Anderson East Criticizes Garth Brooks for Lip-Synching at the CMAs: “This Truly Offends Me”

Awkward! One day after Garth Brooks admitted to lip-syncing during his performance of “Ask Me How I Know” at the CMAs on Wednesday, Nov. 8, Miranda Lambert’s boyfriend, Anderson East, took to Instagram to criticize the star for not singing live. “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,” the 29-year-old singer wrote.

Interestingly, many of Anderson’s 98,000 followers defended Garth’s decision to lip-sync the performance. “Who are you? You haven’t earned the right to have an opinion about this… Have some respect. You sound foolish,” one person commented with another adding, “I️ don’t think he’s faked his way through a highly successful career spanning almost 30 years and selling over 128 million albums. After all @GarthBrooks has done for country music, I️ don’t think this performance will ruin him.”

Garth during his CMAs performance. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

After Garth won Entertainer of the Year at the CMAs earlier this week, the country star openly confessed he did lip-sync during his performance. “We’re in the middle of 12 shows in 10 days. Not 10 shows in 12 days, 12 shows in 10 days. We did a game-time call on whether to sing the track or lip-sync and decided to lip-sync. The voice just isn’t there anymore, and you want to represent country music as best you can,” he said backstage, according to People.

While singing his emotional hit at the award show, Garth’s fans were quick to call out the star via Twitter for not performing live. “GARTH BROOKS! You, sir, got caught lip-syncing. DO IT AGAIN FOR REAL, I LOVE THIS SONG. I’m upset,” one bitter fan tweeted. Others were less angry, more hilarious, tweeting jokes like, “Garth Brooks is obviously the best country singer there is… sounds the same live as he does recorded,” and, “Congrats to Garth Brooks for winning the first-ever CMAs award for mime.”

During the performance, it did seem like Garth wasn’t exactly singing the song. At some points, he even pulled his mouth away from the mic and the track continued on without him. Plus, the song sounded identical to the recorded version! That being said, many of the king of country’s fans didn’t really care if he sang live or not. “I feel like there is country music singers and there is Garth. Not sure anyone will ever be on his level,” a passionate supporter tweeted, with another adding, “Can we just give him the Garth Brooks Award, for being… Garth Brooks?”

Sadly, there is no Garth Brooks Award (yet), but Trisha Yearwood’s handsome hubby did take home the Entertainer of the Year honor for the second year in a row. After fellow country star Reba McEntire gave Garth his award, he told the audience, “Getting this presented to me by the entertainer of a lifetime, I thank you. Miranda [Lambert] said it best, Little Big Town said it best — we’re a family. All you guys down here on the front row: We can all agree on one thing. Let’s all raise a toast… to the band and crew. I was talking to Kelsea [Ballerini] backstage about how we get to do this for a living… The most important thing other than God… is you [fans]… I love you guys. We’re a family.” Congratulations on your big win, Garth!