In 1994, during the 29th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM Awards), Alan Jackson pulled off a quiet yet pointed protest. The show’s producers had required his performance of “Gone Country” to be backed by a prerecorded track rather than a fully live band. Unwilling to comply with what he felt was “faking” it for his audience, Jackson told his drummer, Bruce Rutherford, not to bring drumsticks onstage. The result: Rutherford sat at the drum kit swinging empty hands at silent cymbals, ee