Downtown was anything but dead when Sam Hunt hit the pavement on Nashville’s Lower Broadway to perform “Downtown’s Dead” during Wednesday’s (June 6) CMT Music Awards.

The big moment was unique to last night’s lineup -- Hunt was one of several artists who performed on the outdoor stage, but he took it a step further than the others by actually beginning his set inside of the honky-tonk Legends.

Hunt was just casually sitting at the bar when the music began, and we salute all the extras and onlookers who totally kept their cool around the superstar as he sang and moved about the crowded street, popping his head into the famed Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and Second Fiddle as he eventually made his way to the stage.

It was a special moment not only for Hunt, who’s returning to the spotlight after a little time off but also for the honky-tonks of Lower Broadway, whose neon glow made them the real stars of the moment. You got the feeling that that is what Hunt intended all along; because there is nothing more alive and more “Nashville” than the places we see in the background.

Way to share the love, Sam.