Yup.  I heard what Zac Brown said.  My initial response was, “Oh no….he said what?!?”  How could he do that?  This is country music!  They don’t trash talk each other.  They are all on the same team here.  They all have the same goal and that goal is to make country music that people love to listen to.  I’m a huge fan of The Zac Brown Band.  So why in the world did say it?

When I first heard the comments from Zac Brown about the state of country music I kind of felt like Garth from the movie Anchorman after Ron Burgundy accidentally cursed on his broadcast.

First of all, I don’t think it should be blown out of proportion.  It was his opinion.  The biggest part of this interview wasn’t even what he said about “That’s My Kind Of Night.”  He didn’t say anything negative about Luke Bryan.  He was talking about the song, which Luke didn’t even write.  The part that concerns me is what he said about the state of country music.  I promise you, it’s something that we hear in radio every day.  We get the question, “How is THAT country music?”

You love country music right?  When you turn on the radio, do you love EVERY song that you hear?  Chances are, there’s some stuff that you’re not a big fan of.  So just like you, he spoke up about what he doesn’t like his genre to sound like.

How many people liked “Red Solo Cup?”  That was one of the dumbest songs ever written (even Toby Keith will tell you that) and it is also Toby Keith’s biggest hit to date.  Was it a good song?  That’s debatable.

But contrary to what Zac Brown says about it, that’s what I think is great about country music.  We get a little bit of everything in this genre.  We get the party music, the heartfelt songs that tell stories, and we even get the stupid stuff (lets be honest, some of it is just stupid) that just makes you laugh or roll your eyes.  We have it all.  You can still love country music and not love it all.  There’s room for everyone.

He said a good song should make you feel something.  Feeling good is feeling something too.  Sometimes songs are just meant to be fun to make you feel good.  They don’t all have to have deeply rooted lyrics to be good songs.  Come on man, you even put a song on The Foundation called “Sic ‘Em On A Chicken.”

So why did he say it?  Here’s his response:

“I’m opinionated because I care so much about the music and the songs.”

I get it.  He’s a song writer.  It’s his craft.  Is he good at it?  You’re darn right he is.  He’s not a fan of cookie cutter country.  I get that.  A lot of people agree with him.  I have no problem with that.  However, that’s the glory of being an artist.  You can do things differently and still be loved by your fans.

Am I still a fan?  Without a doubt.  I understand where he is coming from.  Do I think he could have handled the interview a little differently?  Yeah...probably.  It’s disappointing though to see Zac essentially biting the hand that feeds him.  He’s talented, there’s no doubt about it but being on country radio is what helped others hear that talent.  Without radio being his microphone, many people would have probably never heard his voice.

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