Country Stars Who've Made Big Political Statements

During the 2018 midterm elections, some conservative country music fans were surprised to learn that "On the Road Again" hitmaker Willie Nelson is ride-or-die for the Democratic party. In an appearance on "The View," Nelson seemed to find this confusion about his political affiliation befuddling, saying, "I've been supporting Democrats all my life." Nelson is also a vocal supporter of social issues that are important to many in the Democratic party, including LGBTQ+ rights. And in 2006, he tried to make the cowboy lifestyle feel a bit more inclusive by releasing the song "Cowboys Are Secretly, Frequently (Fond of Each Other)."

According to The Dallas Morning News, Nelson's tour manager, David Anderson, came out as gay to Nelson in 2004. This inspired Nelson to record the song, which was penned by Ned Sublette in the early '80s. "I want people to know more than anything — gay, straight, whatever — just how cool Willie is and ... his way of thinking, his tolerance, everything about him," Anderson said. Burt Reynolds makes a cameo in the song's music video.

Nelson also offered his two cents when the Supreme Court was debating gay marriage in 2013, saying that he's been a long-time supporter of the right. "[Gay people] should be just as miserable as the rest of us," he joked to Texas Monthly. The music icon also predicted, "We'll look back and say it was crazy that we ever even argued about this."

Hank Williams Jr. was the voice of Monday Night Football for years, but ESPN stopped playing his "Are You Ready For Some Football" theme song in 2011 after he voiced his thoughts about then-president Barack Obama. In an appearance on "Fox & Friends," Williams moaned about the speaker of the house at the time, John Boehner, daring to breach the political divide by playing golf with Obama. "It'd be like Hitler playing golf with [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu," he said. 

By the following year, Williams had embraced his role as a political mouthpiece for the right. During a performance at the Iowa State Fair, he made a few false claims about Obama. "We've got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the US, and we hate him!" he said, per Metromix Des Moines. Williams also recorded a song titled "Keep the Change" which was seemingly a response to Obama's "Hope and Change" campaign slogan.

ESPN resumed using "Are You Ready For Some Football" as its theme song in 2017. The following year, Williams weighed in on football and politics in "Take a Knee, Take a Hike," an obvious criticism of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's silent protest of racism and police brutality. ESPN axed Williams' song again in 2020, but according to Sports Business Journal, it was because the network thought it was inappropriate for those early days of the pandemic when gatherings of "rowdy friends" were a no-no.

For New Year's Eve in 2021, Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany Aldean, were invited to party with former president Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The "Big Green Tractor" singer also hit the putting green with Trump, and he told "Rob + Holly" that he was totally starstruck by "The Celebrity Apprentice" host. "We kind of hit it off and kind of became friends, so it was cool," he said of their golf outing.

Jason hadn't met Trump before and received the invitation to hang with him out of the blue. He guessed that he was probably on the controversial conservative politician's radar because of their shared political views. Months earlier, Jason and Brittany had commanded attention by using their children to attack Trump's biggest political foe, Joe Biden. Brittany angered many of her Instagram followers by sharing a photo of the two toddlers wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Hidin' from Biden."

The couple's MAGA loyalty earned them another invite to Trump's NYE party in 2022. Brittany shared some photos from the night on Instagram and wrote in the caption, "A fairy-tale ending to 2022." Her slideshow included a snapshot of Trump planting a wet one on her forehead while Jason looked on with a slightly startled expression on his face. Many commenters disagreed with Brittany's description of her evening with the first-ever U.S. president to be indicted. "A kiss from Donald Trump? That's a nightmare for most women," read one response to her post.

Country music's outlaws were once those who lived on the fringes of society and viewed the law with distrust. But in modern times, the true mavericks seem to be those who dare to speak out against hate and intolerance. Black artist Mickey Guyton, for example, made the brave decision to call out fans of Morgan Wallen for bragging about buying his album after TMZ shared a video of the popular singer using a racial slur. Guyton tweeted a screenshot of one such fan's social media post and wrote, "This is country music." A month prior, she'd shared screenshots of some of the hateful messages she receives all too often. 

Guyton's posts about what she has to deal with possibly helped open her followers' eyes to how her mere existence in the country music industry is an act of protest against bigotry. "I question on a daily basis as to why I continue to fight to be in an industry that seems to hate me so much," she wrote. "But then I realize there is a new artist of color, all bright-eyed and excited to be in this industry."

