to share the joke that got her booed offstage, McEntire was game.

"Do you know the difference between unlawful and illegal?" she asked. "Unlawful means it's against the law, and illegal is a sick bird." Colbert shook her hand as the in-studio audience laughed.

"After that, Mama said, 'Reba, you're real cute. Sing, don't talk,'" McEntire deadpanned.

When Colbert asked if there were any surprises among the 2019 ACM nominees, McEntire was honest.

"There weren't any women in the Entertainer of the Year category, which I was very disappointed about that," she says. "They're great, but I wanted to hear some women in there."

Colbert also spoke to McEntire about the fact that everybody recognizes her, country fans or not.

"There's so many people who will walk up to me at a meet and greet line at my concert and they'll have their children with them, and they'll look at them and say, 'She sings?'" she shares. "Because they just know me by the television show, which is great."

McEntire is set to release her new album, Stronger Than the Truth, on Friday, April 5. She'll host the 2019 ACM Awards from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7. The ceremony will broadcast live beginning at 8PM ET on CBS.

Remember: The best way to watch the ACM Awards is on TV, with ToC on your phone.

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