Garth Brooks has been making a ton of news headlines in the Country music world lately. From calling people “a**holes” that wouldn’t want to go to his Nashville bar due to him selling Bud Light, to announcing his own radio network on Tunein Radio after the end of his six year run on Sirius XM. (Oh, and don’t forget the return of his weird alter-ego Chris Gaines).
Well amidst all the controversy, one thing that has seemed to go over-looked (mostly because it’s not being shown in the clips posted online) is his take on Country radio when he sat down with Billboard’s Melinda Newman last week during CMA Fest.
“The labels simply own radio, they just do. They can say they don’t, or radio can say they don’t, but the truth is that nobody is going to get played on there that doesn’t have a major label deal.”
Garth then goes on to say; “All of the sudden, The Chicks were cancelled. Don’t make the mistake of thinking their music wasn’t any good. Their music was fantastic..I want to hear the new stuff from Luke Combs, followed by the new song from The Chicks, followed by Lainey Wilson. But I also wanna hear Country radio again, where half of it is female voices.”
Garth is right and EXTREMELY wrong about a lot, in my opinion (especially wanting to hear the new music from The Chicks) but he nailed it with his comments on the labels controlling Country radio. It’s all politics.
Check out some of the interview here: