Characteristically affable and inoffensive, country superstar Luke Bryan found himself embroiled in atypical controversy due to remarks he made about “outlaw country.”<\/p>\n
Speaking to Hits Daily Double, the country superstar attempted to defend his position within the country genre. In doing so, Bryan demonstrated cognizance — and defense — of the fact that his sound differs from that of the genre’s legends.<\/p>\n
“I think that people who want Merle, Willie and Waylon just need to buy Merle, Willie and Waylon,” said Bryan. “I\u2019ve never been a \u201cThose were the good old days\u201d kind of guy. I\u2019m not big on looking back on the past.”<\/p>\n
Innocuous until that point, Bryan’s commentary quickly developed a sharper tone.<\/p>\n
He continued, “I\u2019m not an outlaw country singer. I don\u2019t do cocaine and run around. So I\u2019m not going to sing outlaw country. I like to hunt, fish, ride around on my farm, build a big bonfire and drink some beers\u2014and that\u2019s what I sing about. It\u2019s what I know. I don\u2019t know about laying [sic] in the gutter, strung out on drugs. I don\u2019t really want to do that.”<\/p>\n
Issued in the context of a conversation about outlaw country — and one that referenced subgenre standouts like Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings — the comments about cocaine use, running around and lying “in the gutter” read as accusatory to some critics.<\/p>\n
From such a perspective, Bryan was identifying outlaw country – and outlaw country singers – as individuals who engaged in such behavior. That he was responding to a Hits Daily Double comment that praised<\/i> the contemporary party country subgenre made Bryan’s defensiveness and subsequent decision to go on the offensive more perplexing.<\/p>\n
In a Friday afternoon Twitter post, Bryan rejected the assertion that he was attempting to insult other artists.<\/p>\n
While the juxtaposition made it appear Bryan was attacking icons like Haggard, Nelson and Jennings, Bryan feels he was simply articulating his own identity as a musician.<\/p>\n
“Hey guys I’ve been thinking about this all day, every now and then I feel I need to defend myself in this business,” begins Bryan’s statement. “I did a great interview with many topics discussed. It\u2019s so frustrating that something negative has spun out of the story. I would never speak against any artist. It\u2019s not my style. I consider Willie, Waylon and Merle musical heroes. I was trying to state what I was about and where I come from with my music. It\u2019s simple as that.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1047],"tags":[598],"adace-sponsor":[],"yoast_head":"\n