Country Music’s Biggest Feuds: Where They Stand Today

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Country Music’s Biggest Feuds: Where They Stand Today

Something to sing about! Country music’s biggest names haven’t been afraid to go head-to-head over the years, exchanging blows on social media, making up at awards shows and more. In 2015, several female artists came together to fire back at radio personality Keith Hill amid his comments about why he plays more male artists on the air. The controversy was dubbed “Tomato-gate.” “If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out. The reason is mainstream country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70 to 75 percent, and women like male artists,” Hill said at the time, “The expectation is we're principally a male format with a smaller female component. I've got about 40 music databases in front of me, and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19 percent. Trust me, I play great female records, and we've got some right now; they're just not the lettuce in our salad. The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females.” Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Sara Evans, Jennifer Nettles and Kacey Musgraves were among those to speak out. “Whether or not a song gets airplay should be based on how good the SONG is … not whether it’s sung by a male or female,” the “Independence Day” songstress, who sold “Tomato” and “Tomato Lover” T-shirts, wrote via Facebook. “It’s kind of like comparing tall artists to short artists, blondes to brunettes, bald guys to guys with hair. … What does it matter?” [jwplayer 2sXFKMG1-zhNYySv2] The “Merry Go Round” singer then told Billboard in 2016: “If they can’t get your song off the ground, it’s immediately blamed on your personality, or the fact that you’re female, or that you didn’t make a radio station program director feel important. ... In my head, it’s never about female versus male; it’s always about good songs versus bad songs. If you’re singing and writing good songs, I don’t care what gender you are or if you’re trans — if it’s a great song, it should be played.” During an interview on CMT at the time, Hill doubled down. “The producers of country music all want to sell a lot of records. They don’t want to sell just a few. And they aren’t personally motivated by wanting to get women back on the air or wanting to get the banjo back on the radio,” he said. “I’ve been in radio for 42 years, and I’ve made money out of figuring out what makes radio ratings go up. I make a very good living. I’m just sharing what I’ve uncovered.” While not all feuds result in a group of women supporting each other, it’s not uncommon for fellow musicians to take sides. Scroll through for a breakdown of the biggest feuds in country music:

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Country Music’s Biggest Feuds: Where They Stand Today

Something to sing about! Country music’s biggest names haven’t been afraid to go head-to-head over the years, exchanging blows on social media, making up at awards shows and more. In 2015, several female artists came together to fire back at radio personality Keith Hill amid his comments about why he plays more male artists on the air. The controversy was dubbed “Tomato-gate.” “If you want to make ratings in country radio, take females out. The reason is mainstream country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70 to 75 percent, and women like male artists,” Hill said at the time, “The expectation is we're principally a male format with a smaller female component. I've got about 40 music databases in front of me, and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19 percent. Trust me, I play great female records, and we've got some right now; they're just not the lettuce in our salad. The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females.” Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Sara Evans, Jennifer Nettles and Kacey Musgraves were among those to speak out. “Whether or not a song gets airplay should be based on how good the SONG is … not whether it’s sung by a male or female,” the “Independence Day” songstress, who sold “Tomato” and “Tomato Lover” T-shirts, wrote via Facebook. “It’s kind of like comparing tall artists to short artists, blondes to brunettes, bald guys to guys with hair. … What does it matter?” [jwplayer 2sXFKMG1-zhNYySv2] The “Merry Go Round” singer then told Billboard in 2016: “If they can’t get your song off the ground, it’s immediately blamed on your personality, or the fact that you’re female, or that you didn’t make a radio station program director feel important. ... In my head, it’s never about female versus male; it’s always about good songs versus bad songs. If you’re singing and writing good songs, I don’t care what gender you are or if you’re trans — if it’s a great song, it should be played.” During an interview on CMT at the time, Hill doubled down. “The producers of country music all want to sell a lot of records. They don’t want to sell just a few. And they aren’t personally motivated by wanting to get women back on the air or wanting to get the banjo back on the radio,” he said. “I’ve been in radio for 42 years, and I’ve made money out of figuring out what makes radio ratings go up. I make a very good living. I’m just sharing what I’ve uncovered.” While not all feuds result in a group of women supporting each other, it’s not uncommon for fellow musicians to take sides. Scroll through for a breakdown of the biggest feuds in country music:

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Eric Church vs. Garth Brooks

In 2018, Church called out Brooks’ lip-syncing at the 2017 CMA Awards after the “Drink in My Hand” crooner lost the Entertainer of the Year honor to the “Friends in Low Places” singer.

"So the winner of the biggest category of the night lip-synced in the biggest moment on the show?" Church told Rolling Stone. "F--k that! And I didn't like his excuse at all. I felt like he was speaking for the other nominees. I can speak for myself - I'm not lip-syncing. If I can't sing, I won't sing, or I'll sing badly. But at least you'll get what you get."

