Country Singer Gavin Adcock Slams Beyoncé For Releasing 'Cowboy Carter' During Recent Concert Rant

Yahoo

a day ago

Country singer Gavin Adcock ignited a firestorm during a recent concert when he took aim at Beyoncé and her Grammy Award-winning album, "Cowboy Carter."
In a video circulating online, Adcock, 26, with a bottle of what appears to be Jack Daniel's in hand, sent the audience into a frenzy when he called out Beyoncé, noting that her album is currently ahead of his on the Apple Music Country charts.
"You can tell her we're coming for her f-ckin' a-s," Adcock said from the stage.
But the "Four Leaf Clover" singer didn't stop there. He went on to criticize the music on Beyoncé's album, implying that it had no place in the genre.
"That sh-t ain't country music, and it ain't never been country music, and it ain't never gonna be country music," he said.
"We're 'bout to play y'all some Southern f-cking rock. Y'all hit that sh-t, boys," he continued before his group began playing the next song.
Adcock's statements garnered the attention of the BeyHive, and on June 30, the football player-turned-country musician uploaded a video to his TikTok, explaining his position.
He began the clip by telling his 1.2 million followers that he grew up listening to Beyoncé and remembering her halftime show being "pretty kick a-s." However, he defended his earlier comments, adding, "I really don't believe that her album should be labeled as country music."
"It doesn't sound country," he said, and "it doesn't feel country," he continued, before arguing it was unfair for artists who have "dedicated their whole lives to this genre and this lifestyle" to have to compete with an album that stays at the top "just because she's Beyoncé."
Beyoncé fans, however, disagreed with him and wasted no time letting him know.
"How can someone from Houston, Texas, not make country music, but someone from Los Angeles can put on a country accent and no one says anything? I'm so confused," one user wrote.
Someone else echoed that sentiment, writing, "Beyoncé has been referring to herself as a country girl since Destiny's Child, and people are thinking she's just now saying she is?"
A third fan explained that many country fans enjoy Beyoncé's take on the genre, adding that "music evolves" and that country sounds different today than it did in the '80s.
"Everyone loves to say it's not country just because 'she's Beyoncé.' It is country music because it reclaims what TRUE country music started out as," a fourth user opined. "We all know why no one wants to say it's country music."
Despite Adcock's comments, some of country music's most influential stars, like Dolly Parton, have praised Beyoncé's album. In fact, the 79-year-old legend had previously gushed about Beyoncé's cover of "JOLENE," saying she was "honored" by the mother of three's rendition.
"I was just honored that she, of course, did a completely different take on 'Jolene' than my version of it," Parton said. "Hers was more like, 'Well, you're not getting him, you're not taking him, you're going to go through me to get him.' Mine was more like, 'Please don't take him!' So I loved her interpretation."
Parton also weighed in on the discourse surrounding Beyoncé being left off the Country Music Award ballots in 2024.
"Well, you never know. There's so many wonderful country artists that, I guess, probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can't really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that," said Parton.
And Parton wasn't alone in that line of thinking. Luke Bryan, who hosted the 2024 CMA Awards, shared a similar thought during a conversation with Andy Cohen.
"It's a tricky question because, obviously, Beyoncé made a country album, and Beyoncé has a lot of fans out there that have her back. And if she doesn't get something they want, man, they come at you," Bryan said. "I'm all for everybody coming in and making country albums and all that. But just by declaring that, just because she made one. I don't need [a nomination], just 'cause I make one."
"Everybody loved that Beyoncé made a country album. Nobody's mad about it. But where things get a little tricky and, and you know, if you're gonna make country albums, come into our world and be country with us a little bit," he added.