Morgan Wallen flipped the bird while performing at a recent show at Rogers Centre in Toronto. It was a move many online have interpreted as the singer weighing in on the ongoing feud between Gavin Adcock and Charley Crockett over what merits “authenticity” in the country genre.
During Wallen’s performance on Sept. 4 for his I’m the Problem tour, the artist brought Adcock out, who proceeded to hold up a T-shirt that appeared to be branded with an image of Crockett and the text, “$10 Cowboy Tour,” which seems to match a shirt sold by Crockett online. In the clip, Wallen holds two middle fingers up in front of the shirt and walks aways smiling before continuing on with the rest of the show.
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Reps for Wallen, Crockett, and Adcock did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s requests for comment.
Last month, Crockett, a country singer from San Benito, Texas, addressed country fans in a social media post taking on country music’s debated take on what merits “authenticity.” “Hey country folks. Beyoncé ain’t the source of your discontent. It was 25 years of bro country,” he wrote at the time. Crockett also seemed to reference Wallen, writing, “#1 country artist on earth listen’s [sic] to nothing but rap,” and to Adcock, who in June said onstage that Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter “ain’t country music, and it ain’t ever been country music, and it ain’t gonna be country music.” Adcock later doubled down on his comments during his appearance on Rolling Stone‘s Nashville Now podcast.
In an Instagram post almost certainly addressing Adcock’s comments, Crockett wrote: “Black music made me. I will not apologize. Raised by a single mama. I am not ashamed. Many men have tried to destroy me. I will not lose.”
During his own turn on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now, Crockett disputed the notion that “outlaw country” is a subgenre of today’s country. “I don’t think they stand for anything. They stand for Auto-Tune and songs written by a committee,” he said of the pop-country industry. “Outlaw was about standing up for your rights against a very rigid music business system. In a game where you throw money at a young artist, and if it doesn’t work out, no problem, because there’s 1,000 standing behind you, well, a controversial figure is unlikely to ever rise.”
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