Jake Owen from the top rope…
Zach Bryan is a pretty divisive figure these days, due more to his off stage antics than his undeniable songwriting talent. From his fence-scaling stunt last month in pursuit of Gavin Adcock to his long history of social media tirades against seemingly anyone who comes across his feed and of course his public breakup and feud with ex-girlfriend Brianna Chickenfry, Bryan is no stranger to stirring up some controversy.
Most recently, though, Zach is turning heads after teasing an uncharacteristically political song.
In the newly-teased “Bad News,” Bryan begins the song with a fairly standard verse by his standards, opening the song up by telling his woman he woke up missing her before dropping a potential reference to his viral 2023 arrest and calling the cops “cocky motherf******.”
“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?”
It’s the second verse of “Bad News” that is bound to raise a few eyebrows on both the left and right. Immediately, Bryan takes aim at the current ICE raids happening around the country, singing that they’re “gonna come bust down your door.” He then makes reference to his mentor and collaborator, Bruce Springsteen, later in the verse, noting that “The Boss stopped bumping” before proclaiming that the titular “Bad News” is the fading state of our country.
“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”
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Naturally the song drew some pretty strong reactions on both sides of the political aisle, including from fellow country artist John Rich.
The outspoken conservative and one half of the hitmaking duo Big & Rich took to social media to give his thoughts on the song, blasting Zach Bryan as representative of the current state of the Nashville country music industry:
And that’s when Jake Owen chimed in, apparently agreeing with John Rich – using a toolbox emoji to describe Zach Bryan:
Jake isn’t really known as somebody who jumps into the country music drama, so he clearly feels pretty strongly about this one to chime in. And he’s not exactly in the minority with his opinion on the “Something In The Orange” singer. In fact, just yesterday Texas country superstar Aaron Watson used the exact same word to describe Zach Bryan after his confrontation with Gavin Adcock at Born & Raised Fest last month:
“I had some artist buddies at that festival that you played with Gavin. They said you acted like a total drunk tool all day long.”
Seems like I’m noticing a common theme here…
