Originally, he planned to perform “Where I Come From,” which at the time was the #1 hit on Billboard’s country singles chart. But mere days before the awards show, Alan’s manager, Nancy Russell, played a recording of “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)” for four of the CMA’s top executives. All four were crying by the time the song ended.
The day before the show, CMT posted a brief note on its website indicating that Jackson would be introducing the new song on the awards telecast.
The next night, after an introduction from the show’s host Vince Gill, Alan performed “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)” while seated on a stool, with an orchestra and backing singers behind him. At the conclusion of the five-minute-long song, the audience gave him an immediate standing ovation. This performance, along with the Vince Gill introduction, was used as the song’s music video.
The next morning, many of the nation’s country music radio stations were already playing Jackson’s new song after taping it from the broadcast. Several pop-oriented stations, including one in New York City, started to play it as well.
Based entirely on that unsolicited airplay, “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)” debuted at #25 on the Billboard country chart the week ending November 24, 2001, the highest debut since Garth Brooks’ “The Thunder Rolls” debuted at #19 in 1991. A week later, with Arista finally having serviced a promotional single to radio, the song jumped to #12. On the December 29th chart, “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning) was the number one song.
It had taken just six weeks to get there, the fastest ascension to the top in four years. The song spent five weeks at the summit, and also peaked at #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
Jackson’s record label determined that it could not manufacture a commercial single fast enough to meet demand. Instead, Arista pushed up the release date for Alan’s new album, “Drive,” from May to January 15th. Arista also chose to include both the studio version and the live CMA Awards version on the album.