Country music star Luke Bryan had a very successful night at Monday's (Dec 15th) American Country Countdown Awards as he was a triple winner, picking up the prizes for Male Vocalist of the Year, Collaboration of the Year and Digital Song of the Year.

Luke Bryan
Bryan won three awards at Monday night's ceremony

While accepting these honours, the 38 year-old gave an emotional speech to the audience about the death of his brother-in-law, Ben Lee Cheshire, who passed away last month (Nov 14th) at the age of 46.

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"I want to get serious just for a second," he said while being presented with the Male Vocalist of the Year award. "I want to thank all of my fans for the last couple of weeks in my life, for keeping my family in your prayers. And I wanna also recognize the country music community, all the artists. Fans, let me explain something to you: you guys support wonderful artists, because they have rallied around me and helped me and my family through the last couple of weeks. It's just nice to feel loved in a situation. Just thank you guys for an amazing 2014."

Accompanying Bryan to the award show was his 13-year-old nephew Til - the son of Cheshire, and Bryan's late sister Kelly, who unexpectedly died aged 39 seven years ago.

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"Til is my sister and my brother-in-law's youngest, and we're going hunting tomorrow on a trip down to south Texas," Bryan told People magazine. "So he came into town and we dressed him up and let him have a little fun with us tonight."

He added, "My wife Caroline took him shopping and got him some nice clothes and I loaned him one of my watches, so he's having a good time."