Lee Brice: Becoming the New Go-To Party Boy in Vegas?

By Danielle Anderson

04/06/2014 at 11:30 AM EDT

Tyler Farr (left) and Lee Brice

With all of Nashville seemingly descending on Las Vegas for the Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards, a new phrase is making its way down the Strip: "Getting Leemann'd."

What does it mean? Just ask "Whiskey in My Water" singer Tyler Farr.

"It's when you're trying to go back to your room like a good boy and then you run into Lee Brice and Jerrod Niemann," Farr tells PEOPLE Country. "I got Leemann'd last night. Oh, it was bad. I remember there was a lot of whisky ..."

"People keep saying they got Leemann'd, but really they're doing it to themselves!" Brice, defending himself – and his reputation – tells PEOPLE Country.

"They just like to have somebody to blame, so they're blaming us, but it's okay, I can hold the weight of the world on my shoulders. I don't mind being the official Vegas scapegoat," says the man who is up for five nominations, including male vocalist of the year.

The Academy of Country Music Awards will air Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS.