The 'Springsteen' hitmaker insists in a new interview that lip-syncing is big no-no for country artists.
- Jul 26, 2018
AceShowbiz - Country star Eric Church is still reeling from Garth Brooks' lip-synced performance at the CMA Awards in November (17).
Many people criticised the night's Entertainer of the Year winner for refusing to sing live, prompting Garth to explain he was trying to save his voice after performing 10 shows in 12 days, but Eric is still sore about his decision.
"We don't use machines. We use instruments," the Springsteen singer, who was also up for the top prize, tells Rolling Stone.
"So the winner of the biggest category of the night lip-synced in the biggest moment on the show? F**k that! And I didn’t like his excuse at all.
"I felt like he was speaking for the other nominees. I can speak for myself - I'm not lip-syncing. If I can't sing, I won't sing, or I'll sing badly. But at least you'll get what you get".
Church insists lip-syncing is big no-no for country artists, adding, "It is and always will be a red line. It's fabricated. I don't want young artists thinking it's OK, because it's not".
Brook, who performed his hit Ask Me How I Know at the CMA Awards defended his decision to lip-sync during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show days after the prizegiving, explaining fans who buy tickets for his live shows are his first priority.
"We did 12 shows in 10 days, and right in the middle of those 12 shows was the CMAs," Brooks said. "So we went in and did a track for it, just in case my voice was gone. (We) made a game-day decision and played it because we still had seven shows, starting the next night in Spokane (Washington).
"The truth is, I love awards shows, but, for me, they're like (what) the tree is to Christmas. They're the symbol of it, but they're not what it's all about. What it's about is those people who put those butts in the seat, travel, fight that traffic. That's who you save your voice for. We made the decision and I gotta tell you, if it happened again tomorrow I'd make the same decision".