The controversy spilled into 2019 when Brooks won again, and Church’s fans brought signs calling the “Springsteen” singer “the real Entertainer of the Year” to Church’s show.

“I told ’em I said, ‘Listen, I’m fine with it. [But] you pissed the wrong fans off,’” Church told the crowd, quipping, “I know Garth didn’t do it this way” during a cover of “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way.”

Brooks responded during a radio interview at the time: “The crazy thing was that we hugged each other right before. All I’ve heard from him — and he might be hearing different things — [but] I’ve heard from him that it doesn’t bother him. But the line, ‘They pissed the wrong fans off,’ that’s perfect. Because if our name hadn’t been called, then in Knoxville (the concert venue), there would have been signs everywhere. It brings you closer to your team. Those guys will keep going, and the year that he wins it will be the sweetest year for him. So I guess I just don’t see what everybody else is seeing.”

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Chase Rice vs. Kelsea Ballerini

The “Overshare” singer slammed Rice when he performed a concert with no masks or social distancing in June 2020 amid the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Imagine being selfish enough to put thousands of people’s health at risk, not to mention the potential ripple effect, and play a NORMAL country concert right now,” Ballerini tweeted at the time. “@ChaseRiceMusic, We all want (and need) to tour. We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait.”

A spokesperson for the venue told Variety at the time that “numerous precautions were taken” for the show, while Rice wrote via Instagram Stories: "I took a video of the concert, everybody had a blast, but then once I posted the video, a lot of people seeing that online had a big problem with how the show looked, how the show went down. I understand there's a lot of varying opinions, a lot of different opinions on COVID-19, how it works with live music crowds and what all that looks like."

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Zac Brown vs. Luke Bryan

The Zac Brown Band frontman said in a 2013 radio interview that his “friend” Bryan’s song “My Kind Of Night” was “the worst song I've ever heard” and made him want to “throw up.”

Jason Aldean then defended Bryan, writing via social media, "I hear some other artist bashing my boy @lukebryan new song, sayin its the worst song they have ever heard. … To those people runnin' their mouths, trust me when i tell u that nobody gives a s—t what u think. Its a big ol hit so apparently the fans love it which is what matters. Keep doin ur thing LB!!!"

At the 2013 CMAs, hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley poked fun at the drama, singing, ”Luke Bryan and Zac Brown, nobody cares. You both make great records and you're both millionaires.” Bryan and Brown then hugged it out in the crowd.

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Tyler Hubbard vs. Brian Kelley

After the Kelleys (Brian and wife Brittney) expressed support for Donald Trump in 2020, the Hubbards (Tyler and wife Hayley), who praised Joe Biden, unfollowed Brian on Instagram.

“I unfollowed BK for a few days while we were through this political, you know, in the middle of this election and everything going on,” Tyler told Storme Warren at the time. “And, and I even called him and told him, I said, ‘Hey buddy, I love you. And I love you a lot more in real life than on your Stories right now. So I’m just going to, so that’s why I’m unfollowing you. Nothing personal. I still love you. You’re still my brother.’ I just didn’t want to see it every time I opened Instagram. And so it wasn’t a big deal.”

He added that the pair had gone to therapy together before. While they downplayed the drama at the time, Brian and Tyler launched solo careers and admitted in May 2022 that they don’t know what the future of the band is.  

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Eric Church vs. Rascal Flatts

The “Life Is a Highway” singers — Gary LeVox, Joe Don Rooney and Jay DeMarcus — fired Church from their 2006 tour, replacing him with a young Taylor Swift.

“We played a little bit too loud, a little bit longer than we were supposed to. I was a new act and I came out there and people paid a lot of money for a ticket and I was going to give them a show. We came out and gave them a show. We got fired at Madison Square Garden, which is a fun story,” Church said in a 2011 interview with Tucson.com. “[Taylor] called me after I got fired. I read in the paper that we were fired. She called and said ‘I want you to know that I love what you do.' I joked with her, ‘This is your crowd; they're going to love you. You're going to owe me your first gold record.' I was kidding, but when she got her first gold record she gave me one. It came with a note: 'Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor.’”

Rascal Flatts’ DeMarcus shared their side of the story in a 2014 interview: “We asked him four times to stay to the allotted amount of time that he had to play. We sat him down in our dressing room and were like, ‘Look. We’ll put you on early so you can play longer. But please, just be off the stage because we still have to do our show.’ … For every minute that you go overtime, especially in New York City, you’re charged thousands of dollars by the minute in labor fees. It was just a bit disrespectful because when you’re an opening act, we did our best to abide by the rules that the headliner laid out for us. And you just do that and there was no goodwill being sent back to us, and it wasn't worth the trouble, so we said, 'See ya.'"

