Little Big Town and Sugarland Unite for 2024 CMT Awards Cover of 'Take Me Home' After Announcing Joint Tour

It’s a CMT Awards reunion more than a decade in the making!

Little Big Town and Sugarland took the stage at the 2024 CMT Awards on Sunday for a stunning performance of Phil Collins' "Take Me Home," marking their first time on the show’s stage together since 2008.

"Phil Collins is a legend and I hope he's smiling somewhere," LBT's Karen Fairchild, 54, told PEOPLE ahead of the performance. Added Kimberly Schlapman, 54, "I hope he likes it!"

Ahead of the award show, Little Big Town and Sugarland announced the Take Me Home Tour. The tour will kick off on Oct. 4 in Greenville, South Carolina, and conclude on Dec. 13 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

"It's a wonderful feeling," Sugarland Kristian Bush, 54, told PEOPLE on the CMT Awards red carpet. "It's like coming home. It's people you know and a place that you feel comfortable doing something you love."

Added Jennifer Nettles, 49: "That's a beautiful thing. And we love them as friends. We've worked with them many years ago, and toured with them and they've toured with us, so it's a natural fit musically. Artistically, we understand each other very well, we all have similar influences and it's just beautiful to get to sing with each other."

At the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s Country Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson's event on April 2, Schlapman told PEOPLE that the performance was going to be "epic," with bandmate Phillip Sweet adding, "It was cool, getting back together and preparing for this moment."

Sweet, 50, also highlighted the "great energy" musically the duo has with the "Girl Crush" creators.

Little Big Town is comprised of Schlapman, Sweet, Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook, 52, while Sugarland is Nettles and Bush. The groups — who, combined, have a staggering 44 CMT nominations — last played at the award show together in 2008, when they joined forces with Jake Owen to sing “Life in a Northern Town.”

Check out PEOPLE's full CMT Awards coverage to get the latest news on country’s big night.

Little Big Town hosted the CMTs in 2018 and 2019, and also hold the record for most nominations for group video of the year, with 25 nods. They put out their most recent album, Mr. Sun, in 2022.

Sugarland, meanwhile, last played the CMTs together in 2011. Their most recent album, Bigger, came out in 2018.

Nettles was honored in 2020 with the show’s inaugural CMT Equal Play Award, which recognized her for her passionate advocacy and support of women in the music industry, LGBTQ+ community and other underrepresented groups.

The performance comes amid a star-studded lineup of performers, including Jelly Roll, Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson, Bailey Zimmerman, NEEDTOBREATHE with Jordan Davis, Sam Hunt, Trisha Yearwood, Cody Johnson, Old Dominion ft. Megan Moroney, Parker McCollum ft. Brittney Spencer and host Kelsea Ballerini.

Jelly Roll, Johnson, Ballerini, Wilson and Moroney lead nominations with three apiece.

The 2024 CMT Music Awards are airing live from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas on Sunday, April 7 on CBS and Paramount+.