Since Luke apparently took down the video from his Instagram, here’s the tease
First off, I hate when musicians do this. Either release the song in full or don’t. Second, if you release a snippet with lyrics like this, don’t be surprised by controversy
Country singer Zach Bryan releases statement on controversial song, insisting ‘I love this country’
Country singer Zach Bryan released a statement on Tuesday insisting that he did not intend his new song to cause controversy after it went viral over the past few days.
On his Instagram account, Bryan previewed a new song titled “Bad News” that appeared to lament the policies and general spirit of America under President Donald Trump.
The song included lyrics such as, “My friends are all degenerates, but they’re all I got, the generational story of dropping the plot. I heard the cops came, Cocky motherf—–s, ain’t they?” and, “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door, try to build a house no one builds no more, but I got a telephone, Kids are all scared and all alone.”
The song continued, “The bar stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling, the middle fingers rising, and it won’t stop showing. Got some bad news. The fading of the red, white, and blue.”
But, hey, it’s your fault for misconstruing his meaning
In a statement posted on an Instagram Story, Bryan wrote that “Bad News” was written months ago and that people need the “full context” of the song.
“This shows you how divisive a narrative can be when shoved down our throats through social media,” Bryan said. “This song is about how much I love this country and everyone in it more than anything. When you hear the rest of the song, you will understand the full context that hits on both sides of the aisle. Everyone using this now as a weapon is only proving how devastatingly divided we all are. We need to find our way back.”
See? Your fault. I have to wonder if he and his marketing team did this on purpose in order to gin up some controversy to increase sales, get some notice. If so, it will be a big fail, because country music fans tend to be pretty patriotic, and he may have just Dixie Chicks’d his career. He took the side of Bud Light during the wacko Dylan Mulvanny controversy, stands up for kids being given transgender drugs, and has criticized law enforcement many times. On the flip side, he has made some libertarian statements. He seems to take a middle road a lot, but, lets the liberalism creep out.
He continued, “I served this country, I love this country and the song itself is about all of us coming out of this divided space. I wasn’t speaking as a politician or some greater-than-thou a–hole, just a 29-year-old man who is just as confused as everyone else. To see how much s— it stirred up makes me not only embarrassed but kind of scared. Left wing or right wing we’re all one bird and American. To be clear I’m on neither of these radical sides. To all those disappointed in me on either side of whatever you believe in just know I’m trying my best too and we all say things that are misconstrued sometimes.”
As the saying goes, don’t start none, won’t be none. He decided to wade into politics with this song, so, he needs to toughen up. And, let’s be honest, most of Today’s Hit Country is really just pop with a country accent. Lots of autotune, computer generated music, wrong lyrics
… Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song
And he told me it was the perfect country & western song
I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the perfect country & western song
Because he hadn’t said anything at all about mama
Or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting’ drunk
That’s country.
Read: Country Singer Zach Bryan Blames You For Misunderstanding His Incomplete Lyrics »