After going viral for teasing his unreleased song “Bad News,” which includes a lyric about immigration enforcement agents, Zach Bryan said that fans have misconstrued his lyrics.
The country singer posted a snippet of the song to social media on Oct. 3, singing, “And ICE is gonna come, bust down your door / Try to build a house, no one builds no more / But I got a telephone / Kids are all scared and all alone.”
While some listeners took this to mean the song was condemning the recent ICE raids around the country, Bryan said the track is actually “about how much I love the country and everyone in it more than anything.”
More: Zach Bryan teases song condemning ICE raids, sings ‘ICE is gonna come bust down your door’
“When you hear the rest of the song, you will understand the full context that hits on both sides of the aisle,” Bryan said on Oct. 7 in his Instagram story.
“Everyone using this now as a weapon is only proving how devastatingly divided we all are. We need to find our way back.”
Bryan, an Oklahoma native, served in the U.S. Navy for seven years before being honorably discharged.
“I served this country, I love this country and the song itself is about all of us coming out of this divided space,” he said. “I wasn’t speaking as a politician or some greather-than-thou a**hole, just a 29-year-old man who is just as confused as everyone else.”
Zach Bryan performs at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, June 29, 2024. His newly teased song “Bad News,” condemns the recent ICE raids around the country.
After the song snippet came out, conservative fans and political figures responded.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson made a statement on Oct. 8, saying that Bryan “wants to Open The Gates to criminal illegal aliens and has condemned heroic ICE officers.
“‘Something in the Orange’ tells me a majority of Americans disagree with him and support President Trump’s great American Revival,” Jackson said, referencing Bryan’s 2022 hit.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also criticized the track’s lyrics.
“I wrote this song months ago,” Bryan explained. “I posted this song three months ago as a snippet. This shows you how divisive a narrative can be when shoved down our throats through social media.
“Left wing or right wing we’re all one bird and American. To be clear I’m on neither of these radical sides,” he said.
“To all those disappointed in me on either side of whatever you believe just know I’m trying my best too and we all say things that are misconstrued sometimes. Everyone have a great day and I love each and every one of ya!”
Zach Bryan performs to a sold-out crowd of over 112,000 people at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Sept. 27, 2025.
Bryan’s song teaser arrived only days after he broke the record for the highest-attended ticketed concert in U.S. history.
Bryan, who gathered 112,408 fans at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, broke George Strait’s record of bringing together around 111,000 fans in 2024.
To learn more about Zach Bryan, visit zachbryan.com.
Audrey Gibbs is a music journalist at The Tennessean. You can reach her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Zach Bryan faces criticism for ICE lyrics in ‘Bad News’
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