Let me say this right off the bat: I think Luke Bryan is a great guy with a big heart and never meant to cause any drama when he gave his opinion on Beyonce’s lack of CMA nominations this year.
If you recall, back in September the Beyhive got up in arms when Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter wasn’t put up for a single award at the 2024 CMA’s.
Granted, Beyonce herself said that it wasn’t actually a country record, writing in an Instagram post:
“It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive…
This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”
While the album was extremely well received by mainstream music critics, fans and those within the country music industry were split, with many voicing their opinion one way or the other.
Dolly Parton, who was featured on the track “Dolly P” and had her song “Jolene” reimagined on the project, defended the CMAs, saying in an interview with Variety:
“There’s so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can’t really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that…
I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good. So I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose. I think it was just more of what the country charts and the country artists were doing, that do that all the time, not just a specialty album.”
Luke Bryan, who is hosting the CMAs alongside Peyton Manning and Lainey Wilson, also weighed in while he was making media rounds for his new album, but for some reason he received a ton of backlash for his comments.
In an interview on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live earlier this month, Luke said:
“A lot of great music’s overlooked. Sometimes you don’t get nominated sometimes. Like I said, I mean, I think the CMA, they have their voting body. And they, they vote what they think should make it.
Everybody loved that Beyoncé made a country album. Nobody’s mad about it. But where things get a little tricky and, and you know, if you’re gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit.
Like, don’t, like Beyoncé can do it exactly what she wants to. She’s probably the biggest star in music. But come to an award show and high five us. And have fun and get in the family too. And I’m not saying she didn’t do that.”
The overall sentiment is clearly well-intentioned and it’s pretty obvious that Luke was trying to give a reasoned take on why she didn’t get any nominations (something he has no control over, mind you), but many people took issue with the “come hang out with us” phrasing because it was her appearance at the 2016 CMAs that lead her to take this leap into country music.
Luke later clarified his comments without backing away from them, slamming the “ridiculous” headlines that came out of his first statement in a post on Twitter/X:
“Hey, y’all, I’m wrapping up the last night of my tour tonight, and it’s been an amazing time. For that, I am thankful.
I am posting tonight based on the ridiculous nature of the headlines I have read the last couple days from an interview on the Andy Cohen show I did this week when I was promoting my album. I feel in my heart I could not let media create a false narrative. As I read thru the comments of some of you I just want to say that I encourage all of you to listen to the interview instead of reading click bait headlines.
You will hear my tone and intentions, which were not negative. I respect Beyoncé, and I love how loyal her fans are. I spend a lot of time supporting other artists. I want everyone to win. Love y’all.”
This makes it even more obvious that he has no malice in his heart for Beyonce, her album, or her fans.
Well, Luke talked about the backlash he received from his initial response in the Andy Cohen interview during a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, saying:
“I did an interview with Andy Cohen. Never met Andy, I always loved what he did and Andy, you know Beyonce did the country album and she didn’t get any CMA nominations. Well I’m the host of the CMAs, me and Lainey Wilson and Peyton Manning this year. And I’ve hosted the CMAs four years. And Andy goes “What do you think about Beyonce getting snubbed?”
And first of all, we don’t even know if Beyonce knows she got snubbed or didn’t get a CMA nomination… This is all people on the outside creating it. And I knew it right when he asked me. I said “F**k man, I don’t need to answer this. This is a f***ing trap.”
And Andy, I don’t think he was trapping me… He’s a New York guy, he goes “Beyonce, what do you think about the snub?” … And I had a team of people in the room. And I said “You know what, I’m the host of the CMAs, I’m not going to dodge this one.”
And I answered it pretty damn great. 10 out of 10.
I said “Well first of all Beyonce’s fans are the f***ing most loyal fans in the world to her.” First thing I said. Beyonce’s fans have her back, first thing I said. I said “No one in Nashville is mad that she made an album” and what I meant was nobody is trying to not nominate her. Her album came out early in the year…
I answered that and all I said was “Man, probably if, Beyonce, if she came in and was in the country music community a little more, I said “High five some people, come have a beer, hang backstage” and I said “Beyonce’s one of the biggest stars in the world. Why would country music not want, I mean this thing that you wouldn’t want it.
And dude, man Andy ran it in that 15 minute interview and ain’t nobody talked about my f***ing album coming out. And dude, the manipulation of what I thought was a great response. Man… but what hurts you is when your heart’s good, right? My heart is never in a place to hurt somebody.”
Even if he isn’t a Hemmingway with off-the-cuff commentary, it was again a great response from Luke. His heart is so obviously in the right place that it hurts me to see him get caught up in a negative media cycle over absolutely nothing. And at the end of the day, he’s not wrong.
Just because you’re Beyonce, one of the biggest entertainers on the planet, doesn’t mean country music will shower you with awards if you make no effort to be a part of the industry. Same goes for any genre. Hell, most of the best artists in country music, ones like Tyler Childers and Charley Crockett who are making really good country music, don’t even get invited or nominated at the mainstream award shows.
But here’s where things get weird…
For some reason, this part of the interview was cut from the episode. The only reason we know he said it was a clip posted on YouTube by one of Joe’s official channels, which did not remove this part. I assume it will be edited at some point to match the content of the podcast, but for now, you can watch him speak about it here:
Honestly, I’m super confused why this was cut because if anything he explains even better what his stance is. I’m sure there’s some reason… maybe it was just an editing mistake, maybe it is just to let sleeping dogs lay (sorry Luke), but I really just don’t understand it.
We can discuss Luke’s music, especially the newer stuff like “One Margarita,” all day long but this episode proves he’s really just a southern dad that happened to get super famous and he’s doing the best he can. They also spent about 2 hours talking about hunting and fishing and I ain’t mad about that.
This clip was pulled at about the 2:23:20 mark of the episode (there’s an obvious cut), which you can watch in (almost) its entirety below.
Let’s throw it back to my personal favorite Luke song.
