Zach Bryan is no stranger to beef… and now it appears he has some beef with the United States government.
You’ve likely already heard about the country music star’s somewhat out-of-the-blue, anti-ICE song that he teased last week. Bryan finds himself in the middle of controversy a lot these days (trying to fight Gavin Adcock, public break up with Brianna Chickenfry, etc.), but he’s typically stayed out of the politics side of things.
Until now.
The country singer shared a snippet of a new track titled “Bad News” last Friday, and the buzz around the song shot to the stratosphere. The first verse doesn’t necessarily touch on anything too political, though it does throw out a line about the police being “cocky mother*******,” which could be a reference to Bryan’s personal run in with the authorities in September of 2023, or just could be a shot at law enforcement in general:
“Didn’t wake up dead or in jail
Some out of town boys been giving us hell
I got some bad news
I woke up missing you
My friends are all degenerates but they’re all I got
The generational story of dropping the plot
I heard the cops came
Cocky mother******* ain’t they?”
However, once the song gets to its second verse, it dives into the political side of things. Right off the bat, Bryan took aim at the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). And towards the end of the verse, the country star reveals that the “Bad News” he’s singing about is the “fading of the red, white and blue.” He also seems to lament the fact that Bruce Springsteen, who famously rants about Donald Trump at every concert, has lost some fans recently.
As you might imagine, that’s ruffled some feathers:
“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 Boss stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling
The middle fingers rising and it won’t stop showing
I got some bad news
The fading of the red, white and blue”
On one hand, Zach Bryan has every right to concoct a song that he believes in. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, and fellow country artist John Rich has even pointed that out (after he first bashed Bryan for the teaser). Of course, the market will dictate a response to that. And let’s be honest, the Brianna Chickenfry drama certainly put off what I would suspect are more left-leaning female fans, so I’m not so sure the anti-ICE sentiments are going to bring them back into the fold.
But also… this is totally unexpected from the “I Remember Everything” singer. He’s always been one to speak his mind, but he’s generally stayed out of the politics with his music. And even when he has addressed political things on social media, he usually starts off with an unfiltered thought, walks it back, tries to appease both sides of the aisle, and then just deletes it and deactivates his X account. He did turn the comments off on the teaser clip (lame), but he didn’t delete it.
But the United States government – specifically the Department of Homeland Security – wishes that he would have continued to just focus on music. Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs, was reached out to by TMZ for comment on Bryan’s teaser for his song “Bad News.” Since ICE falls underneath the DHS, McLaughlin evidently took offense to the line in which the country singer called out the actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
So she provided this short, concise clap-back to TMZ on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security:
“Stick to ‘Pink Skies.'”
There you have it. Zach Bryan has picked yet another fight… this time with the DHS. And “stick to ‘Pink Skies'” is a rather interesting way to respond to the controversy. I only say that because Tricia McLaughlin could have easily told Bryan to stick with “Something in the Orange” or “Revival.”
She must be a fan of “Pink Skies,” and she’s most certainly NOT a fan of “Bad News.”
