Garth Brooks Says He Might Lip Sync at the ACM Awards

garth-brooksIn a move that is so patently and unflinchingly Garth, the recently-unretired superstar says he might lip sync at Sunday night’s 50th Anniversary ACM Awards show in Dallas at Cowboys (AT&T) Stadium.

The decision was revealed in a SiriusXM Town Hall interview that is set to air Wednesday (4-15) on the satellite provider’s The Highway station at 11 a.m. Eastern; so reports Brian Mansfield of USA Today.

The apparent reason for the potential lip syncing is because Garth Brooks is currently in the midst of a multi-concert run at Portland’s Moda Center, and his voice might not make it the distance. He told Town Hall host Storme Warren, “Just in case we have to lip-sync, we taped a performance that was solely made for the awards show. So we don’t know if we’re lip-syncing or not, but my bet is, if I know Portland, we’re not going to get out of here with anything. And then you’ve got to fly down and do that show immediately. So we’ll see how that’s going to go.”

However the run of Portland shows ends on Thursday, and the ACM’s aren’t for another three days. Garth says however, “After the first show ”¦ I won’t have a voice anyway.”

Huh. I guess that sucks for everyone with tickets to later shows.

There’s so many different ways this missive from Mr. Brooks can be taken. So Garth Brooks is a lip syncer? Though it would be silly to conclude the superstar has never engaged in the subversive activity throughout his illustrious career, Garth never came across as one who lip synced regularly. Garth may be considered by many as a poser and the poster boy for country music commercialization, and one of the reasons country music is in the state it is today, but who knew he was so flippant with singing live?

In fact one of Garth’s most notorious moments came at the 1993 Super Bowl when he was scheduled to perform the National Anthem. Garth was requested to turn in a pre-recorded rendition of the song just in case for some reason he couldn’t sing it live, and Garth refused. However this was part of a plan to strong arm Super Bowl producers into showing a controversial video with “disturbing imagery” set to his song “We Shall Be Free.” When NBC first baulked at airing the video, Garth Brooks left the stadium, refusing to sing the anthem, and sending producers into a panic. Eventually the kickoff was moved back to accommodate the airing of Garth’s video.

That same year during Garth’s notorious three night stand where he was suspended in mid air on cables like Peter Pan above old Dallas Cowboys stadium in Irving, TX , fans didn’t have to pay admission for the third show of the series because among other reasons, Garth was expected to lip sync some of the songs to later be part of an NBC special, and he didn’t want to mislead paying customers.

I guess you have to appreciate Garth’s candidness about his upcoming ACM performance, but it still seems like a strange move that he would admit to lip-syncing before he even does. Isn’t the idea to fool people, or at least leave some doubt in the minds of viewers that what they’re seeing is live?

Last year the ACM Awards were tainted by a lip sync controversy when it was revealed Rascal Flatts had performed to a pre-recorded track. Trying to spin the news in a positive direction, ACM representative RAC Clark admitted, “There have been plenty of people who have lip-synced on our show.”

So much for authenticity I guess. One thing is for sure, Garth Brooks will have the most-watched lips on Sunday night’s extravaganza, and if they’re not synced with the music, his pre-show allocution may not matter much to many fans.

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