Country star Gavin Adcock blasts Beyonce's 'Cowboy Carter' album: 'S*** ain't country'
'It doesn’t sound country, it doesn’t feel country'
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Country singer Gavin Adcock has issued his review of Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter LP telling his fans in a now-viral video that the album “ain’t country music.”
Adcock, who was nominated for new male artist of the year at the 2025 Academy of Country Music Awards, sounded off on Beyonce’s continued chart dominance more than a year after she released her country-themed Cowboy Carter record.
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Country star Gavin Adcock blasts Beyonce's 'Cowboy Carter' album: 'S*** ain't country' Back to video
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“There’s three people in front of me on the Apple Music country charts, and one of ‘em’s Beyonce … That s*** ain’t country music and it ain’t ever been country music and it ain’t gonna be country music,” Adcock said during a live performance. “You can tell her we’re coming for her f***in’ ass.”
According to USA Today, Adcock’s Actin’ Up Again was the most streamed country debut album of 2024 with more than 350 million streams.
Adcock, who was charged with reckless driving and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle earlier this year, later posted a selfie-style video in which he explained his reasoning for dumping on Cowboy Carter, which was crowned Album of the Year at this year’s Grammys.
“I’ma go ahead and clear this up,” he said. “When I was a little kid, my mama was blasting some Beyonce in the car. I’ve heard a ton of Beyonce songs and I actually remember her Super Bowl Halftime Show being pretty kick-ass back in the day. But I really don’t believe her album should be labelled as country music. It doesn’t sound country, it doesn’t feel country, and I just don’t think that people that have dedicated their whole lives to this genre and this lifestyle should have to compete or watch that album just stay at the top just because she’s Beyonce.”
On social media, Adcock’s assessment of Beyonce’s record not being country wasn’t embraced by the singer’s BeyHive.
“If you didn’t mention Beyonce we wouldn’t know who TF you are,” one person wrote dismissively, with another adding, “We don’t even know you bro Google couldn’t even figure it out.”
One person noted that Beyonce’s chart-topping track Texas Hold ‘Em had received more streams than Adcock’s entire discography.
In a social media post last year, Beyonce said Cowboy Carter came about after she experienced an event where she “did not feel welcomed.”
The multi-Grammy winner faced online backlash back in 2016 after her surprise pop-crossover performance at the 50th annual Country Music Association Awards alongside The Chicks, who were then known as the Dixie Chicks.
“Why are you showing Beyoncé & Dixie Chicks? One doesn’t believe in America & our police force while the other didn’t support our President & veterans during war,” one critic wrote on Facebook.
In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, The Chicks singer Natalie Maines reflected on the experience recalling how they were treated “very weird backstage.”
“For them to disrespect her that way was disgusting,” she said of the backlash Beyonce faced.
At the time, Maines tweeted that the group, who were denounced by country music fans after they criticized then-President George W. Bush in 2003, were convinced to return to the CMAs after Beyonce invited them to sing Daddy Lessons with her. “I’m pretty sure I’ve uttered the sentence, ‘I will never perform on the CMAs again as long as I live.’ And then came 🐝:),” Maines shared.
But the negative experience left an impression on Beyonce and ended up inspiring the pop superstar to do “a deeper dive” into the origins of country music.
“This album has been over five years in the making. It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” she wrote on Instagram. “But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.”
Recording the album, she continued, forced herself “to propel past the limitations that were put on me.”
“(Cowboy Carter) is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work,” Beyonce continued.
Despite being snubbed by the CMAs and the ACMs (Cowboy Carter received no nominations ), Beyonce’s experiment has proved to be a mammoth commercial success.
In addition to topping Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, Cowboy Carter was named Album of the Year at this year’s Grammys and Beyonce became the first Black woman to win Best Country Album.
Meanwhile, Adcock, who several social media users theorized was just trying to drum up publicity for his upcoming album My Own Worst Enemy by bashing Beyonce, is slated to open up for Morgan Wallen on his I’m the Problem Tour in Miami and Toronto.
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