Rhett Akins Reveals Why His 6-Year-Old Son Is ‘Banned’ From The Grand Ole Opry [Exclusive]

It appears Rhett Akins’ son Brody may have inherited the family’s love of performing, but he’s still learning that life on stage comes with a few rules. He recently revealed the hilarious moment that led to his 6-year-old getting “banned” from the Grand Ole Opry.

Akins told Country Now that he sees many similarities between Brody and his other son/fellow country star, Thomas Rhett, including their love for being a part of the action on stage.

“I never pushed my kids to do music or anything, but Thomas Rhett could not stay off the stage when he was five years old. He wanted to be out there and now my little boy doing the exact same thing,” the hit songwriter shared.

Akins would regularly allow Brody to join him during performances at the Opry until one night when he had a bit of breakdown in front of the audience.

“We’ve had to ban him from the Opry so far,” Akins joked. “He used to come out and sing with me a few times. And the last time he had a little meltdown on stage. And so we’re having to retrain him for the Opry right now, but hopefully he’ll get it back together.”

The “That Ain’t My Truck” singer then recalled calling up Dan Rogers, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the Opry, and apologizing for his son’s behavior.

“I called Dan Rogers the next thing. I was like, ‘Dan, don’t ever have me back. Seriously.’ I’m so sorry. But he goes, ‘Buddy, that’s the least of our worries because we’ve seen so much more than that.’ He goes, ‘We ain’t worried about that at all.’”

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Hopefully, one day, Brody will earn his way back into the coveted circle and stand beside his dad once again.

This conversation with Country Now took place backstage at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest, where Rhett Akins helped kick off the first night of the 2026 festival with a special performance. He is certainly no stranger to CMA Fest. In fact, Akins has been attending the event since 1994, except back then it was called Fan Fair and it was held at the Nashville Speedway Fairgrounds.

“I played it for the first time in 1995. Used to have a booth that people would come line up for five hours to get your autograph,” he recalled. “It’s changed so much over the years and I’ve played all the stages during CMA Fest, but never in a many years did I think I was going to be playing at the stadium tonight.”

Akins explains in that era of CMA Fest, the artists would each have their own booth that they would decorate in a way that was most fitting for them. The country hitmaker opted to lean into his Georgia roots and have baskets full of peaches at his booth as well as a map of where he was from and even the state flag.  

“It was all about Georgia. And I still have a lot of those. I think I had old license plates from Georgia. And that was a big thing, man.”

He continued, “I used to sit in the booth…there would literally be people that you just saw last weekend in concert in Kansas. The Hardcore fans. And they drove to Nashville to stand in line to see you again. And then when this weekend’s over, they go to the next town that you’re in. ‘Y’all don’t have enough pictures of us together?’ But it’s so cool. And nowadays it’s gotten so worldwide. It’s not only just american fans, but they’re coming from England and Australia and everywhere.”

Next week, Fans will finally get the chance to relive all the fun and must-see performances of one of the biggest weekends in country music as the stars of the genre take over the small screen for CMA Fest presented by SoFi, hosted by Riley Green and Good Morning America’s Lara Spencer.

The star-studded concert special will feature performances from Bailey Zimmerman, Blake Shelton, The Band Perry, Brothers Osborne, Carly Pearce, Cody Johnson, Deana Carter, Ella Langley, Fetty Wap, Florida Georgia Line, Gretchen Wilson, HARDY, Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll, Jordan Davis, Keith Urban, Lainey Wilson, Luke Bryan, Michael McDonald, Molly Tuttle, The Red Clay Strays, Ricky Skaggs, Riley Green, Russell Dickerson, Shaboozey, Shay Morgan, Stephen Wilson Jr., Tim McGraw, Tucker Wetmore, and Zach Top.

Tune into the special Thursday, June 25 at 8/7c on ABC or stream it the next day on Hulu.