Gavin Adcock on Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’: ‘That Shit Ain’t Country Music’

The rising country star ranted about the singer’s Grammy-winning album, which outranks his on Apple’s country chart

Gavin Adcock onstage at Railbird Festival earlier this summer. The country singer caused a stir when he called out Beyoncé’s country album.

Gavin Adcock appears to be living up to the name of his upcoming album, Own Worst Enemy, due out in August, when it comes to how he views Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. The rising country star recently ripped on Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter, which has been outranking other country artists, and Adcock doesn’t think that’s right, for some reason.

During a recent concert, he addressed Cowboy Carter‘s ranking — it’s currently at Number Three on Apple Music; Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem is Number One, followed by Parker McCollum’s eponymous LP according to Billboard — and Adcock was not very gracious about Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning album doing so well, to say the least.

“One of them’s Beyoncé’s,” he was seen saying on a fan-filmed clip from the show about Apple Music’s current country albums chart. “You can tell her we’re coming for her fucking ass,” he said, as his audience cheered. He continued: “That shit ain’t country music, and it ain’t ever been country music, and it ain’t gonna be country music.”

On Monday, he sort of clarified his stance, which was more of a doubling down on his misguided belief that country is somehow exclusionary to only those who “live this lifestyle,” rather than any acknowledgement of Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning accomplishment, not to mention that fans are buying her album and putting hers ahead of his on the charts.

“I’m gonna go and clear this up. When I was a little kid, my mama was blasting some Beyoncé 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,” he said in a clip, which starts out decently enough before it devolves. “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 Beyoncé.”

Maybe he should listen more to his mama, and others, who don’t genre gatekeep what kind of music belongs where and instead follow their ears and hearts when buying the music they love, because that’s what puts albums “at the top” of the charts.

Beyond Cowboy Carter winning Grammys for both Album of the Year and Best Country Album, and the LP singles “II Most Wanted” featuring Miley Cyrus garnering a win for best country duo/group performance, it also topped the Billboard 200 for two weeks, and Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart for four weeks, with “Texas Hold ‘Em” topping the Hot Country Songs chart for 10 weeks.