Why Politician Justin Pearson Joined Bryan Andrews Onstage at CMA Fest

Bryan Andrews made his CMA Fest debut on Thursday afternoon by taking the stage to a recording of President Trump’s greatest hits. But the Carrollton, Missouri, country singer wasn’t playing talking points like “We will make America great again!” over the PA in agreement. Rather, he was there to light them up.

Andrews has made a name for himself online as an outspoken critic of Trump and the Republican Party in a series of often expletive-laced videos. Onstage at CMA Fest, he let his music do the talking, performing songs like “Are We Great Yet?” and the new “Not See” (say it aloud) to a modest but lively and diverse crowd, some wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts, others in hats that read “Resist.” One man on the street posed for photos with a “Fuck Trump” flag draped across his back.

But Andrews didn’t tackle his CMA Fest debut alone. Near the end of his 5 p.m. set, he welcomed state Rep. Justin J. Pearson, a candidate running to represent Tennessee’s 9th congressional district, who, along with Rep. Justin Jones, was expelled for his role in a gun control protest on the Tennessee State House floor in 2023.

In what is surely a first for CMA Fest, Pearson — who wrote about the importance of protest in an essay for Rolling Stone — railed against billionaires, data centers, and the high cost of living in the U.S., before imploring the crowd, many of them tourists unable to cast a ballot in Tennessee, to vote.

“They can vote somewhere,” Pearson told Rolling Stone following his CMA Fest appearance. “All across this country you need to be exercising your right to vote.  Check your registration, make sure your family is registered, and then go exercise your right to vote. Because that’s our power, and if we lose that, that’s another way that we lose our ability to stand up to these billionaires, to people who are really trying to take over our country in really dangerous ways.”

Andrews says he and Pearson connected after the representative was featured in a photo standing toe-to-toe with a guard denying him entry to a May senate committee meeting about redistricting in Tennessee.

“We’ve been fast friends since,” says Pearson, who stayed onstage with Andrews to sing along to Andrews’ song “Yeehaw” (sample lyric: “Yee-haw, fuck the law/Land of the free, ain’t free for all). “Music is a protest. With all this racist redistricting going on, [Andrews’] music really met the moment.”

Later that night across the Cumberland River, outspoken Trump advocate Jason Aldean performed for the thousands gathered at Nissan Stadium. While Andrews was on a smaller stage downtown, outside of the city’s arena, he says he was thrilled by the turnout, even if he noted some surprised faces from the stage.

“It was a little bit surprising, but I think it worked out and I think people are starting to realize that art and politics plays a huge role in everybody’s life,” Andrew says.

It’s a message that Pearson hopes country music fans absorb from his surprise CMA Fest drop-in. “Whether you’re Democrat, Republican, Independent, or whatever it is, people are talking about issues, about the economic problems we’re dealing with, healthcare problems we’re dealing with,” he says. “Country music fans are living in a difficult time right now, and being able to speak to that is very important.”

Says Andrews: “History will be told through art.”