LUKE BRYAN: NOT AN OUTLAW
Country Star SinGS aBout the life he liveS, with no aPoloGieS
Luke Bryan will roll into the First Niagara Pavilion for two nights of songs focused on the core values of modern country: farms, fishing, bonfires, trucks, girls, beer and the awesomeness of being free to sing about those things.
The 38-year-old star from Georgia epitomizes the current Nashville scene with an amped-up, spring-break party-boy style that made him the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year.
He’s loved by new country fans for songs like “Country Girl (Shake it for Me),” “Drunk on You” and “That’s My Kind of Night.” And he’s popular at the beach for his “Spring Break” EPs. His new album, “Kill the Light,” comes out Aug. 7 with the first single, “Kick the Dust Up,” having made its way to No. 2 on the country singles chart.
He also takes a lot of heat for calling it country and not following in the footsteps of such legends as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings.
Before his concert here last year at Heinz Field, he told the PG, “Where the rubber meets the road for me are people buying your music, or people wanting to come see you, and people having a good time. That whole ‘nothing’s ever as good as the old days,’ that whole cliche of what people always want to say, it doesn’t really interest me. I don’t know. Hell, Willie Nelson was certainly different than Ernest Tubb, and Johnny Cash was certainly different than Ray Price, so who knows.”
In a recent interview with online magazine HITS Daily Double, Mr. Bryan kicked up some controversy.
“I think that people who want Merle, Willie and Waylon just need to buy Merle, Willie and Waylon. … I’m not an outlaw country singer. I don’t do cocaine and run around. So I’m not going to sing outlaw country. I like to hunt, fish, ride around on my farm, build a big bonfire and drink some beers — and that’s what I sing about. It’s what I know. I don’t know about laying in the gutter, strung out on drugs.”
Those are some words right there that would get fists flying in the saloon, or at least on the Internet.
The strongest reaction came from Kathy Pinkerton Jennings, daughter-in-law of the late country singer, who posted on Facebook: “Albeit that Waylon’s drug use is well documented and something he overcame, I assure you he was never ‘laying in the gutter.’ At the peak of his career and drug abuse, he was making history and setting records. He single-handedly paved the way for you and everyone else to make music the way the artist wanted to make it.”
Rather than doubling down, the day after the interview ran (July 10), Mr. Bryan went into damage control, quite effectively, starting with a series of tweets, stating, “Hey guys I’ve been thinking about this all day, every now and then I feel I need to defend myself in this business. I did a great interview with many topics discussed. It’s so frustrating that something negative has spun out of the story. I would never speak against any artist. It’s 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’s simple as that.”
Like the Southern gentleman he just might be, he went beyond that and personally called Haggard’s son Ben and Jennings’ widow, Jessi Colter, to apologize.
Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon, was impressed, telling the LA Times, “While I support my family obviously, personally the whole thing didn’t make a difference to me. I’ve had my fair share of words being twisted and articles being sliced and diced. So I figured it was that. … His music isn’t something I find myself listening to, but that’s not personal, I don’t listen to any new country besides a few underground acts that are a pretty far reach to even call them straight country. My point is, it’s all flush in my book. He said some [stuff] and because of the Internet it came back on him. But he went above and beyond and manned up and apologized. In the long run I believe his image has improved.”
“It’s true he apologized, but his ignorance of history and context is unbelievable, as is his cluelessness about Waylon, Willie and Haggard,” says music historian and PG blogger Rich Kienzle. “If he knew their music, he’d realize drugs were never their main focus, and Merle, during his peak years, was never viewed as an ‘outlaw.’ Their songs and recordings have endured for decades. Will Luke’s witless, formulaic party-hearty anthems be remembered a decade from now? I doubt it.”
If they are remembered, it will be in part because Mr. Bryan, as he showed at Heinz Field, is one of those happy-to-be-there stars who can to play to the last row. That’s a talent they can’t really teach in Nashville.