Loving this performance by reigning #CMAawards Entertainer of the Year @GarthBrooks! pic.twitter.com/15QXawypfK
— CMA Country Music (@CountryMusic) November 9, 2017
After Garth Brooks admitted to lip-syncing his performance at the Nov. 8 CMA Awards, fans and fellow country artists have vocalized two starkly different reactions toward the singer.
During and after the show, some criticized the “Ask Me How I Know” singer for being inauthentic. In the country music scene, Miranda Lambert and her boyfriend Anderson East publicly slammed Brooks following the show.
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“I keep a lot of my opinions to myself and respect anyone making music but as a person who tries to put on the best and most honest show I can night after night… this truly offends me,” East tweeted.
I keep a lot of my opinions to myself and respect anyone making music but as a person who tries to put on the best and most honest show I can night after night… this truly offends me. I was told country music is three chords and the truth. https://t.co/jucvh4xmpy
— Anderson East (@Andersoneast) November 10, 2017
“I was told country music is three chords and the truth,” he continued.
Lambert backed her boyfriend up on social media, and fans immediately took notice.
“High five on this babe,” she wrote. “If you can’t sing then don’t … It’s better to be honest than to pretend… I think it’s bulls—. My favorite performances in the show were live. The truth.”
Some country legends have come to Brooks’ side, including Lambert’s ex-husband Blake Shelton and Randy Travis.
Shelton tweeted an uplifting message to the singer on Nov. 10, writing, “Hey @garthbrooks… I still love you.” He added hashtags for “#hero” and “#respect.”
Hey @garthbrooks… I still love you. #hero #respect
— Blake Shelton (@blakeshelton) November 10, 2017
Travis quoted Shelton and added, “We love ya @garthbrooks.”
We love ya @garthbrooks #icon https://t.co/lwrZDGr520
— Randy Travis (@randytravis) November 11, 2017
The “Friends In Low Places” singer attributed the decision to lip-sync to the fact that he’d just performed 12 shows in 10 days. He knew his voice wasn’t as strong as he would like, and he didn’t want to disappoint viewers.
“We did our rehearsal today and we did a game time call on whether we did sing the track or lip-sync it and I decided to lip-sync it because the voice is just not there and you want to represent country music the best you can,” he said, via E! News.
Brooks has been traveling on tour with wife Trisha Yearwood for the past few years, performing up to five shows on the weekends in a single city. After nearly 400 performances, the power pair will end their The Garth Brooks Tour With Trisha Yearwood tour in December with a stop in Nashville.
During the CMA Awards, Brooks was also presented with the Entertainer of the Year award.
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