Guyton also shares her truth in the song "Black Like Me." When she dropped it on Instagram in 2020, she included the hashtag "Justice for George Floyd." She criticized her fellow country music stars who weren't joining the discourse about racial injustice at the time, telling Rolling Stone, "It's sad that it's scary for people to publicly denounce racism."

In 2017, Meghan Linsey made a decision that incurred the wrath of some country music listeners. The former Steel Magnolia member had recently reinvigorated her career by competing on "The Voice" when she was invited to sing the national anthem at a Tennessee Titans game. In a show of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and his protest against racial injustice, she kneeled after her performance.

Linsey told Billboard that she was shocked by the vicious remarks that some critics of her peaceful statement were leaving on social media. "There were people threatening to end my life and wishing cancer on me and stuff like that, even going as far to say that I should be executed on the field," she said. Linsey had to patiently explain that her demonstration had nothing to do with being against the military, a common accusation hurled at those who have taken a knee. 

But she was well aware that some people would willfully ignore her own explanation for her actions and view them as an affront to their values. "My decision may hurt my career, but it was the only choice for me," she wrote in an essay for The Washington Post. This cause is more important than my record sales." While she was disappointed that more people in her industry weren't joining her in taking a stand against racism, she understood why they didn't. "Even if they believe in what you're saying, they don't want to alienate their audience," she told Billboard.

Remember when Taylor Swift catered to the country crowd by singing the praises of Tim McGraw and shedding teardrops on her guitar? For years, she followed the lead of other country artists by keeping her lips zipped when it came to politics. But in 2018, there was a big Swift shift: She announced that she was endorsing two Democratic candidates from Tennessee. In an impassioned Instagram post, Swift explained why she was backing Phil Bredesen in his race against Republican U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn. 

"Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me," Swift wrote. "She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry."

Swift's endorsement wasn't enough to take down Blackburn, but the other candidate she encouraged her fans to vote for, Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper, won his re-election bid. The following year, Swift told The Guardian that she was pro-choice and said of Donald Trump, "I really think that he thinks this is an autocracy." Unfortunately, there's no way to know how much of an impact Swift had on the national vote in 2020 when she endorsed her first presidential candidate, Joe Biden. In a later interview with Entertainment Weekly, she described her reaction to Biden's electoral victory, saying, "It was this moment of quiet, cautious elation and relief."

Gun imagery is rife in country music, from Johnny Cash's cautionary ballad "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" to Hank Williams Jr. expressing his belief that every country boy needs "God & Guns" to survive. But in the modern era, country stars have faced a reckoning over their genre's fervor for firearms as Americans now grieve hundreds of mass shooting deaths every year.

The relentless killings haven't stopped gun ownership from being championed by country's large conservative fanbase, but in 2019, "Slow Burn" singer Kasey Musgraves decided that she'd had enough. Days after a white supremacist killed 23 people at a Walmart in her home state of Texas, she shared her views on gun control with her Twitter followers. First came an advance warning that political talk was incoming. "I love keeping things about the music and usually stay out of politics publicly UNTIL it barrels past political party preference points and dangerously encroaches on fundamental human rights," she wrote. Before she could even say her piece, one person desperately tried to silence her, writing, "Stick to the singing Kacey. You do realize most of your fans are packing at your shows don't you?"

Musgraves ignored this advice, but she did quote-tweet her critic when she wrote, "I grew up around hunting and guns. There's a time and place for that and even self-protection in ways, but this is different. The system is majorly flawed and NOBODY NEEDS ANYTHING REMOTELY AUTOMATIC. PERIOD. They're mass killing machines."

For years, The Chicks' downfall has served as a cautionary tale for other country music artists in the genre who feel the urge to share their political viewpoints with the world. In 2020, Taylor Swift told Variety that their shunning was the cause of her long silence about politics. "I saw how one comment ended such a powerful reign, and it terrified me," she said.

That comment came from the mouth of Natalie Maines in 2003, back when she and her bandmates, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, were still performing as The Dixie Chicks. Then-president George W. Bush was beating the war drum, and Maines told a London audience, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," per CBS News. The reaction to her remarks was brutal and extreme. Former fans trashed their CDs, angry listeners flooded radio stations with calls complaining about Maines, and The Chicks' music was banned from many radio stations. The backlash left their career in tatters.

In 2020, the group released "Gaslighter," their first album after a 14-year hiatus. Maines also criticized another president, saying that Donald Trump made her view Dubya in a whole new light. "Today, I might actually make out with George Bush," she quipped on "Watch What Happens Live." But instead of playing nice with the former POTUS, she and her bandmates performed the national anthem for future president Joe Biden at the DNC.