Eric Church decided to use his performance of 'Record Year' at the 2016 ACM Awards to pay tribute to some of his recently deceased musical heroes.

The bridge of the tune featured snippets of songs by David Bowie ("Changes," "Suffragette City" and "Fame"), Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland ("Vasoline"), Motörhead's Lemmy ("Ace of Spades") and the Eagles' Glenn Frey ("Already Gone"). Photos of each musician flashed on screens behind Church, who had migrated to a makeshift DJ booth during the section to rock out to the songs. (Not to be outdone, Keith Urban was also spotted by cameras grooving in his seat during "Fame.")

The performance also featured a young man, the same one pictured at the front of his album Mr. Misunderstood, onstage spinning vinyl.

Church, who found out several days before the show that he won the 2016 ACM Award for Video Of The Year for "Mr. Misunderstood," nevertheless made sure that his easygoing acoustic guitar and plaintive vocals stood tall at the forefront.

Watch Eric Church's 2016 ACM Awards Performance

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