TJ Osborne Tearfully Accepts First Grammy Award with Brother John: 'Don't Know What I Did to Be So Lucky' 

The Brothers Osborne won their first Grammy Award for best country duo/group performance

Brothers Osborne emotionally accepted their very first Grammy Award when the country duo won the best country duo/group performance at the 64th annual awards show.

TJ Osborne and John Osborne gave a tearful acceptance speech on Sunday after taking the stage to accept their award, which they received for their song "Younger Me."

"I think if I want to thank somebody, I want to thank my younger self for just pursuing this," said John, 39. "We all have a younger self in us. Thank them, because they got you here, and take care of that person."

Added TJ, 37, "For those of you who do not know, this song … was written in response to me coming out." (TJ publicly came out as gay in a February 2021 interview with Time.)

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TJ and John Osborne of Brothers Osborne. Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

As the crowd cheered, the musician continued tearfully, "I never thought that I would be able to do music professionally because of my sexuality, and I certainly never thought I would be on this stage accepting a Grammy after having done something I felt like was going to be life-changing, potentially in a negative way."

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He added, "Here I am tonight, not only accepting this Grammy Award with my brother, whom of which I love so much, but I'm here with a man that I love and who loves me back. I don't know what I did to be so lucky."

While appearing on the red carpet after accepting their award at the preshow, TJ told PEOPLE's Jeremy Parsons and Janine Rubenstein that he is "so much more at ease" since coming out, and hopes he "inspires people to live their life and be happy."

"I'm so much more happy and so much more at ease with so many things in my life. It's so much better than I ever thought it would be," he said.

Brothers Osborne. Kevin Mazur/Getty

TJ went on to say that "to be accepted by" those within the country music genre and everyone at the Academy is "amazing."

"I truly never thought I would be here at this point in my life, and to be here living it ... I hope the takeaway of this is that it hopefully inspires people to live their life and be happy," he said.

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Abi Ventura, TJ Osborne, John Osborne and Lucie Silvas. Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

The duo also spoke to Laverne Cox on the red carpet about their win, and TJ elaborated on his acceptance speech.

The country star told Cox, 49, that "Younger Me" was about "if I could go back and talk to my younger self," telling her, "because I'm sure you know of all people, the anguish and the heartbreak you go through."

He added, "I think that's really for everyone … life is hard on people, and to be here tonight, if I could just be like, 'Man, you're gonna be OK, you're gonna be happy, you're gonna love who you are and people are gonna support you.' "

TJ said the award held special significance for him, telling Cox, "I just won a Grammy Award, being an openly gay man. I feel incredible. I did not ever think this moment would happen, and it has."

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards, hosted by Trevor Noah, are airing and streaming live on Sunday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.