It looks like country star Zach Bryan has kicked over a metaphorical hornets’ nest with his new song, Bad News.
Bryan included a snippet from the song on his Instagram last Friday and you can clearly hear some of the lyrics as being: “I heard the cops came, cocky motherf---ers ain’t they?/And ICE is gonna come bust down your door/Try to build a house, no bills no more, well I got a telephone/Kids are all scared and all alone.”
Those lyrics alone were enough to trigger a full-scale backlash in MAGA-land. And - quelle surprise! - the outrage drew a response from the White House. Trump’s spokesperson Abigail Jackson criticised the singer in an interview with Newsweek yesterday.
“While Zach Bryan wants to Open The Gates to criminal illegal aliens and has Condemned heroic ICE officers, Something in the Orange tells me a majority of Americans disagree with him and support President Trump’s great American Revival. Godspeed, Zach!” Jackson said. Those who are familiar with Bryan’s work will pick up the references to the Oklahoma-born singer’s songs.
(Remember when the office of President Of The United States didn’t see fit to pass comment on mere trivialities like pop lyrics, because they had more important things to be getting on with?)
Anyway, Bryan posted on his Instagram Stories in response, trying to calm everything down: “When you hear the rest of the song, you will understand the full context that hits on both sides of the aisle,” he wrote. “Everyone using this now as a weapon is only proving how devastatingly divided we all are.”
“I wasn't speaking as a politician or some greater-than-thou asshole, just a 29-year-old man who is just as confused as everyone else. To see how much sh*t 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.”
Whether that will be enough to appease the culture warriors remains to be seen. Bryan is a big deal in the States. Indeed, just two weeks ago he broke a record for the biggest ticketed gig in the US, when he played in front of over 112,000 fans at the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. Working within the country genre, he has impeccable mainstream credentials and even served as a naval officer for eight years. But he may find that that counts for little among the MAGA faithful.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.