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Eric Church vs. Miranda Lambert / Blake Shelton

Church, no stranger to shade, came for The Voice and American Idol in his 2012 Rolling Stone interview. “Honestly, if Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green turn around in a red chair, you got a deal? That’s crazy,” he said. “I don’t know what would make an art­ist do that. You’re not an artist. Once your career becomes about some­thing other than the music, then that’s what it is. I’ll never make that mistake. I don’t care if I starve.”

Lambert, who was married to Shelton at the time and got her star on Nashville Star, fired back via Twitter, writing, “Thanks Eric Church for saying I'm not a real artist. Or @kelly_clarkson, @carrieunderwood & @KeithUrban. Your welcome for the tour in 2010.”

Church responded via a comment to the outlet: “The comment I made to Rolling Stone was part of a larger commentary on these types of reality television shows and the perception they create, not the artists involved with the shows themselves. The shows make it appear that artists can shortcut their way to success. There are a lot of artists due to their own perseverance that have gone on to be successful after appearing on these shows, but the real obstacles come after the cameras stop rolling. Every artist has to follow up television appearances with dedication towards their craft, but these shows tend to gloss over that part and make it seem like you can be ordained into stardom.”

Lambert forgave Church, telling Yahoo! Music in 2012: "I think that anybody can get roped into a really bad interview situation, and I've had things printed about me that sounded way worse than they were. I know he said what he said, but it died off just like anything else that happens. … You move on."

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Natalie Maines vs. Toby Keith

The Chicks singer sparked a feud with Keith after he released “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” in 2002.

"I hate it," Maines told the Los Angeles Times. "It's ignorant, and 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. The kinds of songs I prefer on the subject are like Bruce Springsteen's new songs."

Things escalated when Maines infamously said the Chicks were “ashamed” that then-President George W. Bush was from Texas amid the invasion of Iraq.

Keith subsequently displayed a fake photo of Maines next to Saddam Hussein at his concerts.

"I'm embarrassed about the way I let myself get sucked into all of that," he later admitted to CMT in 2003. "I disappointed myself. I didn't disappoint anybody else. Everybody else loved it. They wanted me to attack that. But I probably disappointed myself more than anything, because I'm better than that. It got pretty vicious sometimes, putting her and Saddam Hussein up on the screen. That was funny for a night or two, and then it was a little over the top for me. I'm not that mean. I just said, 'You know what? She's getting kicked enough without me piling on.' She would have got the same thing she got without me even saying a word. I'll know better. I'll learn something next time … Maybe."

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Maren Morris / Kelsea Ballerini vs. Morgan Wallen

Morris and Ballerini both called out Wallen when a video of him drunkenly saying the N-word surfaced in 2021  — but had different takes.

“The news out of Nashville tonight does not represent country music,” the “Little Things” singer tweeted at the time, with the “Middle” singer replying: “It actually IS representative of our town because this isn’t his first ‘scuffle’ and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless. We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse.”

Morris added that if the women did the same thing as Wallen, they’d “be dropped, endorsements lost, social pariahs to music row …”

While the “Sand In My Boots” crooner apologized and was briefly banned from certain events and awards shows, Ballerini reflected on the situation in November 2021, telling CBS News: "Standing up for anything is me crawling out of my skin, but it's something that's important to me. It's something that I'm trying to learn about, something that I'm in a lot of therapy about and something that I'm trying to do better and better and more eloquently, as I get older."

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Bobby Bones vs. Kacey Musgraves

In 2014, the radio personality created a segment called “Is Kacey Musgraves Annoyed?” after he interviewed her for The Bobby Bones Show, dubbing her “rude.” He escalated the feud when he tweeted at her, “Will @KaceyMusgraves ever respond to my tweets. Enter your answer now; A: yes, B: no.”

The “Breadwinner” singer fired back at the time: “If you’d play our original interview in full and tell people how you unfairly re-edited it I might think about talking to you.”

After Bones reiterated that his two experiences with Musgraves were “miserable,” but they are both “known s—t heads" so they should be friends, she responded in a statement: “I normally wouldn’t take part in this kinda stuff but since it’s gotten outta hand: The original interview that audio was taken from, unfairly edited, and played on air can be found through the link on this page. … I am a songwriter and a musician. That’s what I’ve been passionate about my entire life and it’s really sad that the focus got taken away from that. Above all- I’m human. Not a robot. Especially at 8 AM. I don’t stroke egos and that doesn’t make me a ’s—t head.’ When you hear the music that means so much to me to make, that’s all that should matter."

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Maren Morris vs. Brittany Aldean

Backing up friend Cassadee Pope when she called out Jason’s wife for making a transphobic comment — “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” — Morris called Brittany “Insurrection Barbie.”

“It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it,” the “Background Music” singer tweeted at the time.

Brittany doubled down with Barbie-themed merch as Jason declared she was “MY Barbie” via Instagram.