Say it ain’t so – Rascal Flatts, those beacons of country music, have admitted to lip syncing at Sunday’s Academy of Country Music Awards. Well, one of them has, at least. According to TMZ, the trio have admitted to faking their performance at the awards – badly – but they had a legitimate reason. The country group told TMZ that their lead singer, Gary LeVox, lost his voice just before the gig. He had performed several shows last week and put too much strain on his pipes.

Rascal Flatts
This has never happened before, so maybe LeVox should get a free pass this time?

However, the band still didn’t want to disappoint fans at the ACM ceremony, which is why they decided to cheat just a little. They performed their single Rewind - with just a little help from the sound system. Fans in the audience didn’t buy it for a second, however. Tweets about the lip sync quickly popped up, but fans weren’t as disappointed as one might expect. In fact, many were defending the country group.