The saga continues.
At this point, I’m sure you’ve already heard about Charley Crockett’s most recent controversy regarding satanism (of all things). In case you haven’t, let me catch you up to speed.
Back in March, the “Jamestown Ferry” singer announced his sprawling, 49-show Age of the Ram Tour that began back in April and will conclude in early October. Unsurprisingly, Crockett grabbed a ton of openers, employing the likes of Nat Myers and Durand Jones & The Indicators as primary openers during a majority of the tour. Additionally, he called upon the likes of Kashus Culpepper, Sierra Hull, Margo Price, Lee Fields, Honky Tonkin’ Queens, Wild Horses, Pony Bradshaw and Twin Temple as support on select dates.
If you’re familiar with the alternative/independent country scene, a majority of these names are sure to ring a bell. With that being said, however, there was one major outlier, at least aesthetically: Twin Temple, a self-proclaimed “satanic doo wop” duo.
Taking to Instagram early in July, Twin Temple announced that Crockett and Co. had removed them from their upcoming shows that were slated for July 14th and 18th due to their satanic imagery. The duo would apologize to fans and express how grateful they are for their support, finishing the post by hailing Satan.
In response, Crockett would go on a bit of a social media tirade (which has all been wiped on Instagram). First, he’d take to Instagram to upload a photo of Johnny Cash posing in front of a church, along with Kris Kristofferson’s “To Beat The Devil” playing in the background. In the caption, he’d simply write:
“If they did it to Jesus, imagine what they’ll do to you.”
A day later, he’d post a fairly standard photo of himself. Here, he’d not only take aim at satanism itself but seemingly at Jack White, a well known Trump critic, who came to the rescue and offered Twin Temple an opening slot on his tour.
“F*CK TRUMP
F*CK EPSTEIN
BUT HAIL SATAN?
NOT ME JACK”
He’d follow that up with yet another post on Instagram, saying he is “not sorry” for canceling them as openers, clarifying that he is not politically aligned on the left or the right, adding that “God is the fabric that ties all of life together.” Crockett would also explain here how he feels about the entertainment industry, summing it up by saying there are many involved who he believes would “kill a relative” to get famous or make it, seemingly implying that Twin Temple are nothing more than soulless shock rockers.
After a week or so of silence, in an interview with Rolling Stone on July 14th, the husband and wife duo would confirm that the removal came from the “Jamestown Ferry” singer himself, with Alexandrea noting that they got a call from his agent, explaining that she thought it could bring different types of people together and finally expressing that they have no ill-will towards Crockett and still like his music.
“We still like his records, and we still respect what he’s doing for American music.”
The whole thing brought a ton of backlash on Charley, but one thing is for sure… the “controversy” surrounding them getting fired did nothing but benefit their career. And at the end of the day, Charley was well within his right to boot them from the show if they didn’t fit the vibe or message that Charley wants to promote. Should Charley or someone on his team have looked into their “schtick” before booking them as an opener? Yeah, probably… but at the end of the day, it’s his stage and he makes the call. When did satanism, whether performative or not, become something that society was so eager to defend anyways?
Throughout the month of August, it appeared that the entire controversy had been put to rest. Twin Temple would accept Jack White’s invitation to open for him on multiple shows. Crockett, on the other hand, would continue to cut his teeth on the road throughout the Age of the Ram Tour, also taking aim at data centers on multiple social media posts.
Just when you thought the story had ended, the Texas native returned with one final (at least for now) clarification regarding Twin Temple’s firing on social media.
In an incredibly lengthy caption, Crockett is now claiming that he actually never fired the husband and wife duo due to their satanic imagery outright. As he explains, a month before their dates on his tour, he realized that his team could not accommodate their requests in terms of stage production. It was here that he apparently did more research into Twin Temple, noting that he “noticed some things they’ve been doing on stage.”
In his words, he decided to fire them, while still paying them in full, primarily due to their shows not fitting his historically all-ages audience.
“I gotta clear this up right quick. I never dropped that band from those 2 shows for “Satanic Imagery”, they made it up and dragged me by a rope real good. It all started about a month before those shows while we were off in Wyoming. Their production requests raised eyebrows simply because we couldn’t accommodate them physically. Then I noticed some of the things they’d been doing on stage and after thinking about it for a couple days I decided to cut ’em loose. We told ’em the vibe just wasn’t right for an all ages audience, and we paid ’em in full.”
Next, the “Hallelujah Trail” singer accused Twin Temple of blowing things out of proportion in an attempt to promote their own headlining tour as well as their upcoming Shooter Jennings-produced album, which was announced via Rolling Stone in the aforementioned interview.
“They got together with their business folks and plotted for days before finally making their public statement, designed for effect. Purposely making it look like it was a whole tour. Dog whistling about religious and creative freedom. Of course my rights didn’t matter since they had a new record coming out and a headline tour of their own to announce.”
He would take responsibility for hiring them in the first place, saying he “let ’em slip through.” Additionally, he’d reference the social media posts referenced earlier, noting that hindsight is 20/20.
“It’s my fault, I let ‘em slip through and being that this here’s my outfit, I’m the responsible party. I reacted. I might respond differently now but everybody’s got perfect vision in hindsight.”
From there, he’d then take aim at the media for their coverage of the whole fiasco, claiming multiple outlets sanitized Twin Temple’s image for clickbait. Additionally, he’d call out fellow artists for taking the duo’s side, lamenting that they “showered me with praise” before they’d “kick me in the d*ck” during the controversy.
“I think the most difficult part of the whole deal was the way the media, save for one outlet, cared nothing for the truth. They sanitized these folks’ image for their own uses in the click bait traffic game that is America’s left-right culture war. Or maybe it was all the artists I know who had their hand out showering me with praise the last few years that used the situation to kick me in the d*ck. I ain’t the one holding you down. And I won’t forget that when I was face down in the dirt coughing up blood you applauded.”
Finally, Crockett would wrap up the lengthy post by taking aim at Jack White for using the controversy to his advantage by booking Twin Temple as openers, calling out the fact that White avoided political issues during his time with the White Stripes to maintain a larger audience.
“As for Jack White, he used it to sell tickets too and I lost a lot of respect for him. I wonder why he wasn’t so outspoken back when he was in the White Stripes 20 something years ago. They purposely avoided political issues. Maybe he was worried about losing audience back when it was all on the line and he needed all the help he could get. Funny, I’ve got everything to lose right this minute and I still shoot from the hip. I’ve been speaking from my heart against the wishes of the machine my whole life. Real patriots think for themselves.”
Say what you want about Charley Crockett or his music… the man will always speak his mind.
