Dallas Davidson: "I hope I write a song that gives Zac Brown flu"
So, a few country stars have gone on record decrying the state of country music, most notably Zac Brown, who also said (when asked) that Luke Bryan‘s ‘That’s My Kind of Night’ was the worst country song ever. Jason Aldean said on Instagram that nobody gives a sh** what he thinks, backing up his friend Luke. Dallas Davidson, a co-writer on the song, asked Zac to respect his creativity on Twitter.
Now, in an interview with Roughstock, he has elaborated on his initial online comments, and he's not too happy.
“When Luke called and told me about it, the first thing I did was sit there and soak it in. A comment like that will hurt your feelings because when you write a song, it’s kind of like one of your babies. To hear a successful artist say it was the worst song he’s heard and it makes him want to throw up, that’s just not cool. I’m sure a lot of stuff like that has been said behind closed doors, and everybody has their right to their opinion, but to come out publicity and dog on other artists and dog on a song and the songwriters, to me, is just unacceptable and it’s not nice."
I find it hard to believe he was that upset, because he's a grown man and the world is full of people saying bad things, but he continues, defending the subject of many of his songs, "We write about what we know about. What I know about is sitting on a tailgate drinking a beer. Hell I live on the river... they want to know why we talk about tailgates in songs … well that’s because we’re sitting on them. We did that 25 years ago, and we’re still doing it. I can’t write about things I don’t know about. Fortunately, there’s a lot of people in this country who do what I do. To say that that kind of song doesn’t fit in our genre is mind boggling because it absolutely does."
Dallas also had a few things to say about the social media culture we live in that encourages people to make such comments. "“My mom always told me if you don’t have nothing nice to say, then don’t say it at all. That’s true. I think social media – Facebook and Twitter and Instragram – has really changed this whole generation where it’s okay to be mean, and it’s okay to talk bad about people. When I grew up, you didn’t do that. It’s a shame that that’s the way it is. This time I was on the wrong end of a comment, and I’m not real happy about it. But I’m in my pickup truck, and I’m heading into work. If that song makes him want to throw up, I hope I write one today that gives him the flu because that means I'm doing my job right. I’m going to write another one just like it because those sure are the fun ones to write and the fun ones to hear your best friends play onstage and watch the crowd get on their feet and dance to. Country music should be free – just like any music – however it’s written. All that should matter is how it appeals to the country music fans and the people who are riding in their cars and trucks with their radios on. That should be all that matters. I’m doing what I want, and I’m doing what I think people want to hear. We’ve got to give them what they want. That’s our jobs. Without the fans, we don’t have a job, so I’m going to keep doing my thing. And if anybody's wondering ... I've got Luke Bryan's back 'til the day I die."
Hmm, I feel like this has gone way too far, and Dallas making this much of a deal about it seems odd behavior. Why does Zac's opinion mean that much to him?