ACM Honors 2024 Sneak Peek: Church's Flight of Fancy, Yearwood's Love Letter and Wilson's Double Win

Sure, everyone knows who’s going to get the awards, but that doesn’t mean there’s ever any shortage of surprises at the annual ACM Honors show. Perhaps this year’s whopper was Eric Church's wildly imaginative interpretation of the Alan Jackson classic “Neon Rainbow.”

Granted, Church gave the audience at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium fair warning.

“I want to take some liberties with this song,” the country rebel announced in his intro to the tribute to Jackson, who received an ACM Poet’s Award for his songwriting.

For Jackson’s reaction to Church’s creativity, you can tune in to the show’s broadcast Tuesday night on the Merit Street network. Recorded last month, it’s the 17th edition of the always-entertaining event, which gives the Academy of Country Music the opportunity to celebrate the career achievements of artists, as well as honor behind-the-scenes musicians, songwriters and industry honchos who’ve contributed to the genre.

Here’s more sneak peeks of what you can look forward to:

VIP MCs

Carly Pearce has shouldered hosting duties of the event solo for the past two years, and this year she’s joined by Jordan Davis (and the two reveal they’ve known each other since Davis served Pearce during his Nashville bartender years).

Both roll out songs from their latest albums: Pearce sings the ethereal title track, “hummingbird,” and Davis delivers his energy-packed single, “I Ain’t Sayin’.” The two also open the show with traditional renditions of more Alan Jackson hits, “Chattahoochee” and “Don’t Rock the Jukebox.”

 Wilson’s Big Night

Country’s latest crossover king, Post Malone, is a surprise presenter for Lainey Wilson, and he’s obviously a smitten fan, introducing her as “the one and only, absolutely stunning Lainey … uh, I’m not gonna cuss …Wilson.”

Wilson accepts two honors: an ACM Milestone Award for overall career accomplishments and a rare, coveted Triple Crown Award, presented to artists who have won ACM entertainer of the year, new artist and artist categories. Only nine other country acts have received Triple Crowns.

“I’ve started to realize that maybe I don’t have so many people to prove wrong anymore,” Wilson says about her slow-burning career that’s turned into a firestorm over the past three years. “Maybe it’s about proving these people right who have given me opportunities and chances … Wow, have those 13 years paid off in this town.”

Did She Say That?

Trisha Yearwood offers by far the most adorable not-a-tribute tribute to her husband, fellow superstar Garth Brooks, when she accepts an ACM Icon Award: “Of course I’m married to an icon, and he and I … agreed a long time ago that we were not going to say sappy things about each other onstage, so I’m not going to do that. But if I was going to do that, I would say this: He is the love of my life, and it has been and continues to be the grandest adventure of my life to share it with him, but I’m not gonna say that because we’re not supposed to say that.”

Yearwood is honored by two generations, mentor Emmy Lou Harris and protégé Lauren Alaina (whom Yearwood calls “Junior”). The two ably duet Yearwood’s “A Song Remembers When.”

Sweet Caroline

Luke Bryan is unabashedly effusive in his appreciation for his wife of 18 years, Caroline, as he accepts the ACM Lifting Lives Award for his philanthropic work.

“If I’m going on a hunting trip, I get about a 60 percent approval rating from my wife,” Bryan tells the crowd. “Fishing gets around 55 percent. … [But] any time — no matter how much I’ve been on the road touring — I call my wife and say, ‘Baby, I gotta do this charity thing,’ she bats a thousand on saying, ‘Yes, go do that.’”

Jason Aldean covers Bryan hit “Someone Else Calling You Baby” in a musical tribute to his longtime buddy.

Musical Magic

Vince Gill and Ashley McBryde earn a standing ovation for their duet of Gill’s 1989 classic “When I Call Your Name,” a tribute to its legendary producer, Tony Brown, the recipient of an ACM Icon Award. With McBryde taking low harmonies, the two voices blend in a way that proves the song’s vibrant timelessness — though Gill can’t help wisecrack in his introduction, “This song is so slow, the drummer once told me I needed to count it off with a calendar.”

Brown proves a show stealer with his brief acceptance speech, in which he simply recounts a supermarket parking lot encounter with a stranger, who recognized him and told him, “Back in the day, you were really good.”

Brown laughs and quips: “Hey, man, if you’re here tonight, you were right!”

Urban Amazes

The event features lots more stellar performances, including by Keith Urban, Kameron Marlowe, Jamey Johnson, Jackson Dean, Lee Ann Womack and Terri Clark. Urban’s tribute to songwriter Jessie Jo Dillon is among the standouts. He performs recent single “Messed Up as Me” co-written by Dillon, who is being honored as ACM’s songwriter of the year. For accompaniment, Urban chooses only his solo electric guitar, offering a rare moment to pristinely experience the superstar’s vocal and instrumental gifts, as well as Dillon’s exquisite lyrics.

“Jessie just has a way with words and a way with getting feeling into a song, getting visuals into a song,” Urban says in his song introduction. “And this is a prime example of that. I heard, ‘When I get blue, I get dark blue,’ and I went, I know this guy.”

The 17th ACM Honors airs at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Tuesday on the Merit Street. To access the network, enter your ZIP code at www.meritstreetmedia.com. Merit Street can be found on DirecTV, Dish, U-Verse, Samsung TV Plus and additional broadcast, cable and satellite channels. The free streaming app Merit+ is also available to download on iPhone and Android mobile devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, and Roku.