Charley Crockett appears to be putting his online beef era behind him.
The Texas native, whose music could best be described as a melting pot of blues and Gulf country, had a great year in 2025. He released two albums – Lonesome Drifter and Dollar A Day – and got himself in the headlines for speaking his mind about the current state of country music.
That’s not out of the norm for Crockett. In fact, his lyrics can often be a bit accusatory. He’s never been afraid to call out the Nashville Music Machine and country music in the modern day, and the “Son of Davy” has no issue at all crafting songs that are inspired by his real life business dealings in the Nashville area (see “Music City U.S.A.,” or “Game I Can’t Win.”)
But it was his beefs with Gavin Adcock, Paul Cauthen and maybe even Morgan Wallen that really stood out last year.
It all started when Charley took to his social media in August to defend Beyoncé’s dip into country music (even though she said Cowboy Carter was NOT a country album) while calling out Morgan Wallen (without naming him directly):
“Hey country folks. Beyonce ain’t the source of your discontent. It was 25 years of bro country. The number one country artist on Earth listen’s to nothing but rap. Openly says he doesn’t really know any country music. Gotta respect his honesty.
The machine points to a black woman who’s making a statement about marginalized people being removed from the conversation altogether, and somehow we all act like the entire pop industry didn’t just ambush roots music. These ‘country boys’ been singing over trap beats for years.”
There was also a tidbit where Crockett said he didn’t need to “put down a black woman to advance my music,” which was a shot at Gavin Adcock.
It was quite the post from Charley, and a bit out of the blue. That led to months of back-and-forth with Adcock, and artists like Paul Cauthen and Aaron Watson also jumping in to give their two cents about Crockett. Even Shooter Jennings got in on the conversation and defended Charley Crockett.
Eventually, all of the beef kind of ran out of steam, and it seems as though artists moved on with their regularly scheduled programming. And if there wasn’t already an official end to all of the shot-taking, this latest post from Crockett certainly reads as though he’s done with making enemies in the country music world. In fact, the “Welcome To Hard Times” singer sounds like he’s turning the page on his online beef, and might even be aiming to make his foes friends in 2026:
“Never ride for the crowd, you hear? They scream louder when you fall. What you once were doesn’t have to be the measure of what you can become. When the legends die, new legends are born. Foes in ‘25, friends in ‘26.”
I guess you could say that’s Charley’s New Year’s resolution, eh?
Crockett sings a lot about “being the fool” and “playing games.” In 2026, the toxic social media game seems to be one that he’s opting out of. But then again, if it is a New Year’s Resolution… you know how those usually go. Here in a couple of months, we could see Charley Crockett back to calling people out and ruffling feathers.
“If Not The Fool”
“Game I Can’t Win”
“This Foolish Game”
