When it comes to all-time great country songs, Glen Campbell‘s “Rhinestone Cowboy” has to be pretty high on the list.
So when country singer Craig Campbell (who despite the same last name isn’t related to Glen) was coming up with names for his new coffee shop and music venue, “Grindstone Cowboy” seems like natural fit.
Craig’s new venture is located in Eagleville, Tennessee, about half an hour outside of Nashville. And it’s more than a coffee shop: Grindstone Cowboy not only has a full bar and a small menu featuring soups, salads and some sandwiches, but it’s also going to serve as a music venue featuring ticketed acoustic events for country music fans.
The shop just opened this week, and will have a grand opening this coming Saturday.
A country music coffee shop called Grindstone Cowboy? Sounds good to me.
But one person who’s NOT happy about the name? The songwriter of “Rhinestone Cowboy,” Larry Weiss.
Craig was recently on The Justin Moore Podcast and discussed hearing from Weiss after the name of the coffee shop was announced:
“The guy that wrote “Rhinestone Cowboy” reached out to me, and he is very nasty. He’s a nasty guy.
When he reached out to me I’m thinkin, you know, ‘He might want to collaborate and change the words a little bit to maybe write us a jingle for Grindstone Cowboy.’ But no…
I thought it would have been awesome. I got excited when they said ‘Hey, Larry wants to reach out to you, can I give him your email?’ I said sure. Yeah, it was nasty.”
I mean, what? As Justin pointed out, it’s not like you can copyright a title anyway, so it’s not like Craig’s ripping off the guy’s copyright or anything…
Maybe he thinks Craig’s trying to capitalize on sharing a last name with Glen Campbell?
“Coincidentally I mean yeah, me and Glen share the same last name, but I told the guy because he even brought that up, I said ‘Ok, I’m sorry my dad gave me this name? I mean, what are you talking about?'”
But luckily for Craig, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter whether Weiss likes the name or not:
“That was my final email to him, was like ‘You know what? I hate that you feel this way, but the good thing is that me opening my coffee shop and calling it Grindstone Cowboy doesn’t depend on you approving.”
But Craig did say that because of Weiss’s reaction to the name, he’s doing his best to steer clear of any association with the hit song:
“Now that he was so ugly to me, I’m trying my best to do everything I can to disassociate with the whole ‘Rhinestone Cowboy.’ Because people will bring it up all the time and I’m like ‘Nope, not at all.'”
Honestly, the whole thing kinda blows my mind. I mean maybe he’s just looking for money, but if he’s worried about somebody tarnishing the name of his song or feels that it’s disrespectful to use for a coffee shop, Craig Campbell is the last person in the world who you should be worried about disrespecting country music.
Craig is one of the most hardworking, underrated country artists out there, and you know that he has a deep appreciation for the legends – both artists and songs – that came before him. And I’ve never met the guy, but he seems like just a genuine, all-around good dude. A “Family Man” if you will (sorry about the pun, but I couldn’t resist).
Oh well, I guess you can’t please everybody. But I guess there’s at least one person in the country music world who won’t be setting foot in Grindstone Cowboy.
You can check out the full interview with Craig and hear him discuss Grindstone Cowboy on last week’s episode of The Justin Moore Podcast:
