Over the years, I’ve heard some WILD responses to the classic debate: “Who is your Mount Rushmore of country music?”
While the question can totally be subjective, at the end of the day, if we’re building an atypical Mount Rushmore, you’ve gotta go with the founding fathers of country music; the singers who’ve become building blocks of the genre. If you’re looking for a prime example of what I mean, Tracy Lawrence can show you his forearm with his four headstone figures plastered in ink across him.
Yes, the multi-platinum, eight-number-one hit maker quite literally has his “Mount Rushmore of country music” tattooed across his arm. The “Alibis” singer showcased the masterpiece on today’s episode of the Like A Farmer podcast, and it was the most perfect moment.
Hosted by Pat Spinosa, the Mount Rushmore debate is a common question on the show and has become a bit of a trademark conversation topic that each guest gets to hash out. Upon reading the question, without a moment of thought, Lawrence whipped out his arm, replying, “I’m gonna show ya” while holding his upper forearm to Spinosa.
He then pointed to the four iconic country music figures from left to right, including: George Strait, George Jones, Keith Whitley, and Merle Haggard. Now, while his answer is pretty spot on in my opinion, you gotta be extremely confident in that lineup to get them permanently added to your body.
The “Paint Me A Birmingham” singer first shared himself getting the design done by artist Travis Harper back in July 2023.
Spinosa, in shock by his confident response, hilariously replied, “I have to now take that question out, and we were getting hot with the Mount Rushmore, like I was thinking maybe I could sell it to a sponsor, it was so good, now nobody will ever beat that.” Lawrence assured that he might keep his collection of country icons going by adding another row someday, including legends like Charlie Daniels and Randy Travis: “I mean there’s a whole other list of stuff there.”
Now of course, Lawrence didn’t just get the tattoo on a whim to whip out as a party trick whenever people asked that question. He shared that both Georges were highly influential for him, adding that Whitley in particular, “had a huge impact on me and of all the artists that inspired me over the years he’s the only one I didn’t get to meet.”
Passing away in May 1989, Whitley died just a year before Lawrence moved to Nashville, yet he was one of the main artists that he studied when developing as an artist, also mentioning that he says the same influence on newcomer Zach Top, sharing, “Zach’s got that same thing about his voice, you can tell he’s really studied it in detail.” Very few people tend to include the legend in their responses, and even though Whitley only released two albums before his death, with a few posthumous projects to follow, I completely stand behind Lawrence’s decision to put him in the big four.
With that being said, there are plenty of other artists you could make a strong case for on country music’s Mount Rushmore. I’m also certainly not the type to lock in my answer without a full-blown 48-hour debate first. But if you had to carry four artists with you every day on your arm, I’d say Lawrence made some pretty solid picks.