Natalie Maines’ anti-Trump tirade, Zach Bryan’s fence-climbing clash fuel country music’s biggest feuds
Natalie Maines reignites political controversy with a profanity-laced post targeting Trump, drawing sharp backlash from the White House and country fans.
All's fair in love and war, and country music.
Natalie Maines recently reignited flames with the current administration after posting a profanity-laced rant targeting President Trump on Instagram where she accused him of destroying democracy.
The Chicks lead singer has been known to battle, and previously exchanged heated words with the late Toby Keith, proving that feuds within the popular genre are nothing new.
Maines, 51, launched the attack against Trump in a blistering post shared on social media.
"Our democracy is disappearing right before our eyes," Maines posted last week. "This fugly s--- is using your gas money to pay the insurrectionists. But don’t worry about it. I’m sure posting selfies will fix everything."
She added, "My last post that called him a fugly s--- got removed. We’ll see how long this one lasts. Repost and help the message live."
While Maines earned support, she also received her fair share of backlash for the comments.
"Natalie Maines is a despicable nobody who clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her peanut-sized brain," a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
While performing in London shortly before the Iraq War began in 2003, Maines famously told concertgoers she was "ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas," referring to then-President George W. Bush.
The backlash from within the industry was swift, and included fellow singer Toby Keith, who previously was involved in a war of words with Maines over her disdain for his song, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)."
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"I hate it," Maines told the Daily News about Keith's patriotic anthem. "It makes country music sound ignorant. It targets an entire culture — and not just the bad people who did bad things.
"You’ve got to have some tact. Anybody can write, ‘We’ll put a boot in your a--.’ But a lot of people agree with it."
Keith dismissed Maines' comments and told CMT that she was "not a songwriter." For a while, Keith was known to display a doctored photo of Maines and Saddam Hussein at his concerts.
Kacey Musgraves, 37, reflected on her past while also moving forward to change the narrative on her challenging relationship with another beloved country star, Miranda Lambert.
When asked about reported squabbles with the "Bluebird" singer, Musgraves told Variety their "beef" was "grass-fed, grade A."
"I mean, it’s real and that’s why I love this song, because it’s not coming from some contrived place in a writing room," she said about their surprise duet on her new "Middle of Nowhere" album.
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Musgraves previously discussed their rumored feud in an interview with NPR in which she recalled writing "Mama's Broken Heart," a song Lambert recorded on her 2013 album, "Four the Record."
"We’ve come together after years of really, honestly, not being friends."
The "Deeper Well" singer claimed the song was pitched to Lambert without her "consent or knowledge," and it soon became a "tricky situation."
"She ended up loving the song, and she really wanted it. And I had other co-writers to consider," she said.
The country music queens collaborated for "Horses and Divorces" on Musgraves' sixth studio album, which was released May 1.
Maren Morris took aim at the changing narrative of country music following the 2023 release of Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town" and Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond."
"It is so steeped in, weirdly, like patriotism or quasi-patriotism, lots of like, overt hypermasculinity, Whiteness—that’s just like how it’s been from the jump," she said.
"It does feel like the flame is getting hotter, so maybe it's this last stand of hatefulness," she told the New York Times' podcast.
The "My Church" singer challenged Brittany Aldean in 2022 after the former "American Idol" contestant shared a get-ready-with-me video where she boasted, "I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life."
Country singer Cassadee Pope tweeted, "You’d think celebs with beauty brands would see the positives in including LGBTQ+ people in their messaging. But instead here we are, hearing someone compare their "tomboy phase" to someone wanting to transition. Real nice."
Morris added, "it's so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie."
Brittany swiftly responded, "Karen (sic) Morris, thanks for calling me Barbie." Shortly after their social media interaction, Morris created an online fundraiser through sales of a T-shirt, and more than $150,000 was raised to benefit transgender programs.
Earlier this year, Gavin Adcock reignited his ongoing feud with Zach Bryan months after nearly getting into a physical altercation with the country singer.
Adcock — who is currently promoting his new single, "Wannabe" — took to social media to share a photo of his near-fight with Bryan at an Oklahoma festival last year.
"How bad this song wants to come out on Friday," Adcock playfully captioned the photo, which featured Bryan attempting to scale a fence in an effort to fight Adcock.
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Bryan previously dubbed some fans "Karens" after they showed disappointment over his recent show cancellation midway through the concert.
On an Instagram post about the backlash Bryan received, Adcock commented, "Still don't know how to treat fans."
After one Bryan fan asked Adcock what happened when he threatened to fight him in Oklahoma last year, Adcock responded, "I took my fat paycheck and played for 20k of his hometown fans. That's what happened."
In September, Adcock shared a video of the "Revival" singer yelling at him from behind a chain-link fence at the Born & Raised Festival, where both musicians were slated to perform along with Parker McCollum and Cody Jinks.
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"You want to fight like a man? Open the gate," Bryan said before slamming his hands against the fence separating the country music stars. The "Pink Skies" singer climbed over the fence and into the venue before being held back by security personnel in another video shared online.
Adcock addressed the incident in an Instagram video captioned "Rotten fruit falls on its own," shared with his nearly 1 million followers.
"Well, like I already said, I don't think Zach Bryan's a very good person. He wasn't locked out of the festival," Adcock said in the clip. "He had been there all day with his multiple security guards."
At the time, Adcock said he didn't have a reason to fight Bryan, but decided to stir him after receiving threats.
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"I don't think anyone's scared of Zach Bryan," Adcock continued. "I'm just an adult, and fighting him would have only meant going to jail, missing my set, and falling into a Zach Bryan lawsuit – and we all know he likes to manipulate people with money."
The country stars' feud first ignited after Adcock blasted Bryan for blowing off a young fan.
"We waited 3 hours outside to meet Zach Bryan… he completely blew everyone off and drove away like a jerk," the fan wrote on social media at the time.
Bryan reportedly replied in a now-deleted comment, "You’re not entitled after someone plays two and a half hours to a picture or a hello. GOMD [Get off my d---]."
