The country singer met the celebrity who left her starstruck at the 2019 Academy of Country Music Awards

Ashley McBryde in May 2024. Photo: Rich Polk/Penske Media via Getty

Ashley McBryde has lost track of all the singers and celebrities she’s met over the years, but she still remembers her most starstruck moment, which involved Reba McEntire at the 2019 Academy of Country Music Awards.

“She snuck in when I was doing a radio interview, and she got right next to my face and said into the microphone, ‘Hi, Ashley McBryde, this is Reba McEntire, and I’m your biggest fan,’ ” the “Ain’t Enough Cowboy Songs” singer, 41, told PEOPLE.

“I just literally honked like a goose at her,” the star added, noting that she actually said “Hi” nervously.

Ashley McBryde, Reba McEntire.Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty

While that moment meeting McEntire, 69, lives in her head, McBryde said she also didn’t know how she’d contain herself if she met Emmylou Harris, so she blatantly avoided the music icon for years.

“If we were in the same building, I would walk the opposite direction from her, because I knew I would do something stupid,” McBryde explained.

Last year, though, McBryde actually played a benefit in New York City with Harris, 77, and she realized her fears were all for nothing.

“I was like, ‘I can’t talk to her. I can’t talk to her,’ and [Harris] just walks over to me and goes, ‘Hey, come in my dressing room. I wanted to talk to you,’ ” McBryde recalled. “I was like, well, here it goes. I’m going to say something stupid. But I got to have a nice conversation with Emmylou Harris. I surprised myself.”

Still, McBryde told PEOPLE there have been other instances when she has said “stupid things” to others she admires.

“I’ve said stupid things to Patty Loveless. I’ve said stupid things to Morgan Stapleton. I almost said stupid things to [World Champion roper] Jackie Crawford,” she said, referring to the event she and Crawford held at Las Vegas’ Ariat store at 63 CityCenter on Thursday, Dec. 12, during National Finals Rodeo.

“When I look at her, I’m looking at the best on the planet, and no matter what line of work you’re looking at or what event or what sport, it makes you feel so tiny and so seen at the same time. I am looking to and speaking to the best on the planet at what she does and what they do,” McBryde added.

She continued, “Now that I’m sober, I know that it’s okay to feel awkward about that in real time.”

Ashley McBryde in September 2023.Cindy Ord/Getty Images

Last month, the country singer celebrated 900 days of sobriety, a milestone she’s fiercely proud of.

“I’d lost so much self-trust without even realizing that it had completely gone extinct,” McBryde told PEOPLE of her drinking days. “My favorite thing the last 915 days is that when I say something to you, you can trust it because I can trust it. I had no idea, which is one of the most cowboy lessons I’ve ever learned, that the reason you can trust that guy or that girl is because they trust themselves.”