Incredibly lame.
Cledus T. Judd has built his career on country parody songs, working and becoming friends with some of the biggest names in country music – but apparently not everyone is a fan of his work.
If you’re somehow not familiar, Cledus T. is basically the Weird Al of country music. He’s had massive success over the years with his parody songs, like his “I Love NASCAR” take on Toby Keith’s “I Love This Bar” and “(She’s Got a Butt) Bigger Than The Beatles,” which is obviously a parody of Joe Diffie’s “Bigger Than the Beatles.”
I’m a big fan of his music, and the way he approaches his parodies much the same way that Weird Al does: As a fan of artists and their music and with respect to the songs he’s parodying.
As a result of his approach, the result has generally been that artists have embraced Cledus doing a parody of their songs, with many even joining him along the way. Over the years he’s worked with some of the biggest names in country music, from Toby Keith and Shania Twain to Buck Owens and Ronnie Dunn, and has sold millions of albums in his career.
But apparently not everybody is a fan of his work.
Two weeks ago, Cledus released his latest song called “Meet Her,” a parody of Ella Langley‘s “Be Her.” In the song, Cledus jokes about Shania Twain putting him on the map in the ’90s while hoping that Ella can do the same so that he can “catch up on his child support.”
“She looks fine on the TV, like a supermodel
Her bangs are so trendy I’ll grow mine tomorrow
Man I love her, love her music, she’s cute and she’s nice
Yeah a couple backstage passes, I’d pay any price
Just wanna be her friend, not a one night fling
Don’t need no autograph, gosh I love to hear her sing”
Nothing offensive there, right?
Well apparently Ella’s label didn’t think so, because in a new video posted to social media, Cledus reveals that he received a demand from Sony Music telling him to take down the song:
“I’ve been doing these parodies and trying to make a living and a career out of doing them for the past 30 years, and it’s been an absolute wonderful journey doing them.
I don’t know how many I’ve done. Everybody from Shania Twain, Garth Brooks, Joe Diffie, Wynonna, Trace, Rascal Flatss, Toby. I mean, the list goes on and on and on.
And never in my 30 years, I don’t think I’ve ever had somebody not comment or say, ‘Great job,’ or ‘That sucks,’ or whatever the case may be.
But I got a letter this week … from Sony Music New York that said, ‘Hey, take the Ella tribute video down off your social medias, off the platforms everywhere. Get it down.'”
Cledus says the request caught him as a surprise, but says that while he’s disappointed, he’s still a fan of Ella and all that she’s accomplished:
“Am I disappointed? Ridiculously, professionally and personally disappointed, because I’ve never done a song where I’ve beat up on the artist or took advantage of a bad situation, you know? I mean, it ain’t like I’m ever gonna do a parody of ‘Go Rest High on That Mountain.’
But this one kind of shocked me. I know she never commented, and we got a little text from her attorney yesterday that just said she wasn’t interested in participating.”
And he also notes the irony that the request came from Sony – a label to which he used to be signed:
“I used to be an artist on Sony. I got records at Sony. I was a writer for Sony ATV and Nashville. Half my music catalog’s there, and they still said take it down.”
He says, though, that he intends to honor the request and will be removing the song:
“I guess everybody ain’t got a sense of humor like a lot of ’em do.”
Now, to be clear, it sounds like the request came from the label and not from Ella herself, so who knows how she feels about the parody.
We’ve reached out to Sony for comment, and so far haven’t received a response. But it’s disappointing that he has to take it down at all, regardless of who’s making the call.
@cledustjudd Super disappointed. I’m a huge Ella Langley fan and was hoping she would like it. Guess not.. still a fan but super disappointed. #fyp
Though it sounds like this will be the first time Cledus has had to remove a song he’s released, it’s not the first time an artist wasn’t happy about being parodied.
Back in the late 1990s, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood had a song up for Grammy consideration called “In Another’s Eyes,” which was their first major collaboration. Written by Garth along with Bobby Wood and John Peppard, the song was included on Yearwood’s compilation album A Collection of Hits in 1997, and it reached#2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, becoming a huge hit for both artists.
But Judd had a song out called “In Another Size” at that time, which was a purely comedic, outrageous parody about needing a bigger pant size because he’d eaten too much. And according to Cledus, for some reason Garth was afraid it might somehow compete with his single at the Grammy’s because the titles were so similar
Garth wanted no competition when it came to the possibility of him winning the Grammy, and he confronted Judd in the parking lot of a Nashville golf course:
“I was at Hermitage Golf Course, I walked into the parking lot, and he’s like ‘Hey, are you Cledus?’ And I said ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m not a fan.’ I said, Well, get in line.’ You know?
He laughed a little bit and whatever, and he said, ‘Look, I know you’ve got this song.’ Him and Trish did a song called “In Another’s Eyes.’ Remember that one? And I did ‘In Another Size.’
And Garth said, ‘Man, that thing is up for a Grammy, we don’t want anything to compete.’ And when he said ‘compete,’ my chest bowed out, you know?
So he said, ‘We’d appreciate if you would just hold off until after the awards.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ You’ve sold more records than the Beatles and you’re worrying about some lowly comedian keeping you from winning the Grammy?’
Sony didn’t give me near enough advance money if I have that kind of power. And I did the song anyway, and he won the Grammy. So it all worked out.”
Maybe he should leave up “Meet Her” too. It just might help Ella win the Grammy.
