And here we are two decades later and we’re still having debates on backing tracks in country music.
The ACM Awards are just a week away, with this year’s ceremonies kicking off on May 8 at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
Ella Langley leads the pack with eight nominations, having already won the award for New Female Artist of the Year while also racking up nominations for Single of the Year, Song of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year, among others. And among the other leaders, Morgan Wallen, Cody Johnson and Lainey Wilson are nominated for seven awards each, while Chris Stapleton has six nominations, including (of course) Entertainer of the Year.
Several performers have already been announced for the 60th anniversary show, including Eric Church, Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Stapleton, Clint Black, Wynonna Judd, and Alan Jackson.
Jackson is currently on his farewell Last Call: One More For The Road tour, after revealing a few years ago that he was suffering from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a degenerative nerve condition that affects his mobility and keeps him from getting around like he used to. With the legend stepping back from the spotlight, it’s hard to tell how many times he’ll appear on these awards shows after he hangs it up.
But luckily, back in 1994, we got a legendary moment from AJ that will go down in ACM Awards history.
Alan had been asked to perform his then-current single “Gone Country,” the third single from his fourth studio album Who I Am, which would eventually reach the top of the Billboard country charts.
But ACM producers had a request that Alan didn’t like: Instead of doing the song live, they told him that he had to perform to a pre-recorded backing track.
Of course Alan was (and still is) an old-school entertainer. You don’t lip sync, you don’t use pre-recorded tracks… live music is live music and there is no faking it. So when it came time to perform, Alan wanted to send a message to voice his displeasure.
When AJ took the stage with his band, he sent his drummer Bruce Rutherford out to perform with no drumsticks. Just waving his arms like a madman, wailing away on the drums as he played…absolutely nothing.
It was the perfect protest. Subtle yet effective, and drew attention to the fact that the awards show was using backing tracks instead of having artists perform live.
It ended up not being the only protest Alan would make during an awards show: A few years later, AJ would throw shade at the CMA Awards when they wouldn’t allow George Jones to perform his full song “Choices,” asking him to perform only a 30-second clip and resulting in George declining to perform altogether.
Alan abruptly stopped his own performance and launched into “Choices” himself, showing his support for Jones and expressing his displeasure with the awards show’s treatment of a country music legend.
Gotta love artists who aren’t afraid to take a stand. But unfortunately, here we are 20+ years later and still having debates and discussions about artists using backing tracks. I guess you can’t win ’em all.
