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Up until recently, many country fans probably didn’t know the name Gavin Adcock. Then he started a bona fide country music feud with Charley Crockett.
In August, Crockett, a cowboy singer from San Benito, Texas, addressed country fans on Instagram in a lengthy post that focused on country music’s favorite buzzword — “authenticity.”
“Hey country folks. Beyoncé ain’t the source of your discontent. It was 25 years of bro country,” he wrote, referencing the highly produced brand of country music that became popular around 2012 with Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise.” (To be clear, that was more like a decade ago than a quarter-century, but who’s counting.)
Crockett also seemed to allude to the success of Morgan Wallen, writing “#1 country artist on earth listen’s [sic] to nothing but rap,” and to Adcock, who back in June went on an onstage tirade in which he said of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter: “That shit ain’t country music, and it ain’t ever been country music, and it ain’t gonna be country music.” Adcock doubled down on those comments during his appearance on Rolling Stone‘s Nashville Now podcast.
Crockett, meanwhile, wrote on Instagram, “I don’t need to put down a black woman to advance my music.”
Adcock, who recently released the new album Own Worst Enemy, apparently took notice and promptly fired off a post calling Crockett “the dipshit of the week” and questioning his authenticity. “I got more cowshit under my pinky than you have seen your whole fuckin life,” Adcock, who used to haul cattle in his home state of Georgia, jabbed at Crockett, calling him a “cosplay cowboy.”
Adcock’s attack on Crockett isn’t the first time the former college football player has gone after fellow artists. Along with his comments on Beyoncé, he called out Oklahoma country singer Zach Bryan for the way the “Pink Skies” songwriter dismissively replied to a teenage fan on social media. “If you can’t handle the criticism of a 14-year-old why do people idolize you?” Adcock said.
But he didn’t stop there. During his appearance on Nashville Now, Adcock accused Bryan of putting on “a big mask in his day to day life.” He then added, “I don’t know if Zach Bryan’s really that great of a person.”
For his part, Crockett has mostly chosen to refrain from responding directly to Adcock’s social media blasts. However, in an Instagram video filmed at a venue in Wichita, Kansas, on Aug. 21, Adcock claimed that Crockett left him a vinyl copy of his new album Dollar a Day and 60 red roses backstage. Crockett has not confirmed that he actually left the roses for Adcock.
Adcock again went after Crockett the following weekend. In an Instagram post dated Aug. 24, he wrote, “Let me expose the cosplay cowboy for the last time,” and shared a video of a young Crockett singing a reggae-inflected song on a subway. (Crockett has spoken often about his history as a busker.) “Nobody’s putting on a bigger act than this guy…. Legends would roll over in their grave if you called this country.”
On Aug. 24, Crockett finally responded, albeit without mentioning Adcock by name. “Black music made me. I will not apologize. Raised by a single mama. I am not ashamed,” he wrote. “Many men have tried to destroy me. I will not lose.” The post has since been removed.
On Sept. 4, Wallen added more fuel to the fire during a performance at Rogers Centre in Toronto where he welcomed Adcock to the stage as a special guest on his I’m the Problem tour. Adcock stepped out and appeared to be holding one of the “$10 Cowboy Tour” shirts Crockett sells on his website, which also happens to be branded with his face. Wallen held two middle fingers up in front of the shirt, making his side in the feud clear.
