Last night at the 17th ACM Honors, Alan Jackson was presented with the ACM’s Poets Award, an honor presented to a songwriter for “outstanding and longstanding musical and/or lyrical contributions throughout their career.
A plethora of today’s country artists covered Jackson’s hits throughout the night with Jordan Davis performing “Chattahoochee,” Carly Pearce performing “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” and most notably, Eric Church performing a stripped-back version of his 1990 hit, “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow.”
In typical Church fashion, he made the song his own, delivering a soulful acoustic rendition of the song. Though it doesn’t sound incredibly similar to Jackson’s original version, Church did the song justice, slowing it down to let the lyrics shine and honor the legendary singer/songwriter in a way that only he could.
Before he delivered the performance, Church presented the award to the “Drive” singer, noting the impact he’s had on him and the genre, “Alan Jackson is an institution. I was thinking about the Poet’s Award… thinking about Alan… thinking about what he’s meant to not just me, but to music.”
It seems that Jackson was more than impressed by the “Springsteen” singer’s cover of his hit, “Hearing that song tonight, I began to tear up back there… It brought back a lot of memories.”
The 2024 ACM Honors will air on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. ET on Merit Street, marking the first time the special will air on the network.
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