No Playboy, We Did Not “Claim” Luke Bryan Has A Vagina

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Photo Credit: Dan Martensen, Playboy

So this weekend we were reading the June edition of Playboy Magazine. You know, for the articles. And lo and behold, Saving Country Music is cited in a feature on Eric Church entitled “The Badass” that proclaims the performer from North Carolina the “new face of country music.”

You know, I could almost like Eric Church if he would quit so doggedly pursuing his persona as product, and Playboy helps perpetuate this persona by writing a puff piece that portrays Church as the edifice of badassery, and plays to the well-worn and indolent stereotype about how country music’s “traditionalists” don’t want country music to change.

“I don’t believe country singers should make the same fucking music over and over.” Eric Church is quoted as saying in the piece.

Well who in the hell is proposing or promoting that? Is Saving Country Music? You can comb through the 2,500+ article archive of this site and not find a single place where this theory is forwarded or implied. There may be a few traditional country fans who feel that way, but I don’t see this “make the same music over and over” theory commonly cited in “traditional” country circles or anywhere else. So why are “traditionalists” perpetually having to fight this assumption every time they say they don’t prefer a certain artist, song, or sonic direction?

Saying that people don’t want country music to evolve is a preconceived argument to a position that doesn’t exist to attempt to couch “traditionalists” as hard-headed, out-of-touch, non-evolving old farts and jackasses. Yes, this is the same argument Blake Shelton has made; Church’s mainstream nemesis after Eric called Shelton out for his involvement in reality TV shows. Saving Country Music has gone out of its way over the years to champion the causes of artists who are specifically attempting to evolve country music in a way that respects the roots of the genre, many of which who are regularly ignored by the mainstream country music industry.

But what exactly is Eric Church doing that is so new? “We’re further into rock and roll than anyone else, and that’s why a lot of traditionalists have a major problem with me…. [It’s] not even close.” Oh Jesus Eric, you only wish. Hell, I’ve said many times myself that Eric Church is the last male in the mainstream country music hierarchy that has any sort of creativity to his sound. The problem is he keeps letting his persona get in the way of allowing intelligent listeners enjoy his music, like when he swore off calling himself an “Outlaw,” while at the same time selling Outlaw-branded merch online. But is there some appreciable rock difference between Eric Church, and other country rock acts like Keith Urban or Florida Georgia Line?

And what is so new about mixing country and rock and roll anyway? The Maddox Brothers & Rose were doing it in 1940’s, half a century before Eric Church was even born. Country and rock and roll evolved parallel to each other, and were bred out of the same sound. Ever heard of rockabilly? Elvis was playing it before he was playing rock. Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers were mixing country and rock back in the 70’s. Hank Williams Jr., Travis Tritt, and Marty Stuart were doing it in the 80’s and 90’s with just as much of an edge as anything Eric Church is doing right now. That’s not a knock on Church’s music, but to act like mixing rock and country is something Eric Church innovated, and that he’s the only artist taking it to the edge is just another example of his self-aggrandizing pap that tarnishes the appeal of his material.

But if Church is so enamored with rock and so dismissive of country, why is he even be pushed on country radio and winning country awards? “I didn’t grow up listening to Hank Williams Sr. or Earnest Tubb,” Church told Playboy. “I grew up with rock and roll.” If this is the case and his sound is so rock, why is he surprised when country fans come out and say he doesn’t belong?

Something else interesting in the Playboy article is how it references the rampant outbreak of fights at Eric Church concerts in a positive light. Performer Kip Moore cites a show in Battle Creek, MI where he opened for Church and says that “half of the crowd was fighting.” I’ve been to some of the craziest punk and heavy metal shows, and never seen anything like this. Despite entire venues descending into mosh pits, if someone crosses the line and starts fighting, they tend to be ostracized from the crowd immediately. A concert where half the crowd is fighting is the outcome of this type of shallow, surface machismo that the current new Outlaw country artists attempt to brand into their music.

And make no mistake, this Playboy article and the Eric Church persona are not at odds with the country music establishment as they would like you to believe. It is a purposeful marketing campaign to attempt to re-integrate disenfranchised country fans who left the genre when the likes of Taylor Swift became the country norm.

The Playboy article goes on to specifically cite Saving Country Music (but without using our name), saying:

In the old days, the photo of the 10 top country singers would look like a convict lineup. These days it might look like an Ambercrombie & Fitch catalog shot. Among hardcore traditionalists, this change hasn’t been popular. One highly trafficked country website routinely erupts in insults aimed at handsome singer Luke Bryan who’s apparently perceived as too feminine. The blogger who runs the site referred to Bryan as a woman, claimed the singer has a vagina and alluded to Bryan as gay.

Oh man, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. The above quote is citing a year-old article clearly marked as “fake news,” both in the tags, and in the sarcastic tone of the content. Hopefully Playboy understood this, and was simply using it as an example in the stylistic change country has endured over the last dozen years, and the vehement opposition it has stimulated from certain sects of fans. But Saving Country Music would never accuse someone of being gay or transgender if it wasn’t in a clearly sarcastic light, and wouldn’t in any way characterize the frequency of our off-color commentary on Luke Bryan “routine.”

But as for Eric Church, if he wants to be considered a badass in the same breath of true country badasses like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Paycheck, and David Allan Coe, then he should take a que from them and not participate in self-aggrandizing cult-of-personality building in glossy magazines. Instead, he should do like they did—let the music speak for itself.

© 2023 Saving Country Music