Too political.
That was the response one new Nashville duo got from local news station WSMV after they were originally scheduled to perform their new patriotic anthem on the channel’s popular “Today in Nashville” segment.
The song called “True Colors” is from duo The Dugger Band, made up of brothers Seth and Jordan Dugger of east Tennessee. And it was actually produced by John Rich, who is calling out the news station for canceling the performance.
According to Rich, the duo had been scheduled to perform “True Colors” on WSMV, but ahead of their appearance they received an email from the station calling the pro-America song “too politically biased” and offering them the opportunity to perform another song instead.
Now, before we go any further, let’s look at the lyrics to the song that was apparently too political for WSMV:
“I ain’t leavin’ here
I’m an eighth generation God-fearin’ blue collar with a flag waving
And I don’t wait for the fourth of July
It’s year-round, lifelong American pride
And I’m right here, right now, drawing the line
If this country ain’t somethin’ you can stand behind
Then that’s the difference between me and you
Cause my true colors are red, white and blue”
Whatever you think about the song, doesn’t seem to be much in there that’s horribly offensive or “politically biased.” But the duo shared the email that they received from the news station canceling their performance:
“So sorry that I didn’t raise this flag before. We are just now really looking into the lyrics of the song. The song does cross a political line that we as a station just can’t cross. We as a show and a station do not allow any politically biased songs on either side of the line. We are going to have to ask the band to perform a different song on Wednesday. We can still mention that they recently released it, but we will still need to explore a different song to perform.”
But Rich says he advised the band to hold the line and not agree to perform a different song instead:
“Under no circumstances do you kiss the ring of some liberal, commie-acting news organization like WSMV telling you that your freedom of speech doesn’t mean anything to them, that they’re going to dictate what you get to sing. Under no circumstances do you play anything else.”
The band says that they decided against changing their performance, and that they’re proud of the pro-America message in “True Colors.”
“We wrote this song because we’re proud to be Americans, and we’re tired of people putting the USA down…
We decided not to perform a different song on WSMV because our freedom of speech is worth more than their publicity.”
And after Rich spoke up about the issue, popular conservative influencer Libs of TikTok shared the band’s video and urged her followers to download the song:
Dugger Band, a country music brother duo from Tennessee, were reportedly sent a letter from the show 'Today in Nashville on @WSMV' telling them that they weren't allowed to perform their new song "True Colors" because it's "politically biased."
The song is about how they are… pic.twitter.com/7QMKZNzh81
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 11, 2025
Since telling their story, The Dugger Band’s song has shot up the iTunes charts, currently sitting at #2 on the country chart and #8 on the all-genre chart after patriotic Americans rushed to support them amidst the controversy.
UPDATE! @Dugger_Band is at #2 on the ITunes country chart! They'll be posting a video soon to follow up:) Special shoutout to liberal Nashville network, @wsmv for disallowing their performance of the song! You have made these boys famous🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/cSWxDzko2m
— John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) March 12, 2025
WSMV has yet to comment on the story, but it’s hard to see anything in the lyrics that’s so “political” that it can’t be performed on a local news station.
Check it out for yourself and see if you find anything wrong with the lyrics:
