Aaron Lewis of Staind Misses Target w/ “Country Boy”
For the past month or so, I have been smattered with emails from folks wondering my reaction to Aaron Lewis from the rock group Staind “going country,” and specifically about his song “Country Boy.” Haven’t I written this blog enough times before? It is very simple people: if you’re used to putting out albums that sell over a million copies, you better make the leap to country or hip-hop, because those are the only two commercially viable genres left in mainstream music.
Though I guess I can see when some hear “Country Boy” thinking it might be something I’d approve of. It begins with Aaron talking about how LA made a product out of him, and how he’s fighting that off now, aka the whole country music Outlaw Archetype. George Jones and Charlie Daniels make appearances in it, and who can hate on George and Charlie? He talks pretty in depth about his guns, and hey, I’m The Triggerman after all.
The problem is this is all a formula. And what’s the formula if you want to go country? I’ve said it a dozen times on this website before: 1) Say you’ve always been country, listened to country, and are from the country. 2) Enlist a legacy act to add country legitimacy to your project. 3) Write a song with a laundry list of things that make you country. And these days if you can throw in a weed reference, that is especially good for marketing.
“Country Boy” follows this formula to a T, so much so I feel embarrassed for him. He took the of the formula’s exact carbon copy and forgot to fill in the blanks to give a token gesture to originality.
And the song is not country, despite the title, despite George Jones’s weak, and honestly, just sad vocal performance, Charlie Daniels’s out-of-place fiddle and lip-quivering political proclamations, or the dizzying amount of qualifiers that Aaron throws out to let you know just how country he is. This is a slow-tempo rock ballad and nothing more, and not even an original one at that. It is Hank Jr.’s “Country Boy Can Survive” repackaged into a predictable rock song. Jr’s version at least conveyed the theme that country people can survive hard times because they are self-sustaining. Aaron just drolls on an on about himself while the video shows off how much cool shit he has.
I have no doubt that Aaron Lewis is a proud American, and that he is a “country boy” in the sense that he lives in the country. After all, he wouldn’t shut the hell up about it for the 5 minutes of this song. I have no doubt that he likes to dress up in camo and run around his land playing GI Joe, driving around in a boy toy surplus army truck like Sergent Slaughter. I have no doubt he dropped $5,000 on the best bow-hunting rig and goes to bed spooning his M-16, praying every night that someone comes crawling through his window so he can be a hero. I have no doubt he loves his tattoos, and first and foremost, himself. But none of this makes a rock song country.
And let’s get this straight: He lives in a town of 1,200, but feels the need to stuff a .45 caliber down his shorts when he goes to the Piggly Wiggly to pick up some 2% milk? What, he thinks Bin Laden is gonna jump out from behind the Dairy Queen and throw an anthrax bomb at his kids? If you’re packing every time you leave the house, that sounds pretty ghetto. Maybe he should take those millions he made singing to angst kids of divorce and get some better digs. In fact I bet the town of 1,200 is more scared of him. Somebody slams a car door too loud and he’s whipping out firearms and looking for turbans to mow down. And is the reason the town he grew up in one we’d “never know” because it’s so small, or because it is north of New York City? Be proud of where you’re from, wherever that is. Don’t hide behind ambiguity because it’s closer to Boston than Birmingham.
And Arron, just because your grandfather was in the military, and you have an army truck and play with your privates, doesn’t mean you have any more military cred that anyone else my friend. My father and grandfather served too, but I’m ashamed that’s all the military cred I have, I’m not proud of it, parading it in front of other people’s faces in a self-righteous manner.
I know some of you watch this, and you see the stars and stripes waving, hear him talk about how he is strong in his beliefs, and you start to feel that American pride welling up inside of you until you want to start pumping your fists and screaming out, “Hell yeah man!” But he’s doing this because he knows it will solicit a strong reaction. He is pandering to demographics and constituencies to sell more records and hopefully be accepted into the country fold. As a country music lover, as a responsible gun owner, as an American, and as the offspring of men that served, I am insulted by this song, and how it uses my beliefs as a marketing tool, and does so in such an easily transparent way that it is an insult to the intelligence.
This song makes me want to vomit. It perpetuates every single negative stereotype about gun owners and patriots that is possible. It paints them as ignorant, self-centered assholes that feed their pit bulls gun power and beat their girlfriends with rubber hoses.
He’s trying to capitalize on pro-American sentiment, pot smokers, patriots, pro-gun people, the Tea Party, and the movement of rock and pop into the country music supergenre all in one song. That’s a mouthful; it’s no surprise some of the phrases don’t even rhyme. And if capitalization isn’t the case, then why not work in even one little bit of subtlety into the lyrics. The song comes across as being almost psychopathically obsessed with political issues that aren’t even current, and the whole thing seems to be horrifically outdated in regard to context.
And if I take Aaron at his word, that the person he was when he sold 15 million records with Staind wasn’t him, that it was a product of LA, then why not fess up for 12 years, making millions of dollars off of loyal fans? Is he ashamed of Staind’s music? Then why does this song sound like every single one of their songs except with a dobro? Same structure, same monotone vocals with no range.
And I love Charlie Daniels and George Jones, and anyone who says differently clearly doesn’t not know what goes down on this website, but it was a huge unfortunate mistake on their parts to hitch their wagons to this. How about trying to enter country by actually playing country music, instead of singing about you, and more you, while trying to head off anticipated arguments from country hardliners before they are even made. Just sing from the heart man, then I might dig it.
Can we go back to the old reality where Taylor Swift was the worst shit I had to listen to to do this job?
Two guns down!
December 27, 2010 @ 12:37 pm
Well said Trigger. I would say this points to the argument I make… Taylor isn’t the problem. Shit like this is the problem.
Not trying to start and argument, but where is Hank III when you need him? This is where he needs to step in.
Here is a metal dude pretending to be country. Playing on the CBCS song Hank Jr. wrote.
III is part metal part country, so him commenting on this idiot would be very valid. He should speak up. He certainly did when it came to Kid Rock who embraced country long before just the last couple years.
January 3, 2011 @ 9:02 am
Waylon4ever? Man, I’m gonna say this as nice as possible. You are completely RETARTED!!! Do you know anything about country music history, or music history in general? You have Waylon 4 ever as a screen name, you reference to Hank JR and you put down Aaron Lewis? Waylon Jennings, Hank JR, Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck and MANY MANY MORE country greats were persicuted and talked down about when they were fresh on the scene!!! They helped mold a new style of country! Yet, here you are with their balls hanging off your chin, putting down another GREAT artist! I;m a musician myself. I write my own lyrics and play my own guitar! I’ve listened to Aaron Lewis and the rest of the bad ass M Fers of STAIND since 1998! I was raised country! Hell, my old man looks like Charlie Daniels! I’ve grown the whole way with Aaron. I was young and angry and rebelious, but I’ve grown, as Arron Lewis has! Country music isn’t about being the biggest, dumb ass redneck in the crowd! It’s about what you feel inside, the stories of life, heart ache! Oh, WOW, just like rock music! LOL! When country has better than half of the artist that can’t even write thier own songs, you CAN”T put a man down that pours every part of his being into every song he sings! Country singers are on pop stations, they remake R n B songs, and look like The New Kids On The Block! You don’t have to like it! Everyone is entitled to his opinion, but to be comlpetly hateful because you’re too IGNORANT to realize what being a musician or country or hell, AMERICAN, really is! Take a good loooonnnngggg look at your country music and the people who shaped it into what was and how it is today! With that said, GOD BLESS, HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY and OPEN YOUR EYES and YOUR MIND!
January 4, 2011 @ 12:46 pm
I don’t think you’ll get much disagreement around here about what Waylon, Cash, Paycheck and the others did for country music, and you also won’t get any argument that it is a travesty that so many pop stars are played on country radio these days. But how does that equate to Arron Lewis? There are dozens of other artists who’ve been fighting against the country music establishment for years, and actually sing country music doing it. Your only validation for Aaron seems to be your self-admitted blind fandom. Waylon4Ever and many others DO have opened eyes and have been listening to artists trying to Save Country Music when Aaron was singing to emo high school kids about how his parents didn’t pay enough attention to him. Aaron Lewis might be singing from the heart, but that doesn’t make it good, or country.
June 24, 2011 @ 9:27 pm
I just want to say shame on you and any one else who has such negative things to say about Aaron Lewis, George Jones, and/or Charlie Daniels. I too have been a fan of Aaron Lewis and Staind since 98, and I have never heard him “wine” about any thing. His voice, to me, is heart breakingly wonderful. I was also born and raised country. Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, Johnny Cash, Willy Nelson, Conway Twitty, George Jones, Hank Sr. ,etc….thats who I grew up on. And as far as I can recall, every last one of them sang “cookie cutter” songs. And I’m pretty sure that at one time, Johnny Cash’s style for the times had teatered on rock. And what do you do with your life that is so great?
June 25, 2011 @ 7:00 am
Look Jennifer. This here blog is about real country music. Aaron Staind is not comparable to Johnny Cash. I am pretty sure myself that Johnny Cash spent his whole musical career fighting against the music machine that Nashville cultivated. Aaron Staind comes waltzin’ in from LA and want to be the next Johnny Cash with a song that is titled Country Boy? I hope you see the difference.
September 1, 2012 @ 2:44 pm
The funny thing is ‘triggerman’ you yourself have not said how this is not country. all you have said is that this is a rock ballad and nothing more. not saying i disagree with that statement, but i will say a song can be both. the strum of aaron sounds like a rock ballad but the strong twang of the steel guitar is country. nobody is comparing aaron lewis to johnny cash. cash did do the same thing that lewis is doing now, it was just the opposite. he went from country to rock ‘n’ roll. get used to it, lewis is country/rock. have fun with his songs.
November 21, 2019 @ 12:02 pm
It’s simple he is whining like an old staind song… hes also a yankee.. contrary to what you Yankees may think IT IS ALL ABOUT A SOUTHERN MAN… HE IS A PUNK ASS POSER.. THE ONLY PEOPLE BESIDES SOUTHERNERS TGAT SHOULD BE ABLE TO CLAIM THEY ARE COUNTRY IS SOME WESTERNERS.. I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN THE SOUTH AND IM STILL HERE… REAL COUNTRY BOYS KNOW THAT THAT AINT COUNTRY.. GEORGE JONES ON A TRACK DOES NOT ERASE WHAT AARON’S HERITAGE IS… HES A YANKEE.. HE MIGHT NOT WANT TO BE BUT HE IS… IF WE WERE TO HAVE ANOTHER CIVIL WAR HE WOULD BE ON THE YANKEE SIDE.. OBVIOUSLY SO WOULD YOU… SEE YOU YANKEES TAKE THE WORDS COUNTRY AND BOY AND THINK IT ONLY MEANS SOMEBODY WHO LOVES THERE COUNTRY.. THATS NOT IT BUDDY… YEA WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY BUT WE HAVE A SOUTHERN PRIDE AT THE SAME TIME… SORRY BUT A YANKEE BOY IS ALL YOULL EVER BE AARON.. PLEASE BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU REALLY ARE.. BECAUSE THE REAL COUNTRY LIFE IS SOMETHING YALL COULDNT HANDLE
November 13, 2012 @ 6:24 pm
“Just sing from the heart man, then I might dig it.”
“Aaron Lewis might be singing from the heart, but that doesn”™t make it good, or country.”
Which fuckin one is it? Make up your mind.
March 15, 2011 @ 8:17 pm
“RETARTED”.
Like the pot talking to the kettle.
lol
November 21, 2019 @ 11:39 am
I guarantee your just another yankee playing like a country boy… Aaron Lewis is a yankee and a poser… he was a rock artist for what 10 to 12 years and now all of the sudden he’s country and has always been and will always beeeeeeee.. that song is trash.. I liked staind but I hate a poser and a lier.. Also Aaron lewis if you ever read this you need to know that it actually is all about a southern man..if you are not from the south you are nothing more than a punk ass yankee and that is all you’ll ever beeeeee!!!
November 9, 2011 @ 2:07 am
You people are idiots!! Aaron is not “Trying to go country”!!! He’s simply sharing another side of himself. I guess you all know that now as THE NEW STAIND ALBUM IS OUT!!!!! AND IT ROCKS!!! I see people ripping on rock musicians as being 1 dimensional. Then when one breaks out with a a different sound, you start rippin on him. And you all are being so stereotypical about it, it shows your ignorance. So let’s assume you are all right. Then we can also assume that all you country fucks are sleeping with your cousins, and sisters. Inbreeding is a stereotype, just like what youre doing to Aaron. Did they put out a big marketing thing??? No. Have u heard or seen any other music or videos?? No. But its ok when some country act puts out a rocker right???
August 15, 2014 @ 11:52 am
I have to disagree. Rock takes its roots from Blues Music, Rhythm and Country. To
blatantly disagree and say he has no place in country is insane. Country roots are
deep, just because you don’t sing predominately country doesn’t mean your not
country. I myself rock it out some hard rock, metal, country, rap, etc… Its not music
that makes a person…Its their values inset by their roots, families, experiences and
what not. Listen to the song again, listen to your favorite songs and think about it…
yeah…Aaron may be doing this for marketing hype…but it doesn’t mean he’s not
country…he certainly has the right to express him self as you do, I do, we all do…
Its not the style of music that makes you who you are, all music originated from one
source…look at garth brooks, he tried the Chris Gaines thing. You have Daris Rucker who went country.
you have the outlaws of country, Waylon, Haggard, david allan coe, cash, willie, Kristofferson if you pay attention to the music its a cross between rock and country.
music is a style, its an outlet to express ones self, to say that someone isn’t country, or a fake…doesn’t work my friend.
August 27, 2020 @ 3:19 am
Right on! Took the words right out of my mouth….what kind of music is this guy or this website trying to stand for because I wouldn’t want any part of it and those “Real Country” singers that this hateful negative fellow speaks of and these other so-called southern country boys, hell I want no part of that and this isn’t directed at the fellow that wrote this article I am responding to but it is directed at those so called country boys who claim it’s a southern thing – let me tell you something son those words you speak there about how it’s a southern thing …well I’m from the South Texas to be specific and I am country. However I can garuantee you there’s some country boys in Massachusetts and where I live now which is in the Northern 25 that would make you eat those big boy words you so-called country boys speak so proudly and maybe a couple teeth to go go down the hatch with them, literally and enjoy doing so. I want nothing to do with whatever style music you so-called Southern country boys speak on or represent. Including anything represented by whoever wrote this page or blog or wrote the original collum. As well I would be willing to bet these true artists like Waylon and George would not co sign any of that negative bullshit you so-called “Country boys ” talk. Hate that’s what it is and bullshit ….Aaron is doing better than you and frankly I doubt he gives a shit about none of that negative hateful shit you talk…shut the f#&@ up!
August 27, 2020 @ 3:48 am
That summary was for James and whoever it is or was that said they were so called “keeping Country Real” and by the way how is that ? I believe it was the fellow that first opened his mouth and started this collum . So tell me how that is that you’re so called ” keeping Country real” ,by spit boxing…? And I just wonder myself if you so -called “keeping county real” are doing that with a musical instrument in your hands? Hell if I was to bet on it I’d bet your big mouth doesn’t to even know how to strum a damn cord ? Or know what an A minor is….? Hell you probably edit every response to your own liking now that I think about it -you and your big boy britches and your fu@$#&$+ type writer .. I dare you to post this response if you have a real set of country balls you will..;-)
June 3, 2017 @ 2:58 pm
Great article!
December 21, 2019 @ 2:49 pm
Well I have read all these comments & I know this is an old article but this big mouth just has to voice my opinion! Guess it’s the Country Ass Bitch in me! I love music! I have been playin guitar & singin since I was 5 yrs old! I’m from the Hills & Hollers of a little place called Allen County Kentucky! I’m Redneck A Hillbilly Outlaw & A Rebel & I love Fishin & Huntin 4 Wheel Drives Drinking a Bud Light Some Jim Beam or Wild ???? & Apple Pie Shine is one of my favs & been known to take a token or 2! I can give you a list bout 200 people who know me & you don’t get much more country then my ass but I also love Rockin it out to Pantera Alice In Chains Korn Stone Temple Pilots! Linkin Park & Soundgarden & yes Staind are some of my favs! I also been known to spit a Rap song or two & in the next breath could be singin Just A Closer Walk With Thee or Blue Moon of Kentucky but I refuse to sit here while some dumbass mfers who I have never even heard of put down a man who has more then earned the rights & respect as an Artist to be insulted by some mfer who calls himself Triggerman or Waylon wtfever! Lmmfao. Triggerman! Dude I can knocks flee off a dog’s ass open site with any gun you put in my hands so go sell that BS to someone else! Oh u have!! You Loyal Fandom of 3 mfers! Only reason I even clicked on this site was I saw it was bout Aaron Lewis! He is & damn sure is one of the best Artist in the music industry & for people to put him down is bullshit! You could’ve just said I don’t like him or the song and left it at that! No you went on a damn rant that was nothing but trash! WTF you think you was just doing? Trying to sell an Image of this Hard Core Country know it all to get people’s attention! Publicity stunt at it’s best so you can take your opinion & sit on it & spin! He has a right to say he is Country Rock Metal Gospel wtf ever! It’s his right! If don’t agree then fine but to attack someone the way you did was Cold & Disrespectful to put it lightly & where I come from that would get your ass stomped like a muddhole & then get it walked dude! When you sell millions of albums write your own songs & have millions of fans and sell out not just Stadiums but have whole Country’s come see you then you might have a right to speak on that shit. I believe Like Bryan sings it best Don’t Matter Where You From or Who You Are Do Whatever Makes You Country! Very Wise man! Much Love To Aaron Lewis & thanks for all the great songs & especially for Country Boy cause A Country Girl Is All I Will Ever Be & That’s A Fact Jack
December 27, 2010 @ 12:46 pm
I wrote my above comment before listening to the song in the clip above….
holy shit is that song garbage. That might be top for self-indulgence. Jesus Aaron, have some shortcomings and self esteem issues your trying to address
He had to sub-title the photo of him at age 8…”Me age 8″ since we wouldn’t give a shit who it was…. and then basically spell out everything to the letter to explain the song. Thanks for pointing out the flags you fly high.
What a fucking dork. Honest to god, I would prefer Taylor to this jack off. Embarassing. Leave the leap from metal/hip hop to Kid Rock.
I take back my comment above, Hank III nor anyone should waste there time on this tune.
December 27, 2010 @ 1:02 pm
Actually, to an extent I agree what you are saying about Hank III. I do wish he would show a little more leadership. Five years ago he was, and he would have. And even today he does in regard to talking out against the music industry, and even more specific things like making sure corporate venues don’t rob touring bands by asking for a cut of their merch tables. But he also used to lead the charge against stuff like this, and he also used to promote good up and coming country bands. Now you don’t hear a peep. He’s so isolated, unfortunately I doubt he has any clue this song exists, or even worse, that great artists like Hellbound Glory and .357 String Band exist. In fact I know he doesn’t.
Also Aaron Lewis and Staind have a bad reputation to many in the metal world for already selling out by putting out radio-friendly ballads. He might already be black balled from elements of the metal world even before he put this bad song out.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:02 pm
The 357 Stringband has a quote from Hank III about them on one of their webstites.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:10 pm
Its on their myspace
December 27, 2010 @ 2:27 pm
Yep, and how ironic it is when people come up and ask if he’s heard their new album, he shakes his head and says he’s never heard of them. I have no doubt the quote is accurate. When he said it he probably knew of them. Now he’s forgotten. It’s a shame because a lot of these up and coming bands could use a good endorsement from III but he has isolated himself from most of the underground country crowd.
To play devil’s advocate though, I’m sure he has reasons for his isolation, including getting screwed over by so many people, and having people tugging at him every day, trying to use his name to make their star burn brighter, all while locked in a legal battle with his label.
3 more days.
December 27, 2010 @ 5:12 pm
Shelton has no clue who .357 or Jayke Orvis is. I know first hand. I am sure he heard a 357 album a few years back and made that quote.
By the way, fuck this Aaron Lawrence guy. He sucked in the “pussy rock” genre and this song is even worse. I wish I had a computer so I can air a damn show and rant! Hopefully soon.
December 27, 2010 @ 5:46 pm
I’m going through Outlaw Radio withdrawal!
December 27, 2010 @ 7:55 pm
I am really hoping to be back this week. Once I am up, my computer should be top notch. I am sick of typing on an iPod.
December 27, 2010 @ 8:32 pm
I am also going through Outlaw Radio withdrawal, for the record!
December 28, 2010 @ 6:27 am
Me too…but don’t start this week. I won’t be there. My friend is turning 50 that day.
You guys do need to check out Miller’s Silverstien episode if you haven’t yet.
December 28, 2010 @ 5:01 pm
Me three! Wednesday is my favorite home entertainment night. Miss ya dude 🙂
December 28, 2010 @ 8:03 am
there has gotta be more to this Hank III doesn’t know any newer artists. Between all the artists that Andy Gibson works with and all the people that have played with or opened for III. I could start listing people, but we all know them. I could possibly understand that maybe he’s not listening to .357 but he had them open for him on his last show of last year’s tour in Nashville (I’m pretty sure I recall reading that). Maybe he’s not interested in talking about other bands for some reason. I think its all odd, but whatever- I just cant wait to hear what comes next from him.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:20 am
I think there is more to it, though I’m not exactly sure what it is. All I know is that starting in about 2007, III stared being really selective about the people he keeps around, significantly pulling back from the amount of interaction he had with his fans online, and making his inner circle smaller and closer. His opening spot used to be a huge opportunity for upcoming bands. Now he no longer has an opener. I can’t find any info or recall the .357 String Band opening for him in Nashville, but I could be wrong. He is now rolling without a label, and without a manager, which is unprecedented for an artist of his size. Let’s hope it works.
December 28, 2010 @ 11:20 am
Found where I read the .357 and III. On your Nov. 29 2009 article- Hank III Supports Homes For Our Troops.
December 30, 2010 @ 12:06 am
Jammin,
I think they were in the crowd. I do not think they played. The way I worded I might have implied that. I’m trying to remember, but I think I either saw a message maybe on MySpace that they had been there or heard this from one of the members. I’ll keep digging and see if i can find out for sure.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/hank-iii-supports-homes-for-our-troops
November 9, 2011 @ 2:27 am
Waylon4ever….u are an idiot. So country titles have integrity. ?? Hmmm. All my ex’s live in Texas???? how many Ex’s do you have?? Yeah Johnny Cash..ok.. mostly prison songs??? Burnin Ring of Fire sounds like a spanish song…did he mistake bengay for preparation H??? As far as exploiting things…what about “Proud to be an American”??? Wow 911 ripoff…country music cashin in on a tragedy!!!! Wow this really makes my Brown Eye Blue!!! and what was that you said about a weed reference???? I got 2 words for ya…..Willie Nelson!!! Wow Willie was even in the movie “Half Baked” buyin weed from Dave Chapelle. I also am a musician….so when I listen to music..I just try to see if I “FEEL” its good “TO ME”. You know what your problem is…..your confusing your OPINION with something you think other people care about. If you dont like it, shut your damn mouth and dont listen to it. Can u do better???? I highly doubt it. People like you complain because they cant do!!! No one cares about your idiot opinion. Remember when Johnny Cash did a remake of “Rusty Cage” by Soundgarden??? You probably loved it….yet you hate on Rock music. Grow Up….Blues made rock, when combined with a southern attitude they both made country. Find a country song made before 1930. U cant. Because there was no country.
November 9, 2011 @ 8:12 am
Umm…I wanted to chime in here….
you say- “blues made rock, then combined with southern attitude made country.”
Are you saying that rock and roll was around before country?
If you are, then I guess we don’t need to discuss anything anymore of this gone and forgotten awful Aaron Lewis song or any other topic.
November 9, 2011 @ 8:45 am
No country before 1930? Really? Ever heard of the Carter Family? How about Jimmie Rodgers?
December 27, 2010 @ 1:29 pm
Haha! I’ve been waiting on your review of this Triggerman. I do agree with ya that this is just another ploy to follow country music’s coat tails. I’ve always liked Aaron Lewis and Staind and this song really isn’t any different than his other rock ballad songs just with the dobro and fiddle mixed in. At least it’s not as bad as the Nickelback song they were passing off as country earlier this year. I personally like this song just based on this being another rock ballad with a Hank Jr. feel to it but of course this is in no sense country music. Maybe that ‘s why I’m attracted to the song cause I am a Hank Jr. fan even though he is getting away from his roots himself. who knows? Do you think Charlie Daniels and George Jones just do these type of collaborations to keep their name alive and to stay popular? I don’t understand why these older artists can’t keep making great music like Merle and Willie without resorting to these attempts.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:01 pm
If this song was just one of many on a new Stand album or an Aaron Lewis solo alum not going out of its way to market itself as country, I probably wouldn’t have any problems with it, and it would stand out as anything unusual for their sound. But the fact that it is specifically being pushed to country radio makes it my business.
I don’t know why George and Charlie did this. I think it’s pretty telling that Jr didn’t. He had to settle for flashing the album cover of Jr’s Greatest Hits, which shows the depth of Aaron’s knowledge about his music, and maybe country music in general.
Remember Willie had a period where he cohorted with Dave Matthews and Toby Keith and had Kenny Cheseney produce one of his albums. But I think he found that was not as self-serving as it might have seemed on the surface, and now he has gone back to just being himself. Hopefully George and Charlie will realize that too. But man, that vocal performance by George makes me really fear for his health, and wonder what he has left. Hopefully it was just uninspired.
December 29, 2010 @ 7:37 am
You really can’t compare Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney to Dave Mathews! Dave Mathews (who I don’t really care for) is an actual song writer, artist, and talented musician. I don’t care for his music, but you have to at least recognize that he is not just some dude with a record deal who makes shitty music.
December 29, 2010 @ 10:05 am
That’s a fair statement Jerry. I was more talking about him collaborating with people outside of his circle, instead of making a musical comparison between the three.
December 27, 2010 @ 1:41 pm
That sounds like, like, like. . .
I like my jeans and old t shirt ?
He’s got an Allis Chalmers?
Well shit. He really is a country boy. He has put e’ry thing from Bocepus to dirt roads in this song and it is tired. Shoulda just called it the Chronic Fatigue Song.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:02 pm
I’m suffering from post traumatic stress disorder after having to watch that.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:06 pm
Take two and lay down for at least 15 minutes . . .Deep breath while you say,
Pop country will not last over and over til the anxiety passes.
December 27, 2010 @ 1:42 pm
You outdid yourself on this review Trig. After watching the video it seems Mr. Lewis has taken this “going country” gimmick to a point so low that even Kid Rock would blush. Reading the comments on the youtube page for this video now and so far, this one below is my favorite.
“why not sign about it? if no one sang about the country lifestyle there would be no country lifestyle ever think about that one?”
That’s deep man…like….wow.
December 27, 2010 @ 1:51 pm
Had to leave a comment myself on the youtube page for this video. Wonder how long until I get called a fag and told to leave this country if I don’t like the song.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:12 pm
Yeah, the YouTube comments are pretty funny. This was my favorite:
“all u mother fuckers that got a problem with this song can kiss my fuckin redneck ass I live in a town smaller than he lives in this is fuckin america not fuckin iraq or iran or fuckin africa unless ur fuckin country back off or ull be runnin from my ol bluetick an my rope”
I’m sure those people will be over here as soon as they catch the scent.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:15 pm
HELL YEAH BUDDY!!!!!!!
December 27, 2010 @ 2:23 pm
Oh I hope they do.
December 27, 2010 @ 3:12 pm
Hahahahaha!! That’s all I can say about that.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:01 pm
I totally agree, NLindsay. Triggerman surely did out do himself and I don’t know if I’ll ever stop laughing . . .
What a joke to all the potsmokers sitting in jail while he runs around blowing smoke into the camera.
What a joke to metal.
What a joke to towns you never heard of.
What a joke to the right to bear arms.
He actually sold his soul to the Devil??? And the only thing that matters now is family and friends? Has he ever heard of Jesus? He really should get to know Him.
Great blog Triggerman.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:11 pm
Wow. Im over dosing on the country lifestyle hes selling. Great review Trigg. I seen this sunday on cmt and asked who he was. Yes i got asked why i was watching cmt BUT man this is such a crime. I feel that most folks will not understand why we are upset. To try to buddy up with me with a weed reference…wtf am i THAT STONED???? Im pissed because your right 100%. Take what we live and love and roll it up into a nice package to make more money. Piss on all the other fans “Oh sorry guys that was not me i sold my soul”. One thing i can say is what will the other songs be about? Kinda used alot up in this one. Now everything will sound the same just like the old band. Keep up the good work Aaron cause people think i listen to that shit cause you stole everything from me!
December 27, 2010 @ 2:24 pm
Yeah, that’s another segment Aaron Lewis misrepresented, people who are fighting for the decriminalization of marijuana. He’s made so many wrong steps in this song I couldn’t keep up.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
Aaron Lewis has done nothing but whine in his music from the start. It’s hard to believe Stained actually got a recording contract let alone more than one mainstream album published. Stained was nothing more than a rock and roll looking emo group. Because of that, I refuse to listen to his “country” album no matter how “hip” he thinks country music is. As long as the top 40 country station in my area doesn’t play him (and so far they haven’t), I’ll be safe.
December 27, 2010 @ 3:54 pm
Good point. When people first started emailing me about this song, I was familiar with “Staind” but couldn’t remember a specific song. So I went to YouTube and started searching and remember thinking, “oh, that whiny guy.” The Staind song “For You” is pretty much all about how his parents didn’t pay enough attention to him. That’s what this song and video seem to be: a cry for attention. “Look at me and all my cool tattoos and trucks and guns.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbfsFR0s-_A
December 27, 2010 @ 2:34 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnSDsf_Silc
Nuf said right here…
December 27, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
Sorry. Yes, I am 40.
December 27, 2010 @ 2:57 pm
What is the feeling I am having as I’m listening to this? Someone help me out here. It is like he articulates everything he believes in the most cliched of ways that I am embarrassed for him. I am feeling sweaty right now…moist in my armpits…because this is so bad…so shallow…so obnoxious.
I’m none of these things. None. Everything he lists is NOT me. I guess there is absolutely nothing country whatsoever in me if I am to follow his logic. Oh well, later guys, I am moving over to the Saving Indie Music website. See ya…
December 27, 2010 @ 3:15 pm
Don’t do it KAK!!
December 27, 2010 @ 3:24 pm
Going to the thrift store to get some skinny jeans and an ironic t shirt today. I’ll get the Ginger to help me put my look together given that he is the resident hipster…
December 27, 2010 @ 2:53 pm
heard this for the first time when I actually went to a friends metal show a few weeks ago–they were playing it over the system pre-show.
the metal heads loved it.
the ones from that era are getting a bit older. their tastes are changing. a lot of them buy our records now. they don’t know or care that this is entirely different from “real” country–and their fandom in that sense is honest. they just like what they hear–and aren’t worried about the category, which I appreciate.
This song, on the other hand, is something I can’t appreciate. he has to know as a human that this is wrong. ah, what money must do to people…I wouldn’t know…hahah
December 27, 2010 @ 3:32 pm
If I heard this song fresh, it would not occur to me that it was trying to be country, and i would probably pass it off as innocuous. Hearing it on a country station or presenting it as country, my take is completely different. Also the song itself is not as bad as the song and video combined. The video really puts an exclamation point on his self-righteousness.
December 27, 2010 @ 3:36 pm
That is what is embarrassing me for him…the self righteousness…Thanks, Trig.
December 27, 2010 @ 6:44 pm
oh, i knew by the tones the moment i heard it that he had gone “country”..and i looked at my lady and said, “is that the staind guy gone country”..she almost spit her drink out laughin at the look on my face as i said it…apparently i looked alot like i was sucking on a lemon…not pleased.
December 27, 2010 @ 3:12 pm
The same thing is going on in hip-hop. “They” put out these crap formulaic songs and videos that are so bad, they become an instant embarrassment and examples for why rap music should be vilified (while selling gazillions of copies to people that have never even been to the hood).
And I hear autotune in George Jones”™s voice”¦sigh”¦
December 27, 2010 @ 3:56 pm
He’s on a boat?
December 27, 2010 @ 5:01 pm
Know thy enemy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune
December 28, 2010 @ 10:22 am
This really seems to fit the rap motif for me, which is talk big and show off all the flashy shit you have with no humility and make it all about you and what a badass you are.
December 28, 2010 @ 4:42 pm
That’s kind of the standard thing to do in any of the radio genres now. They’ve created lists of what’s considered cool or necessary for each demographic, and every singer has a song (or many) listing their credentials. If you’re going to switch and pander to a different demographic, you’ve got to work doubly hard. You have to tear down one persona and build another (Of course, you could just create a persona that’s actually based on who you are – but then you don’t feat neatly into a pre-made marketing niche)
Also – I live north or New York City. What does that do for my credentials?
December 28, 2010 @ 5:17 pm
Rap that’s packaged as pop? Absolutely. The newest package of beef in hip-hop is being splashed over corporation owned media outlets annoys me just as much. Bling makes me wanna holla. The guys around when I was growing up that wore diamonds and furs got them through blood or drug money. Now the baby in the family wants bling for her princess dolls as she sings “brown chicken, brown cow”. You hit the nail on the head Trig, regardless of genre.
December 27, 2010 @ 3:18 pm
I have no desire to watch the video, even before reading your review. I already know I won’t like it, and I also know I’m not closed-minded so I’m not bothered by this. But I’m sure glad I read your review Triggerman! I laughed pretty hard a couple times. Man, I’m glad I changed the spelling of my first name today.
December 27, 2010 @ 3:48 pm
I would be eaten up with curiosity, but there is something to be said for wanting to keep this pollution out of your brain.
December 27, 2010 @ 3:24 pm
Funny, the first song that I thought of listening to this is Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive. ” Couldn’t hear anything country in the melody of this song whatsoever. Could it be that he’s just not capable of singing even pop country?
This is a song without any soul. Why on earth did George Jones participate in this, I wonder? With respect to Charlie Daniels, I can see how the political message in the song is right up his alley these days, but can’t he tell that this song is just garbage and not see it for the naked piece of manipulation that it is?
December 27, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
Ha, didn’t think about “Dead or Alive” but you’re totally right, it has the same timing, and “Dead or Alive” is one of the very small handful of songs that pretty much every pop country song these days is cut from.
I respect Charlie, and I respect his opinions, whatever they are, whether I agree with them or not. He fought for the country, he’s paid as many dues as anybody.
His part might not be as bad as George’s because his is more a cameo than a duet. Neither of theses guys might have not known what they were getting in to. I’ll take their whole body of work in mind and not hold this against them.
December 27, 2010 @ 4:15 pm
Hear what you’re saying about George and Charlie’s body of work. Just puzzled is all. More so about George than Charlie. He’s just a such standard bearer of honest to goodness country music. And Charlie has been known to rock some. CDB’s Fire on the Mountain is one of my all-time favorites (had my artist sister do a painting of the cover) and Nightrider is close behind it.
So apparently Aaron and Staind are working on their next album. Hmmm.
December 27, 2010 @ 5:56 pm
I remember seeing a video a while back with George Jones and Alan Jackson. Jackson said something like his next album was going to be a rock album, and George almost flipped his lid. It was a joke and they laughed afterwards. Tried to find it again on YouTube but couldn’t. I’ve always thought of George being a purist who didn’t like rock and country mixing, so yeah, very weird.
December 27, 2010 @ 4:17 pm
the sound might hint at Dead or Alive but… I don’t know that Jon was taking himself as seriously as ole’ Aaron does in this tune.
This song is just sad. Strip away the video, references to country legends, and this song is shit up and down.
As I have been saying, last lap for the pop country and posers. This is just another
December 27, 2010 @ 4:24 pm
It does seem like the bottom’s gotta fall out for this kind of crap at some point. I hope you’re right man.
December 28, 2010 @ 9:12 pm
I also thought it sounded like the Bon Jovi song…. lyrics in my head, yup, that’s it.
Why were Charlie and George in the song? It make business sense. I’m sure making a small appearance on a track will bring in a few bucks if the CD sells a few million. And those guys are getting up there.
This type of song is something that the “redneck sheep” will eat up.
December 29, 2010 @ 11:51 am
http://www.myspacesarcasm.com/myspace-motivational-comments/16/pics_motivational-sheep-redneck-blowup-dolls.jpg
December 27, 2010 @ 3:36 pm
I just searched the internet for this song and found lyrics to a missing verse…
“I sit at my computer, a Dell, made in the USA. Cause that is what I am.
I am blogging on a ‘Saving Country Music’ website cause I am an American.
I got a Chevy truck, a Ford and Dodge too. That I start with a key I bought at the True Value.
I’ve been ridin like a rodeo, by some dude in a wranglers, I’ve even gone down on some red headed strangers.
I am a country boy. Gay as a broadway cowboy. Singing about stuff I do and own so I can feel cooler than you. I am a country boy.”
December 27, 2010 @ 3:46 pm
Ha! Man he should have kept it in. The self-deprecation would’ve at least given this song some taste.
March 13, 2011 @ 8:11 pm
*like*
December 27, 2010 @ 5:30 pm
Man I don’t know what you guys are talking about. This is the best song I have ever heard.This guy nailed my country lifestyle. You guys are just jealous the douche that sung with the forever cool Fred Durst, nailed country better then you.
December 27, 2010 @ 5:46 pm
Ok so I actually watched the video. First let me say goddamn it, I am fucking irate I wasted 2 min and 50 seconds of my life. (yeah didn’t watch the whole thing). Second, maybe if this douche would open his mouth to sing he wouldn’t sound like Eddy Vedder’s queefs.
Third, George Jones looks like hell. That’s the real story on this whole thing. Poor George doesn’t look like he is going to try to out race the fuzz on his lawnmower anytime soon. I am afraid we are going to be talking about the loss of another legend very soon. And when these guys are gone all we are left with is Eddie Vedder’s vag. Sad just sad.
December 27, 2010 @ 5:59 pm
He nailed your country lifestyle? I didn’t see a reference to 4 Loko.
December 27, 2010 @ 6:10 pm
Call it sympathy for the devil Trigg. You know me I gotta stir the pot from time to time. Even if I really don’t like what I am fighting for. I guess I am just an antagonist.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:15 am
Eddy Vedder’s Queefs is a good band name…
December 28, 2010 @ 5:01 pm
That’s a fact, but I bet you’d get sued.
December 29, 2010 @ 11:48 am
But I spelled it wrong…see? Who can sue me for “Eddy” instead of “Eddie”? lol
December 27, 2010 @ 5:31 pm
It’s not a bad rock song. My problem is the same problem I had with the last Tim McGraw video I saw. The insterments being shown don’t match the music being played. He is clearly setting on his tailgate playing an acustic guitar, but at the same time electric guitars are trying to bust my ear drums.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:23 am
OK rock song. Terrible country song. So why call it country? Marketing.
December 27, 2010 @ 5:34 pm
I’ve not been much of a fan of Staind since their first album, it just gets whinier and whinier.
Here’s my two cents. Pop country and hip-hop/pop are the two biggest and really the only selling types of music today, unfortunately. Why is that? Well, it takes a significant investment of thought, emotion, and analysis to appreciate better forms of music, and we live in a cheapened society where few are willing to make that investment. This song, and other “crossover songs” like it, afford the opportunity for a person to feel like they are discovering something unique and therefore have invested more, when in reality, they certainly haven’t.
In essence, this is a booby trap. A pitfall that will trap the weary wanderer, straying from the internment camp of pop country, before they reach the green pastures of REAL alternative country like the bluegrass revival, soloists like Richard Buckner, or hell, even the outlaw country of Hank 3.
December 27, 2010 @ 6:02 pm
Real good point. People can give themselves credit for expanding their horizons when really they’re just running in circles.
I can hear someone saying, “You know, I never really liked country until I heard that new Aaron Lewis song.”
December 27, 2010 @ 6:29 pm
So my boyfriend pointed out that Aaron is not from “The Country”…check out the Wikipedia entry for him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Lewis
He grew up in Vermont and “largely, in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, then moved to the Forest Park section of Springfield, MA from 8th grade through high school. He is of Jewish-Russian descent. His hobbies include fishing, golf, riding his Motorcycle, dirt bike, as well as hunting. He has worked in landscaping, cleaned hotel rooms, and played solo acoustic sets in bars, pool halls, restaurants, coffeehouses, and the like.”
Does this make him country or not? I don’t actually care because I don’t put much value in the fact that someone came from the south or not being that I’m from Queens. But what does strike me is that he is no different from the rest of us who are NOT typical country folks. His life (minus the golf of course) sounds not unlike mine. Where does he get off claiming to be some sort of salt of the earth?
My parents had a HUGE organic garden. My dad hunted and fished, and still does at 73. But this does not “qualify” me as country. And if it did, I couldn’t care a shit because that isn’t what makes folks authentic.
Where is the heart in this song? If they had been true to Boston where Staind started, I wouldn’t feel so disgusted, but this whole “country” thing is really fake. Why?
December 27, 2010 @ 9:09 pm
Honestly, I don’t care where he is from. You can be from Massachusetts and still be from the country. My first concern is if the music is good. And if you call it country, is it actually country music. Sure, being from the South, or maybe Texas or Northern California or a few other places can maybe help build you country cred, but I think if you listen to music based on where the artist is from, that a little dumb, beyond my desire to make sure local music communities are healthy and supported, and that regionalism remains in music, meaning the distinct music tastes and tones that keep a healthy amount of diversity throughout the music landscape.
December 28, 2010 @ 5:00 am
I don’t care where he is from either…and thanks for saying that is dumb…you have now suggested I’m ignorant and dumb…but to stay on target here, my point is that he is trying to make himself out to be something he is not. He calls attention to his geography and to the “place” of his origin so many times in that song, it made me wonder where he is from. Again, he is using everything that symbolizes “country” to establish cred in this song and yet, he is not from the country. He is from a suburb.
What is interesting to me, and apparently not you per this comment, is how people define country in terms of geography or cultural artifacts. Does the fact that someone owns a truck make them country? Or is it what they eat? Do you need to wear a cowboy hat to be country? Or maybe it is if you live in a trailer? I think the ways people try to signify “country-ness” are interesting. It all goes back to that concept of authenticity. What makes “authentic” “country-ness”?
December 28, 2010 @ 9:58 am
I think your going down a path that will not produce any answers. I agree with Trig that where someone is from really shouldn’t determine whether you listen to them or not, since people don’t always have a choice of where they grow up and I don’t know many people that live exactly where they want to live during their “working lives”.
Metro areas/cities/suburbs are expanding. I live in a city that is considered a suburb, but I am literally 2min. from what folks here would call “out in the country”.
I grew up in a place that was in the sticks 30 yrs. ago, but if you google it now, it is a big suburb.
I work/live in the “city”, you wouldn’t confuse my home for a ranch, my cars for farm equipment, or my work clothes for a wranglers, but first chance I get on weekends and vacations, I head to the country, jeans and t-shirt, get under the hood of a car, drink cold beer and feel much more comfortable there. Why don’t I live in the country… I live where I can make money doing what I am good at. Out in the country isn’t the spot.
So I don’t think country is nor should be defined by your geographic location. It certainly can add cred to the claim of “being country”, but it is small part of it.
I am not supporting this Aaron joker and his “country boy” song, but where he grew up/lives really doesn’t matter to me. He could live in Luckenbach and this song would still suck ass.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:20 am
OK. So from your perspective, place is not significant. Therefore, what Aaron Lewis is doing is trying to make himself an authentic country artists by trotting out signifiers of countryness. He is calling on the 1200 person town and the truck and the guns (which you wouldn’t have in the city, right?) as markers of his qualification as a country musician.
To me the whole argument is silly really. The song sucks. That’s all that matters to me. I don’t care if it is country or if it rock or rap. It’s a shitty song. What does matter to me is how country is characterized by this bozo. If I say I like country music, does it mean that I need to have these artifacts in order to prove I am a real country fan? I hope not. It should really just be about the music and not these “signs” of countryness.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:29 am
Just to clarify, I wasn’t calling you dumb, I was calling anyone who does or does not listen to someone’s music simply because of where they are from dumb. Your point that Aaron is from a Mass. suburb is an important one, but when you start to zero in too much on geography, I think it can be unfair, as you pointed out yourself with the .357 String Band. That is why I worded the phrase in the article like I did.
“And is the reason the town he grew up in one we”™d “never know” because it”™s so small, or because it is north of New York City? Be proud of where you”™re from, wherever that is. Don”™t hide behind ambiguity because it”™s closer to Boston than Birmingham.
The fact that he didn’t mention specifically where he was from was an indictment that he knew this was something people might use against him. He should have either not broached the subject, or even better, not make this song all about himself, and instead focused on a universal theme that would have spoken to people regardless of where they live.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:36 am
Agreed. Nicely articulated too.
December 28, 2010 @ 11:18 am
You know, that’s kind of interesting..the idea of “not making the song all about himself”…
The thing is, we love when music is really about someone’s self. We are all attracted to lyrics that bare the soul of the songwriter and reveal common elements of humanity aren’t we? He did not give us himself. He gave us a list of qualifiers that made him fit into the “group” of “country.”
I wonder if he ever wrote songs where he really gave of himself? And even more important, I wonder if he is capable of seeing himself or others as anything but a formulaic combination of qualifiers for group membership. It’s kind of pathetic really. Now I’m back to feeling sorry for him.
December 27, 2010 @ 7:36 pm
The other guy singing is a Nashville Star winner…Thanks Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Young_(singer)
December 27, 2010 @ 9:04 pm
Yeah, I saw there was a third dude Aaron was trying to piggy back into country on, but I’ve never heard of him, or at least his name is generic enough I don’t remember him.
December 27, 2010 @ 7:57 pm
I hate songs where they try and sound badass or tough =(
December 29, 2010 @ 10:08 am
It makes you wonder if they are trying to compensate for other shortcomings 😉
December 27, 2010 @ 8:28 pm
Too many people trying too hard to be “country” with their flag and boots and beer and bad ass attitude. Boring country cookie cutter singing.
If growing up poor in a small town with your flag waving, driving a truck, having a gun and being a tall dog in the short grass qualifies ya as a country singer, then here I come blowin in from the good old Midwest just whistlin Dixie!
December 28, 2010 @ 10:32 am
My point exactly. Why are these markers like the flag and the gun and the truck considered to be country? Are they essential for an artist to be considered a country artist?
December 27, 2010 @ 9:13 pm
I think it’s funny that by trying to sell himself as a “Country Boy” to the masses, he has tripped every single alarm that goes off when someone is trying to sell out and is using the country platform to do so.
December 28, 2010 @ 5:03 am
One of those platforms is geography, which was the point I was making in my post about his origins. If geography is important for someone to be country, I wonder how folks in Europe feel. Or even .357. They are from WI…urban WI. That’s far from country, and I feel that their music embodies the spirit of quality country music for certain.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:04 am
where your from doesn’t matter as long as your not trying to pawn off in a song that your from somewhere your not.
.357 is from urban WI, and they are a country band. I don’t know that they go around claiming they grew up next to some moonshine still in the hills of Tenn. Of course they don’t go around in a video mentioning the pop. of the WI suburb they are from either and the need to carry a gun for no reason.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:24 am
Agreed. It is funny though. I wear black every day of my life. I look like an indie girl. I’ll admit it as unpopular as that is. lol. I live in a city. I drive a Honda Odyssey with heated leather seats. I teach at an University. I was born in Queens. I don’t own a cowboy hat and I love knee socks. I don’t own a gun.
I have none of the markers he uses in this song to qualify me as a country fan. I think a lot of people are like me. This is what makes songs like this so insulting I guess. As if the essence of country music can be boiled down to some sort of combination of material qualifiers.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:39 am
Songs like this shouldn’t be insulting to you. (or folks that can see through this shit and are fans of true artists)
But the song is insulting to Aaron. And he can’t see that, or I assume he can’t since he released it.
The song is more annoying than anything. For fans like us, we have to once again explain that the douche bag from Staind singing this awful song is not a representation of the music we enjoy.
Now, it might be insulting if Jones or Daniels came out in the song and said “to all you fans, this guy is the real deal, forget Waylon and Hank, Lewis is the man.”
December 28, 2010 @ 10:44 am
Exactly. Aaron has boiled down being country to material qualifiers, and that is what I, and many others find insulting. Being “country” means so much more than the things you have. It can mean where you live, simply by the multiple definitions of the term “country,” but not always in the context of music. And you can not be “country” but still appreciate the beauty and simplicity of country living, the respect to traditional values and the simple way of life. To Aaron, being country is buying an isolated fortress, and then provisioning it with armaments. To me the country is good music, simple people, small churches, knowing your neighbors, traditional living, and strong values, pretty much the exact opposite of what Aaron portrayed. This song isn’t bad, it is dangerous. It paints country people as untrustworthy, trigger-happy bigots. And yes, they do exist in the country, but they shouldn’t be celebrated.
It’s the simple beauty. That is the heart of “country.”
December 28, 2010 @ 11:05 am
That was lovely and I agree with it entirely. I’d add terms like “sincere” and “holistic” to the description of a “country lifestyle”. Being “down to earth” or having “community” or “fellowship” is also country…if you are inclined to define it.
Dangerous is an interesting way of looking at the song. Lindsay and I go round and round about stereotypes and group think. While I am not a supporter of people aligning themselves with groups, songs like this characterize country music lovers as hicks or backward folks much like rap songs characterize urban black folks as gang bangers and rapists. I hate anything that perpetuates stereotypes. We are all individuals. And rather than sharing some of his own individuality in this song, Aaron instead chooses to try to find ways to make his own personal history fit neatly into a stereotypical package of material qualifiers. This is a mistake and this is what insults me I guess.
December 28, 2010 @ 9:14 pm
There ain’t nothin’ wrong with knee high socks 😉
December 29, 2010 @ 11:46 am
Thanks. I happen to believe that myself. 😉
December 27, 2010 @ 10:47 pm
I read this, and watched the video, shortly after you posted it. I was going to comment on it then, but was at a loss. This is so disgusting, so foul, so vile, so stupid, I just don’t know how it can exist!
This song makes me want to laugh, it makes me want to cry, and for all of the wrong reasons.
If you have to invest five minutes of a record, the title track, no less, giving a laundry list of reasons you feel you should be considered country, and have to enlist the help of two aging icons to try and literally BUY yourself some credibility, chances are, you’re not country.
Everything about this is vile. That being said, I’m sure every aging nu-metal clown in North America will buy the shit out of this record, and just keep this endless cycle of stupidity going.
Something I had never considered about all of this Pop Country nonsense until a year or two ago, when a friend pointed this out to me. Can you imagine the atrocious human beings out there who actually feel endeared to something like this? I don’t want to believe there are millions of people out there who feel the same way Aaron Lewis does in this song, but I’m sure they’re out there. And this will be the new soundtrack to their miserable fucking lives.
I think it’s an ugly statement about the devolution of our society, when six decades ago, insightful, deep, well written songs about love, joy, pain, suffering, and spirituality were what the American people were buying/listening to on a mass scale. In the 21st century, shallow, superficial, materialistic, tripe, cooked up by a corporation, and given the face and voice of a colossal douchebag, is all it takes win over the American public.
I don’t get it, and I really don’t think I want to.
December 27, 2010 @ 11:09 pm
Excellent comment Owen.
I will say, I do think this song is experiencing some stiff resistance out there. Maybe not as stiff as you and me would like, but nonetheless. And I have seen comments on other articles and on YouTube from people who identify themselves as “country boys” and “rednecks” who don’t like the way this song characterizes them. That is what gives me hope.
December 28, 2010 @ 5:09 am
Great points Owen. It makes me lose faith in America when I see something like this too. I think this is because it has reduced the essence of things dear to my heart to some sort of iconic representation. It is as if you can adorn yourself with tags that symbolize authenticity and try to sell this to others without ever being authentic. I hate that word and yet it keeps coming to mind when I think about what bugs me about this song.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:21 am
people, your giving this dork to much credit, power, and control.
Much like Taylor Swift who is a moment on the country music timeline, this guy is less than that.
This video/song is not a representation of America, it is a record label (which is a company trying to make money) tossing out something they hope works given the climate of music right now. Aaron Lewis may be a country boy, may love traditional country music, he just sucks at showing that and clearly has self-esteem issues.
I will agree there are a lot of things that are off right now in this country, but I think your opinion of America is being based on the world of Entertainment Tonight news and what makes a playlist.
Sure the kids of today are spoiled with fake celebrity and don’t know what “reality” is actually real, but we had our fantasy land when we were teens, and so did our parents.
90% will grow up and in 15yrs. say “America is going to hell” like we all do and our parents did, etc. etc.
5% will grow up and really be shit heads
5% will not ever grow up thinking that reality TV is reality. (I think this is where Aaron Lewis is)
December 28, 2010 @ 10:27 am
I think he is just a symbol of stuff I find abhorrent about our society today. He has no power. He is symbolic for me.
And don’t get me started on the future of the US. I don’t think it is a pretty picture…which scares me because I have 3 children…
December 27, 2010 @ 11:34 pm
I’m just a country boy.
Money, have I none.
But I’ve got silver in the stars,
and gold in the morning sun.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:50 am
Thank you Sagee.
That is what being a country boy is about. Simple pleasures. Simple living.
December 28, 2010 @ 7:49 am
“Country Boy” serves as a fitting introduction to “Town Line”, which hits shelves in February (exact release date to be announced). Lewis’ voice carries a catchy chorus over a slide guitar, and he opens up in this personal manifesto about his past, present, and future. Featuring a FIERY FIDDLE LEAD FROM DANIELS, a BOOMING verse from Jones and Young’s lilting harmonies, “Country Boy” STRIKES A BALANCE between classic and modern country.
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=150210
December 28, 2010 @ 10:28 am
You’ve got to be kidding me…
December 28, 2010 @ 10:30 am
ahhh. that article makes me sick to my stomach.
“I live in the sticks of Massachusetts,” smiles Lewis. “I wrote the song sitting on the front steps of my house. In the spring, the peepers get so loud outside. When they come out, they bring on the night. It’s chilling and familiar, and I’ve heard that sound my whole life. That’s how I know I’m home.”
…and then you vomit.
The sticks of Mass??? Isn’t Mass like 50miles by 20miles in size? Having birds in tress doesn’t make your neighborhood the “sticks”.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:35 am
Hey hey…you’re falling into my trap, Waylon4ever. Careful now. He could have lived in a Swedish high rise in Stockholm and been country right? lol 😉
December 28, 2010 @ 10:51 am
Well, not if he is boasting about being from the sticks when he isn’t. Then he is just a liar.
December 28, 2010 @ 10:56 am
ha. I know.
He can be from Mass. Not a problem. Doesn’t make or not make him country.
BUT, he is saying “I’m from the sticks…” as if it were the same “sticks” living in Tenn. From my little experience, two different sets of “sticks”.
He can simply say, “I’m from a small town in Mass. My grandpa introduced me to country music. I like other music, I obviously play other music, but country music is where it really started from my grandpa. It means a lot to me and I’m not trying to be the next Hank, I just am kind of coming back to things I remember as I get older.” (we all do it)
December 28, 2010 @ 11:12 am
Again though we are back to geography, you know?
Perhaps small town life is “country” and there are many small towns all over the Northeast…all over the US to be honest.
But does this really matter? Can you live in NYC and write country music? I would argue that you can. I don’t think he’d be inauthentic if he just wrote songs that were heartfelt and sincere. This song is not.
December 28, 2010 @ 11:30 am
Your trying to ask if one can be from NYC and be country. I say they could. Realize it or not, NYC actaully embraces a lot of non-mainstream country acts.
BUT your question, does it matter where Aaron is from, I say yes when he references it in the song or news article and passes it off as something it simply is not.
It maybe small town, it maybe rural. But it isn’t a factor. Jesus, you’d think being from Mass. alone would have gotten a light blub to go off in his head to think “I am trying to cater to country crowd, Jones, Daniels, Hank, etc… maybe I should stay away from the New England references.”
It doesn’t matter to me, it just makes him look dumber.
December 28, 2010 @ 5:12 pm
Peepers are frogs. Frogs are more country than birds.
December 30, 2010 @ 10:30 am
That’s hilarious. Now I want to see a nice line drawing of a frog with a big uncontrolled beard and a cowboy hat on with a banjo or CBG in his hands…
December 28, 2010 @ 8:16 am
This doesn’t fit, but it’s still interesting. http://www.hillbilly-music.com/index.php
December 28, 2010 @ 11:07 am
Its funny.. I was watching this video before I went to bed last night and my lady could hear the tune from across the room and she asked if it was the Staind dude and then went on saying how it sounded exactly like most of his other songs. When I told her he is now country she laughed and said maybe if he keeps telling people how country he is with his big diesel truck people may believe it.. Coming from her I thought it was pretty funny..
December 28, 2010 @ 11:24 am
Man, I listened to it again. I recommend a second or third time. Just in case someone actually tells you they like it, you can really burn them down.
From his dad buying a small home in a rural town in 1964 for $1500 (wow, shocking) to when he kind of runs out of a line and just repeats…
“war is known to change a man… and whiskeys known to change a man” couldn’t come up with a new one for the war and whiskey eh?
Then my favorite… the line near the end about the flags…”one has the colors that fly high and proud, the red the white the blue.” Thanks pal, I wasn’t sure what colors the flag was.
And to top it off, you gotta love the “country boy” in him that wears capri shorts and vans shoes walking through the garden patch in Mass.
He needs his ass kicked.
December 28, 2010 @ 2:48 pm
LOL. Yeah, I had a line up there about his outdated “skate or die” grunge shorts and low-top deck shoes, but decided to take it out for length. He might own land, but in those duds, I can guarantee he ain’t working it much.
December 28, 2010 @ 11:49 am
The last Staind album – which sucks – had a lot of faux-country elements in it, too. Not very surprised by this.
December 28, 2010 @ 12:06 pm
Also, I should note that Aaron’s paranoid need to pack heat when he heads for the supermarket is probably more attributable to his being so heavy of a pot smoker that he makes Cypress Hill look straight-edge.
December 28, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
This song is nothing but self promotion to a new market. God only knows how he got George and Charlie in on it, BUT…I can see this same conversation going on if he was the first to release “A Country Boy Can Survive”. This is just another music execs money hoaring gimmick…and I’m thinking (hoping) it was just a trip down memory lane for George & Charlie. COUNTRY is in the heart, it’s a love for the basics, It don’t matter where you are from or what you have to do for a living, I think it’s more a matter of where or what you would rather be doing. Kinda just looks to me like Aaron would rather be cashing in on a different market. 20 years ago I woulda liked this song…probably.
December 28, 2010 @ 2:44 pm
“Country Boy Can Survive” is a much better song with a great theme about how simple people can survive the harder times better because they are used to them. I’m not sure if Jr. even meant for that song to be 100% biographical. This song steals the bellicose approach of Jr’s version, but none of the good stuff, and instead interjects “me,me,me!”
December 28, 2010 @ 3:29 pm
Well said Trigger.
If people can’t see this is simply a bad song, they need some help. Self-promotion along with just drawn out overly worded lyrics.
Please no one compare this to CBCS from HankJr. The only thing that remotely allows it in the same sentence is the visuals of the video might have worked with a video for CBCS. The lyrics are not even close to holding the jock of CBCS.
December 28, 2010 @ 5:08 pm
Reading that Roadrunner press release now and here’s some quotes yall will probably enjoy as much as me.
“In terms of songwriting, “Town Line” was an organic progression for Lewis. “The country accompaniment naturally complements my acoustic guitar playing,” he says. “These songs are country in the sense of classic Americana. They’re simple, understated, and founded on quality songwriting. If you put a country accompaniment to any of the songs that I’ve written over the years on my acoustic, all of them would work as country tunes. When a song comes from an acoustic, it can go in any direction you want it to go. I always write and play the same way. The only difference here is the accompaniment.
Quality songwriting…..ahem.
“Lewis concludes, “I’ve always stayed true to how I feel in my songs. I love this country, and I feel like I’ve gotten to live the American dream. I’m genuinely blessed to have this opportunity, and I’m glad to celebrate that classic country spirit with this new music.
Uhhh, in this song doesn’t he admit he wasn’t being true to himself the last 12 years?
December 28, 2010 @ 5:55 pm
He’s all over the map man. He pays lip service to whoever is standing in front of him, and thinks that we’re too stupid to connect the dots.
So using country instruments in you arrangement is all you need to change from a rock to a country song. I have a strong suspicion this dude has not listened to very much country in his time. Any time anyone flashes a “Greatest Hits” album from any artist, it’s pretty much a calling card that they don’t know what the hell is going on. And Jr’s Greatest Hits album is one of the worst. Alll the rootin’ tootin’ songs without any of the soulful ones like “A Whole Lotta Hank” “All in Alabama” “Here I am Falling Again.” I’d love to quiz this dude about some very basic country trivia and see how quickly he starts to squirm.
December 29, 2010 @ 8:03 am
Triggerman, since were on that subject. Im curious. Where do you draw the line between country and rock? And where does “Country-Rock,” come into play? How are “Rock-ballads” and “Acoustic-rock excluded from the “Country” landscape? I’m not looking for you to name several artists, I’m just wanting you give us your view on that. ——- I personally put alot of weight on the attitde of a song as making it “Country”, but you seem to disagree with that….
December 29, 2010 @ 10:43 am
I love rock. I love country. I even love when people combine rock and country, if it is done right, with taste. If this was marketed as a rock song, I would have no problems with it, beyond the self-centered lyrics. Calling it country is what I have a problem with. Clearly they think I’m stupid. The more and more I think about it, I don’t think Aaron has listened to very much country music at all. Even he admits its a rock song with country instruments. Aaron’s “combining” of country and rock is clearly market driven, and that will always be wrong. When it is done right, you just know. It is a feeling. It has to do with soul, so it is hard to put into words.
December 29, 2010 @ 11:00 am
from the Roadrunner release…per Aaron Lewis- “These songs are country in the sense of classic Americana. They”™re simple, understated, and founded on quality songwriting.”
Where in the hell does he see “simple, understated and quaility songwirting” in this shit song? This guy is so fucking grass-ed up. I hope he shoots himself in the leg when packing his nine.
December 29, 2010 @ 5:51 am
one more time i’m totally with you triggerman. this song and the video is just ridicolous. it has so much “coolness” in it, that you can’t believe a single word…
unfortunately george and charlie don’t see that. i think for them it was just a little fun to get out and work a little bit…
December 29, 2010 @ 10:15 am
I’m embarrassed as an American to think that there’s people in other countries watching this crap and thinking this is what America is. It plays right into anti-American’s hands. This is NOT American. This is one self-centered asshole.
December 30, 2010 @ 10:44 am
When I spent time in Africa in the 90s, I was routinely asked how many guns I owned, how many I carried with me every day, and if I had a Cadillac and a swimming pool. My answer was “none”, “none,” and “no.” Many folks didn’t consider me to be a true American. Maybe I’m not?
March 13, 2011 @ 3:34 pm
Don’t worry KAK, that’s what true a New Zealander is these days. My dad runs a gun club, I drive around in a Cadillac and I have a pool too. It’s of the blow up variety, but it’s still a vessel that holds enough water for me to sit in with a glass of chardonnay. Someone needs to update the Africans 😉
Triggerman, I truly don’t believe most of the world sees something like this and thinks it’s a true representation of the average American. Infact, I even wonder if this song will even be released in many territories outside the US? We know y’all are nothing like this: from watching American TV shows we know you are all yellow cartoony looking folks that work at nuclear power plants and fashion your hair into big blue beehives. Doop!
December 29, 2010 @ 6:37 am
that was horrible… but I am used to it…. I hate it when folks jump on the patriotic bandwagon…. its boring, Jesse Dayton has a bad habit of doing this as well in the “country” end of thangs….
I love your writing Trig….
December 29, 2010 @ 9:24 am
Yep, going in a “country direction” and putting the stars and strip on the album cover (assuming that’s to be the cover) sets off the faux patriotism alarms, doesn’t it. Someone (I forget who) said something like “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” I think this is the specific type of patriotism they had in mind. Look at me! I’m patriotic just like you!
December 29, 2010 @ 10:19 am
It is pretty common throughout country music. I’ve seen a lot of artists over the years using patriotism as a marketing scheme. I’m usually a bit reluctant to call it out though, because some of these folks really do care and give a lot of their time to back all their flag waving. I’m sure Aaron Lewis has done a token USO tour, but you don’t do much for patriotism and America when you perpetuate every negative stereotype about Americans and gun owners being trigger happy assholes riddled with fear.
December 29, 2010 @ 11:42 am
My personal favorite for using patriotism as a marketing tool was that Wrangler jeans commercial that played just the first half of the first verse of CCR’s Fortunate Son, with the flag swaying in the breeze. No way Fogerty would have allowed that if he owned the rights to his song. But I digress…
July 3, 2024 @ 9:07 am
On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made a famous statement: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” The line was not, as is widely believed, about patriotism in general but rather what Johnson saw as the false use of the term “patriotism” by William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.
December 29, 2010 @ 8:52 am
Ya this is just another shitty staind song. You can thank Fred durst from limp bizkit for this guys success.
December 29, 2010 @ 2:23 pm
Aaron”™s paranoid need to pack heat when he heads for the supermarket
I don’t understand why this is an example of any kind of paranoia. It isn’t any more paranoid than having a fire extinguisher in the kitchen or a spare tire for the car.
December 29, 2010 @ 2:32 pm
So what is his point for penning it in a song? To sell more records?
December 29, 2010 @ 4:30 pm
I don’t think you can equate a fire extinguisher and a spare tire to a gun. Fire extinguishers and spare tires help people and can save lives. Guns can save lives, and they can kill people. A lot less regulation around fire extinguishers for that reason.
I live in the country BECAUSE I don’t want to have to feel the need to leave my house without carrying a gun. I also live in the country so I don’t have to worry about locking my doors 24/7.
It is Aaron’s right to do whatever he wants with his guns, including carrying one every time he leaves his house because he lives in abject fear. But to me, that has nothing to do with the country.
December 29, 2010 @ 5:00 pm
A lot less regulation around fire extinguishers for that reason
Actually, the roots of the lion’s share of American gun regulations have to do with Prohibition and American politicians’ fears of armed black people. The statist control freaks we elect would like you to think it’s about safety, but it really isn’t. S the old saying goes, “Gun control isn’t about guns; it’s about control.”
But that’s another blog entirely.
December 29, 2010 @ 2:37 pm
I don’t know. If it is, that pandering should be what people get all het up about. Either way, considering that owning and carrying guns is such a politically charged act, it does fit the song, in its own way.
December 29, 2010 @ 3:32 pm
I think the point is Aaron Lewis tried too hard to stamp out his “country-ness” and real country folk probably don’t give a hoot. Real music lovers see right through it. He did all this to let his fans know who he really is? Or to let his fans buy him country gold? Ya know? I mean, if all you can do is list and rhyme attributes that make you country then goody goody jam and fruity. A third grader could do the same. Real music and heartfelt lyrics entail a little more.
December 30, 2010 @ 10:35 am
What really interests me about this is why he wants to be country? Why anyone wants to be country? What is it that is appealing about country-ness and what is it that he hopes to gain by moving in that direction?
Trig is really good at exploring how this genre is in a position to bring musicians bank. He has pointed out that rap/pop/and country are the genres that make any money for musicians these days. So is he trying to make a buck?
It seems to me that this is a lot of kindergarten garbage. “I’m more country than you are because I have all of these things that show I’m real and you’re not!” Wah wah. Who cares?
December 29, 2010 @ 4:01 pm
Real music and heartfelt lyrics entail a little more.
I don’t see why you’d infer from my comment that I don’t agree with that. I dislike rockers going country as much as anyone even if I do think more of this song than folks who regularly post here. But if someone like, say, Dale Watson sang about carrying a gun would y’all call him paranoid? Or would you say, “Oh, yeah, he’s rough, tough and don’t take shit offa nobody. Fuck yeah!” Or how about, say, Charlie Daniels?
“Well I’m the kinda man wouldn’t-a harm a mouse, but if I catch somebody breakin’ in my house I got a 12-gauge shotgun waitin’ on the other side…”
Paranoid redneck son of a bitch? Or realistic individualist?
I will also note that I do agree with a lot of what’s posted here vis-a-vis modern Nashville music, but I don’t see how this song, in the words of the esteemed host, “perpetuates every single negative stereotype about gun owners and patriots that is possible” or “paints them as ignorant, self-centered assholes that feed their pit bulls gun power and beat their girlfriends with rubber hoses.” That strikes me as getting a bit carried away with the criticism — unless, of course, one already thinks gun owners and “patriots” are like that.
December 29, 2010 @ 4:42 pm
I think the negative stereotypes about gun owners in this country are effusive throughout culture, especially centered around academia, and songs and videos like this I have no doubt help perpetuate this. This is a recruiting video for the next Million Mom March. And the guns were just one element of many in this song. It’s the showing off his army truck, the tattoos, the whole bit all together was a bunch of self-centered bravado that I think is hurtful to every single cause he is trying to champion.
And maybe I did get a little carried away, but this video really ticked me off. It reinforces negative stereotype I’ve been working very hard at trying to erode.
It is not the message I have a problem with necessarily, it is the messenger.
December 30, 2010 @ 10:40 am
Hmmmm. What exactly is the academic position on guns?
December 29, 2010 @ 4:53 pm
This is a recruiting video for the next Million Mom March
Pardon my french, Triggerman, but fuck those evil bastards. You are not going to win any friends with that bunch no matter how hard you try. They use gun owners’ very existence as a recruiting tool. I mean, really, saying someone should be denied his right of self-defense because of what he posts on fucking Facebook? REALLY?!
December 29, 2010 @ 5:47 pm
Look man, my feelings, your feelings, and Aaron Lewis’s feelings on gun control are all the same. The only difference between me and him is I’m not running around in the forest like Rambo with a gun in one hand and a guitar in the other, flashing my tattoos at the camera and putting out there as art. You may never convince the million mom crowd of anything, but they can use videos like this starring narcissistic assholes traipsing through underbrush in skateboarding duds to convince moderates that this is what every gun owner looks like.
This isn’t about guns or gun control or even politics. This is about Aaron’s raging ego, guns are just one way he flaunts it, which in my opinion as a gun owner, is what is so dangerous.
March 13, 2011 @ 9:38 pm
Triggerman says “The only difference between me and him is I”™m not running around in the forest like Rambo with a gun in one hand and a guitar in the other, flashing my tattoos at the camera and putting out there as art”.
Now you know I like you Trig and I really don’t like calling you out, but once again I must refer you back to a evening we spent out at SXSW last year. Sure, your gun might have been a neon pink plastic water pistol and the guitar a ukulele but you kinda crossed a line when you whipped off your leather vest and shirt, busted out your full-back Taylor Swift tattoo, grabbed your crotch and whipped off your jeans. And incidently, why did they do up via velcro down the sides of the legs?!? But seriously, tormenting that passing police officer with “Do ya like my Hank Pants?” was not the best idea. I hope that night in Austin County Jail brought you to your senses and you don’t go there again this year. I know you love them, however I really think you need to keep off the Malibu and diet cokes dude.
If I may I’d also like to suggest you posting Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive” music vid on here as there have been a few comparisons. I can’t see it myself, however it might provide some insight for the younger readers here who don’t know wtf us oldies are referring to.
December 29, 2010 @ 5:00 pm
This is one of the worst things my ears have ever had the awful fortune to listen to. I’m going to burn this song to a disc just so I can set it on fire.
December 29, 2010 @ 5:49 pm
Then clearly you hate America.
December 30, 2010 @ 10:39 am
Not if he dances around the fire in cowboy boots with a Rebel flag draped around his neck and a gun in his hand naked…then he is a REAL American.
December 29, 2010 @ 9:51 pm
stained sucks and makiing a “country” cd will continue to make them suck.
January 2, 2011 @ 1:55 pm
I would like to point back to the beginning of the blog about the Hank III comments. I think all this points back the reason why Hank has distanced himself from other artists. He knows of what a massive influence he has had on country music and he carried the torch brightly for years, but I think he could probably see what happens when the masses want something, it is burnt down, turned inside out, and all the “realness” is gone. That means anyone on Hank III’s Myspace has the same country attitude and is worth listening to. You see a lot of emerging artists advertising with phrases like “opened for Hank III, Wayne the Train blah blah blah” Yeah that fine and dandy but those guys started something, without the help of a booster band to advertise them. And I respect III for not just taking any random country wanna be band on tour (except for Kyle Turley, but he wasn’t that bad) Do you think bands like Those Poor Bastards would be as successful now without that influence? I know they blew me away when I saw them open for him. I think the whole Staind album is a perfect example of what III and what country should oppose. It’s fake.And if your not careful in this world your music and message will be infiltrated and distorted by ingenuine people who’s only goal is to make money doing what they “love,” supposedly making music. Unfortunately when the glory of the good ol dollar is behind what you do, well that’s not country my friends.
January 2, 2011 @ 3:45 pm
Well said. I couldn’t disagree with any of this.
The way that whole conversation started was someone saying Hank III should take the point calling Aaron Lewis out. Back in the day, Hank III would have. His bullhorn is much louder than mine or anybody else’s around here.
And I don’t want to take anything away from Aaron for supporting the troops in whatever way he has in the past, but my guess is Hank III has put his money where his mouth in a bigger way when you compare the two’s personal wealth. Maybe if Aaron sold his army truck and took the money and have it to housing disabled veterans, I would have more respect for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig9TA0VZzXE
January 5, 2011 @ 4:56 pm
I am a bit late to the party on this topic, but relatively new comer to the site.
This song is insulting to country music. I agree with every word that is written above.
January 5, 2011 @ 5:09 pm
WELCOME IceColdCountry!
January 5, 2011 @ 8:31 pm
Wow all you haters are a joke. I don’t know if you are all to ignorant or just to stupid to realize this son is not about you. no one gives a damn if you or your families were in the military or if Aaron was in the military, coming from an active duty Sergeant of Marines that song means a lot just in the way he shows support for the ones who are or who have served. All you bitches talking shit about it are probably the same pussies who were too scared to take the challenge when u had the chance. Or did try to take the challenge and didn’t have what it took. So you sit your asses in front of a computer and talk shit about how someone shows support. Just like the saying goes those who aren’t good enough, coach, those who aren’t smart enough, teach gym, and now those to useless for either talk shit about people who do on the Internet.
January 5, 2011 @ 9:06 pm
No, I think I went out of my way to say that this song was all about Aaron Lewis and his morbidly obese ego. Never thought it was about me.
I really don’t think he’s showing much support to those that have served, I think he’s using the passion that people have for our men and women in uniform as a marketing tool to sell his song. I have no doubt that Aaron Lewis supports the military, and if he has gone out of his way to help in other specific ways, then I salute him for that. But all this song does is paint pro-military, pro-gun types as trigger-happy raging narcissists. I can’t see how that serves anybody well.
I appreciate your service to our country.
January 6, 2011 @ 9:38 am
Only Taylor Swift writes about you.
January 6, 2011 @ 9:28 am
I appreciate your service as well.
I am fairly new to the site as far as commenting, but I have read the site a while now. I don’t agree that the people here are just pussies sitting on the sideline. From what I can gather, most of the folks here are artists, songwriters, on the radio, etc… they aren’t just sitting at home commenting on crappy songs. I understand your agnst, but it probably is because your a huge Stained fan. What Aaron Lewis does in his free time is great, supporting troops, etc. But this song is not good. As Triggerman said, he is exploiting.
If you like the artist, fine, say that. But careful who your talking to on here and calling out. They know what they are talking about.
January 6, 2011 @ 7:39 pm
Lets be honest, most true blooded country boys are pro military and pro guns. and most military members are trigger-happy raging narcissists. maybe he is using the military as a marketing tool but it doesn’t make it a bad song. just like kenny chesney singing about his tractor being sexy, or jason aldean singing about his big green tractor, does that mean they are using john deer as a marketing tool to sell there song… maybe but it doesn’t change that fact that they are good songs. and for the record icecoldcountry, I honestly had no idea who Aaron lewis was until i saw that music video on cmt. thats how i found this site, i was trying to find out more info about him. and i am a fan of rock but i couldn’t name one song by staind. just like all the other musicians on this site they are all in the business of making money, so its common sense that if you are marketing towards country music fans you are going to sing about what the like, family, country, guns, and freedom. weather it is your true life story or not.
January 6, 2011 @ 7:41 pm
sorry about the spelling, im a Marine not an english major.
January 6, 2011 @ 8:17 pm
There is a certain mindset on this site. It is more than about saving country music. It is about saving music in general. Take a look around the site and you may find some artists on here who push the boundaries of what you think is good and you won’t find their video’s on CMT. When you say that Aaron Lewis is in the business of making money, yes that is probably true, and that is one of the root problems that everyone here is trying to expose. Music can be about a lot of things, but if the aim is to profit, then the soul is lost. There’s bands and artists out there who bust their ass on the road to get their songs listened to who would not allow their music to be put in a gift wrapped advertisement on music television. In fact there are many artists who call it quits because they don’t want their face to be associated with the greed of the music industry today. Punk rock bands that I saw as kids were real. Many of them ended being tools of the corporate machine. Which is what I think Aaron Lewis has done. I live in Orange County, the birthplace of bands like Black Flag, The Vandals, Pennywise, Bad Religion, and Bakersfield is only a 2 hour drive away, where Merle Haggard ran amuck in his early years, yet there is maybe very few venues who will allow upcoming artists to play without having to produce attendance, or pay the venue itself. There’s a billboard on the corner of Aaron Lewis and his new album. This is a sad state of affairs. It’s a different lifestyle, I know, and and it’s hard for some people to understand because we’ve all been socially conditioned to accept that it’s all about money. Well I’d pay extra to see Bob Wayne or 357 String Band any day instead of watch some of high priced, advertising machines that are on television or public radio. A person’s soul can come out on a record, some more than others, but you definitely tell when it’s missing.
Fowler Sells Out for Colt Ford’s “Hip Hop in a Honky Tonk” « Saving Country Music
January 6, 2011 @ 1:35 pm
[…] when Trace Adkins took a stupid urbanism and turned it into the premise for a whole song, or when Arron Lewis took the same Staind song that’s been rehashed a dozen times and called it country. But still they spiral continues […]
January 11, 2011 @ 3:15 am
im catchin up on old news…. this is a great write up trigger….couldnt agree more…
February 11, 2011 @ 3:33 pm
This song aint bad at all. wtf are you people talking about.
God damn rednecks cant see good music
February 11, 2011 @ 4:50 pm
Ha! Curse rednecks when the accusation about this song is that Arron Lewis is trying unsuccessfully to be one. If you don’t want to deal with “God Damn rednecks” then stay the fuck out of country!
February 27, 2011 @ 11:50 pm
I like the song, and I don’t have have a problem with someone who doesn’t. Part of being American is being entitled to have your own opinion. Debate is good.
My argument here is in the composition of the music. Whoever said that all songs have to rhyme? Most of the junk they play on country stations these days are cutsie songs where every line rhymes. There’s no originality. I think – not getting into the political issues – Aaron’s song is well-written and it’s nice to see something different put out these days. I think it comes closer to country than many of the songs played on the country stations right now.
And whether its being produced just to make a buck or not (which is what these people are in the business to do), I agree with the line “I don’t need the government to lead me by the hand.”
February 28, 2011 @ 12:08 pm
You answered your own argument Elizabeth. No one said that music has to be cutsey, which I assume you mean pop country but if you listen to some real country music the lyrics will show the composition is very intricate, very relevant and very political. Aaron Lewis did not acoomplish all that wiht his Country Boy song.
March 1, 2011 @ 9:52 am
I agree, Denise. I think the pop country is more like the light rock we use to listen to years ago. I think one of the few artists played these days that comes close to real country is Jamey Johnson. I hope the stations give him more airtime.
March 3, 2011 @ 2:00 am
Okay, so all of you who claim to be proud americans who love country music and all the greats (Waylon, Hank, Etc) are seriously going to sit here and rip on a man who is singing about where he lives, what he believes and how he feels just because you have an obviously psychic inclination that it’s a marketing ploy and not how he really feels?
My first direct question to each of you is.. have you spent any time with Aaron to know what his beliefs are? how he feels about the things he talks about?
I love how you are so quick to say that he admits that he wrote the songs from Stainds album under the pretense of a lie without so much as a question to find out if it was. Had you been educated or spoken to him you would know that just because they told him he was going to “Sell his Soul” it doesn’t mean that he ACTUALLY DID IT. Before you make statements suggesting that you know what the hell you are talking about maybe you should actually make sure that you DO.
Besides, if it was just a “marketing” ploy based on the lyrics don’t you think Charlie Daniels and George Jones would have noticed it and objected to being part of it? I think considering they are “Greats” in the genre of music in question that they would have a better idea of what is appropriate for it then any of you. Unless I am mistaken and any you have made a considerably significant mark on the Country Music Genre. If you have then I stand corrected and appologize.
Since when did country music become “frame worked” anyway? I’m a country music fan and have been my entire life and I’ve never seen a song (Or any type of informational flyer, checklist or any other document) state that a country song had to be a certain format to be considered country. I’ve also never seen anything that dictates what an artist is aloud to compile into a song before it becomes “A Marketing Ploy”. Last I knew country music was about being true to YOURSELF wether anyone else liked it or not. If that’s what made the greats truly great then how can you honestly sit here and say “Well I don’t like it because it fits a format and it offends me because of that”? Then in almost the same breath you state how he sounds like he’s an irresponsible gun owner (again continuing to make assumptions based off of information that you don’t have) and a bunch of other statements that basically say that it DOESN’T fit a typical format. Which is it? Make up your mind. Touching back on the firearms and him being irresponsible I happen to live in New England and for a long while I carried a hand gun on my person almost always. Do you think that him being so high profile might have something to do with it considering when he’s home he’s constantly with his family? Use your head.
If his song offends you.. you obviously have a very skewed view of what country music really is wether you claim to be an expert or not. Personally I don’t consider just anyone full of hot air ripping on an artists work an expert. Especially when they have no credentials in the genre (Or music in general) that would give them the “Expertise” to be such. Now in addition to that.. not only do you insult his view on YOUR idea of what a country song should and shouldn’t be, you even go in to his talent as a Rock genre artist. Saying at best he has a monotone voice and no range. First off you’re just plain wrong and ovbiously haven’t listened to much of his music. From my perspective for an artist to sell 15 million records the band probably has a pretty exception vocalist.
Stop assuming that just because you don’t like it it’s not country music. Music is changing. Deal with it.
March 3, 2011 @ 2:05 am
*Exceptional vocalist*
March 3, 2011 @ 10:09 am
I can see your pride for Aaron Lewis, but you do make some pretty silly remarks:
“I happen to live in New England and for a long while I carried a hand gun on my person almost always. Do you think that him being so high profile might have something to do with it considering when he”™s home he”™s constantly with his family?”
You live in New England, your not going to get much sympathy from people that you live in a rough part of town and need to carry a gun living in that part of the country. Maybe, maybe some parts of Boston, but your clearly not from those parts.
“From my perspective for an artist to sell 15 million records the band probably has a pretty exception vocalist.”
Have you heard other artists that sell a bunch of records? I am sure the folks on here can give you a long list of million selling artists with shit voices.
The song is a caricature of country song at best.
March 3, 2011 @ 11:03 am
Music is not changing, it is devolving, and Aaron Lewis is a perfect example of that.
And I wouldn’t accuse somebody of making assumptions, by making assumptions about them, it’s never smart.
March 15, 2011 @ 7:27 pm
What is your opinion of Aaron Lewis going around everywhere, whether it’s on radio talk shows, and today on a cmt article voicing his very conservative political opinons. In his 12 years with Staind he never once voiced political opinions. In fact he even said a couple of years ago that he didn’t like voicing political opinions, because when a musician does that it may affect his career. I feel he is getting a false perception that most southerners/country fans are conservative. I live in the south and his perceptions are wrong. The south just like anywhere else nationwide is politically diverse. For example Tim McGraw is a Democrat, and from what I understand so is Toby Keith. On this article today on Cmt today he is quoted as saying………. “For some reason, most of the people in my business are just bat-shit crazy liberals,” he said. “To be honest with you, it’s really easy to be a liberal when you’ve got more money than you know what to do with. When you’re depending on the dollar earned, it’s a whole different story altogether. The way I see it in this country, the only entitlement that anybody is deserving of — and should look at as an entitlement — is freedom. The only entitlement we’ve got is freedom.”
He’s spoken many times against so called handouts/entitlements (welfare), and says that people on handouts/entitlements (welfare) as he calls it are lazy. He says that he works very hard for his money and that he’s never needed government to hold his hand, and that he is the “American Dream”.
There are many hardworking poor white southern families on some form of government assistance (welfare, food stamps) who’ve lost jobs, or a spouse has gotten ill, and all of a sudden can’t make ends meet I guess he’s calling poverty stricken appalachians on government assistance, lazy. There are people out there who may abuse the welfare system, but for Aaron Lewis to generalize, and practically call most people on welfare as being lazy is very offensive to many people out there, especially with the difficult economic times our nation is facing right now, and more and more people are losing their jobs. He’s a millionaire out of touch with reality.
March 3, 2011 @ 2:11 am
I had one more thing too.. Have any of you ever heard of South Hero, Vermont? I bet most if not all of you haven’t. That would classify as a town you wouldn’t know probably. 😉 Just sayin.
TRACK REVIEW: SEETHER “Country Song”
March 9, 2011 @ 1:47 pm
[…] Left To Fray, out May 17th), I had fears of these guys pulling a Bon Jovi – or worse yet an Aaron Lewis (and playing to the teabagger contingent in the process as the ex-Staind singer is) until I listened to the song itself, the music of which is actually composed and arranged in a […]
March 9, 2011 @ 2:37 pm
I think I will continue to not listen to Aaron Lewis and continue to not listen to Seether.
March 12, 2011 @ 12:23 am
I love you Triggerman. I love you…HEY MOTHER FUCKER… I love you
March 12, 2011 @ 6:41 am
First off I wonder if he pays Hank Jr. royalties for “Country Boy Can Survive” lyrics.
Out of all the dumbassery this guy brings I have hope. I see him taking a shit ton of lost people out there and helping them to identify with their idea of what “country” is. This distracts them from thinking they are rock or rap for the moment. Lord knows they are just consumers and not real music fans. This is where we come in. We take our message to these people and let them know there is a better way. I think we should use this mainstream use of “country” to our advantage.Let them turn the tide and then all our folk take it from there. That’s why I am always “spreading the Muddy Roots Gospel.”
March 13, 2011 @ 11:28 am
I dont mind Lewis, or anyone else for for that matter, entering into country radio. Ive said before that I have no interest in that format. So what does it matter to me anyway. My problem with this song is that there is only one rock/metal station in Nashville and they play this damn song. Seems that he has a rock and country mix of it. Terrible song I cant find the volume knob on radio fast enough when it starts.
Not to get political here, But basically isnt he just pandering to the tea party crowd, the same way Palin does (flag says dont tread on me, guns, simple people type thing)? Just a cash grab is all it is. I was into Staind when they first broke out. This song really hurts their legacy in my eyes.
March 13, 2011 @ 1:11 pm
For one I’ll start off by saying about the people who flood you email or whatever the case may be, folks on the internet never “listen” to what you say and normally repeating yourself don’t work either. I’ve read all the blogs (i guess that’s what you’d call them) that you’ve posted since i found out about this site and I’ve read the ones about this before, can’t figure out why people can’t read before bugging someone to talk about what he already discussed but oh well that’s what you get with this generation.
Second, i don’t know how ANYONE could consider this a Country song when clearly the beginning and hell 98% of the song is in fact Rock.
March 13, 2011 @ 1:18 pm
your email*
and i mean a Soft Rock Ballad*
damn my spelling errors
and i agree with you about the whole Military, my Grand Dad served in Vietnam and I’ve been thinking about joining the Army but not too sure right now as to if i am or not, I’d be proud to yeah but got other problems and that would just create more drama amongst me, my family and significant other, but anyway, yeah my Grand Dad is the on credit i have at all towards the Military
March 13, 2011 @ 1:33 pm
uhhh… does he even know how pathetic he is by doing this or is he totally oblivious? only a horrible person with no conscience would sing that song.
March 13, 2011 @ 8:51 pm
tell’em payne!
March 13, 2011 @ 1:49 pm
As a resident of Tn, Living just outside of Nashville, I’m just as offended by the cd cover as I am the song. He is not allowed to claim Nashville.
Link to cd cover
http://blog.newsok.com/bamsblog/files/2011/03/AaronLewis-TownLineEP.jpg
March 13, 2011 @ 8:46 pm
Does the link not work, or were you being clever? I got one of those 403 forbidden errors.
March 15, 2011 @ 8:58 pm
wow i was expecting a little more class in your comments about his song. let the man produce the song he wants without a bunch on ignorant comments. hes entitled to write it the way he wants. just like you folks are allowed to also. music is suppose to be a creative outlet. its not right to tear him down. thats all…
March 16, 2011 @ 5:41 am
Wow I was expecting a little more substance to your comment about this song. The man DID produce a faux country song (that is the problem) expecting to cross over into the POP country genre and expecting to be welcomed with open arms because he used the Possum and Bocephus and listing everything about what a musician from a POP Rock band thinks country is about.
Wow that’s really creative! Meanwhile, real country fans, like us, are poised and ready to make unclassy comments about it.
March 16, 2011 @ 2:09 pm
Touche! Guess its time to run charile daniels and george jones of the cliche then? They should have known better then to collaborate with such a person. So if aaron lewis missed the boat on the “crossing over to pop country” genre i guess i did too. What am I not getting? If it is such a horrible song does he just get written off as a joke? just like that? The man has talent, maybe not in country music. Shouldnt he get a chance to prove himself? Im just saying the above comments made him sound like a horrible person. I think thats an unfair accusation thats all.
April 4, 2011 @ 4:36 pm
Not hardly. Although I thought they should have thought better of it, George and Charlie have paid their country dues. The lead singer of Staind has not.
The song sucks. It’s not an unfair conclusion. The headlines even collaborate it now: ANYONE can be a country singer.
And that is a slap in the face to the genre. The legends. The heroes. And to the hard working folks who make up this country. Pop country is a lazy, money grubbing, idol chasing glorified disco ball with pretty shiney lights and pretty shiney people and music executives laughing all the way to the bank and it’s all that’s wrong with music anymore. Makes me want to puke.
You really want to take the stance that Country Boy by Aaron Lewis is even close in caliber to Johnny Cash? To even the “worst” song by Johnny Cash?
Y’all must be smokin’ crack or somethin if you believe this pop country shit is good music.
March 17, 2011 @ 5:20 pm
I agree with the write up. I never liked his voice or songs full of whine and now have to hear it 10 times a day on all the local stations. I am from a very small town in Montana and do not consider myself a country boy, although I have guns, an old truck and hit the mountains almost daily. Real country boys, in my eyes, are ranchers and farmers who work and know the land and livestock. This guy is about as country as a wet fart and hearing him sing country is about as enjoyable as one.
April 4, 2011 @ 3:23 pm
One thing Triggerman and the rest of you idiot haters have to realize is music isn’t just for you and you alone….thank God (because your taste in music sucks)….just because you don’t like a song doesn’t mean shit to me or anyone else….whether it is Aaron Lewis, George Straight, Metallica, Eminem, Charlie Daniels, Madonna, or whoever. The great thing about music is that every song touches different people in different ways no matter who the artist or what genre of music. I personally love “Country Boy” and don’t care if you like it or not. Maybe you lame asses don’t have the slightest idea of what being a country boy means. Maybe you are a bunch of liberal pussies who can’t understand real American values, gun rights, our troops, family and friends, etc. But just wanted you to know that you can sit on here and run your mouths for hours and hours and spit your garbage but it doesn’t affect anyone else’s opinion of the song….just wanted you to know Triggerman that your job or your ranting is a total fucking waste of your time and your stupid ass comments make me laugh and maybe throw up in my mouth a little too….I can’t believe a lame ass like you gets paid to do this…you suck….you bunch of fags should get together and whine and rub whatever it is you queers rub together to make your pussies stop hurting….
April 4, 2011 @ 4:57 pm
Dear Ryan
Music is for me. Just not that crap. I don’t need Aaron Lewis telling me what he thinks country is so he can pay his bills. Go clock in and work real hard instead of draggin’ your so called country ass into a studio and making a song using every thing under the sun to defend your country ass so you can be a crossover country pop star and destroy the traditional genre some more.
Fuck that. I’m sick and tired of it. It stinks to high heaven and it’s wrong.
And I don’t care what you think about it either.
April 4, 2011 @ 6:13 pm
Wow. It is no wonder a bonehead moron like yourself is so adamant about defending this washed up nu metal turd. Gee what happened to his sweet eyebrow ring, bro? Guess it didn’t suit his “country” shtick!
April 4, 2011 @ 9:48 pm
Nobody’s stopping you from listening to this song, should you choose to do so. However, you’ve (not surprisingly) missed the point entirely.
I know what being a country boy means. My family’s ranched the same dried out piece of sage and cactus for more than 100 years, and I’m proud to say I’ve been a part of that tradition. It also means I don’t need songs to provide a checklist for who I am or what I believe.
Songs like this that contain checklists aren’t written for the people they purport to be about. They’re for people who want to be like that, but don’t know how. I want to hear a song from somebody that sees the world the same way as I do and feels the same things I do. Not somebody that can write a list of things they like (or recite someone else’s list).
But, if you need somebody like this to explain what you should believe in, then by all means, keep listening.
April 17, 2011 @ 9:30 pm
I have been following Aaron Lewis’s music for ten years now i think he is an amazing singer no matter what the genre he chooses as soon as he opens his mouth he will blow it off the charts. I recently attended one of his acoustic concerts with my husband where he sang songs from his new “country Boy” album and we thought it was spectacular and we are not big country fans…I believe he is the best singer that has stepped foot on a stage he has more talent than anyone else i’ve ever seen, he doesn’t even need a mike to blow you away with his voice. He is phenomenal!!
April 18, 2011 @ 1:10 am
Unfortunately Aaron Lewis is a BIG hypocrite.
For over 12 years he never once let his political views known, because he said back then that getting political may affect a musicians career. Now all of a sudden he’s very political. Very right wing. He goes around offending poor people who get government asistance by calling them lazy. He says that most people on welfare are lazy.
Which in reality is not the case. Like with anything in life their is abuse, and their may be people who abuse welfare, but most people on welfare and or government assistance are not abuseing the system. Most are low income families who do work by the way, but don’t make enough money in order to make ends meet. Yet Aaron Lewis has the nerve to call this a handout. He says that he’s never needed government to hold his hand. That he’s a hardworking man, and that he should keep all that he makes and not pay taxes to those who are lazy and don’t want to work. Poor working families I assure you work alot harder than Aaron Lewis ever has or ever will in his life. These poor working families are tax payers too. Why doesn’t Aaron Lewis speak against corporate welfare in this country, and the tax breaks given to the richest in our nation? It’s very easy to use the little guy, the poor person,as a scape goat. This is very cowardly of Aaron Lewis. He has this mistaken notion that southerners white southerners to be particular are against government assistance, and or welfare. He has made a serious mistake with this notion. I’m from the south, and there are alot of poor WHITE hard working TAX PAYING families who work very hard; alot harder than him any day who can’t make ends meet, and are on some form of government assistance. He’s got some nerve saying in country boy song that he’s never needed government to hold his hand. He is a millionaire out of touch with reality living in a 3 or 4 million dollar house.
And to add to all of this he admits that he has a huge Hispanic fan base in California,Texas etc. Not once has he ever spoken against illegal immigration, and now all of a sudden he speaks against it. Why is he doing this as well, because he has en established Staind fan base, and no matter what he says he really feels
they’re going to be loyal to him no matter what. He better think again, because people only take so much. I’m not here to say that illegal immigration is right, because every nation needs to control its immigration. But the point I’m trying to make is that he has used his Hispanic fans as well to get to where he is at in his career. He knows that alot of his Hispanic fan base are kids of illegals have relatives who are illegals or are illegals themselves. But now that Staind is not giving him the kind of money he needs to keep up with his expensive lifestyle, and he’s trying to establish himself as a country artist he doesn’t care about dumping on his Hispanic fan base.
Aaron Lewis does have a great voice and talent, but a great voice and talent alone doesn’t make an artist. An artist who starts putting down people or dumping on people, and is arrogant, and feels he is above others and more deserving than others is not humane or compassionate is NOT an artist in the true sense. And at some point that type of artist will fade away.
April 18, 2011 @ 9:57 am
Just a clarification, asshole, when someone gets more back as a tax refund than they paid in, in addition to getting foodstamps, medicaid, and college grants etc. They are no longer paying anything or contributing. Life is hard and sometimes people genuinely deserve help, but the majority of the time government handouts are used as a way of life and demanded. I don’t like this Aaron Lewis jackass either, but you just as much of an inbred grinning retard as him.
April 19, 2011 @ 8:31 pm
I’m not at all surprised that George Jones and Charlie Daniels hitched their wagon to this song.
$$$$ talks, and all country artists who’ve made it are in it to win it. It’s a business and, sorry, but country has always been commercial.
Aaron is no different, and his song is a lot better than most of the crap I hear on the country station today. A lot of these new artists look and sound like they should be in a boy band. I like Staind, I like country, so this is just alright for me.
Not crazy about the weed reference, though.
April 22, 2011 @ 9:54 am
Im gonna be polite about this but you know nothing about country music I grew up in the country and that is everything i believe and i personally think that this is a great song and your whole thing about him being self rightous because his grandfather was in the service i dont agree with that at all every man in my family has been in the service and I currently am going in to this service this month so he has every right to be proud of his family and you just need to stop judging people because you obviously know nothing about them
– outdoorsman777
June 15, 2011 @ 6:39 pm
Stfu you stupid idiot whoever wrote this is clearly a piece of shit yankee who will not allow this message to be posted…. Long live the south long live Mississippi! God save us from cold hearted soules yankees. Amen.
June 15, 2011 @ 7:02 pm
Hah, look at that, I posted it! Principally to point out that I’m from Dallas, Texas and Aaron is from Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
Ouch.
June 30, 2011 @ 8:13 pm
Trig, are you still in the Dallas area? Are you going to Willie’s 4th Picnic in Ft. Worth?
June 30, 2011 @ 8:29 pm
I don’t live in Dallas anymore, but I just got my press pass confirmed for the picnic, and yes, I will be seeing Jamey Johnson.
June 30, 2011 @ 8:36 pm
Great. I assumed you would see Johnson. I know he hasn’t been through Ft. Worth since last Aug. at Billy Bob’s and I don’t think you caught him at that show.
There are several artists there I am looking forward to seeing. Brent Cobb for one.
Interested in seeing how Brantley Gilbert puts on a show too, as I don’t know how to feel about him.
Lukas Nelson too.
June 19, 2011 @ 11:49 am
George Jones is the greatest country music vocalist of all time, hands down. Seen him live around 15 times. If you’ve been keeping up with him at all, you could tell his voice has been slowly going down since around 2001, but now its just about gone. He has sang pure country music since 1955, in a voice unmatched by others, and has lived harder than any other in this industry. The man is close to 80 years old and is still touring his ass off playing traditional country music. He still stands up for what he believes in as well, do any of you recall the comments made about two years ago about “pop country artists stealing our identity”.
June 27, 2011 @ 3:48 am
I never felt more sick to my stomach that when I heard this song. Yeah my whole family is a little bit country but this is insulting to me being a stains fan. I kept telling myself that they would get better after chapter v but this shit? Really? I can’t even bring myself to play a stains song on my guitar I’m ashamed to listen to them now. I like real country the old stuff but screw u aaron pics of trash sell out. I hope u take every penny I spent on yur music and shuv it, bastard. And to all u true country fans out there us rock music fans can’t express our apologies enough and I’m speaking for alto of us when I say that Arron will pay for this pathetic excuse of a song. “don’t tread on me”? Well I think u just pissed in the faces of real country fans. Anyway that for letting me get that out and awesome review dude greetings from NC.
June 28, 2011 @ 3:25 pm
I understand you people from this blog site DO NOT consider this song country.
BUT….
I am in my early twenties, I am a “Country Boy” born and raised in Southern Arkansas. Growing up only listening to Country Music, I do believe I have more right than you to judge this song. I do not like rock, rap, pop, or hell anything else. Never even bothered to listen to it, and if its playing where I can hear it I don’t pay any attention. To my point, all my friend and I heard this song when it came out, they knew his voice from rock or whatever he played and said it sounded funny and didnt really think he hit the right pitches to make it country. I agree, but nevertheless I did not know any better and would call it country.
HATE TO BURST ANYONE BUBBLE…. but….
Aaron nailed the COUNTRY BOY lifestyle now days except talking down on liquor. I can’t think of any country boy around that does not smoke weed or drink heavily. You all might not approve, but your time is over, its my generations time and hell we like it. Say what you want but I hope Aaron stays in the Country Music business.
Aaron was not singing for you to approve of him being country.. Aaron was singing to my generation of Country Boys, and we like it. And I’m pretty sure after you croak you old bastard we will still like it and play it. Its already on every country station around here. Hold on to your old country ways, thats cool. But kiss my ass and every other country boys ass if you dont like this song, WE DO. 🙂
thanks,
if you want to comment on my comment, email me at rebel4life870@hotmail.com
Bobby Joe Crow
Oil Field worker
June 29, 2011 @ 6:20 am
Spoken like a true early 20’s guy. Pot and booze and raising hell every saturday night right?
I am 35, so not that old pal. I can remember when I thought like you. My guess is when you say you grew up listening to country music, you’re not talking about Waylon but more Chesney…or are you a real rebel rouser and go the way of Blake Shelton?
Wait 10years. If you still think drinking hard and smoking pot is how you define “your generation” then you will probably be in for a long long shitty life. And you will reflect back and see what a unimpressive run you have had.
rebel4life870… had to add the 870 cause so many others are original rebels like you?
July 1, 2011 @ 5:12 am
I ain’t kissin’ no one’s ass, but I will say this: Like Shelton sings, “Drinkin’ Ain’t Hard to Do”. I know PLENTY O COUNTRY people who dont drink or smoke heavily. And further, true rednecks don’t get wasted everyday. And lastly, real rebels don’t have to make a big ta-do about BEING country. They just are. Aaron Lewis wrote a “country” song to tell you how “country” he is. That don’t make you country neither.
July 1, 2011 @ 10:44 am
I feel bad for Lewis. He thinks this is actually good. Holy shit is he awful.
http://www.cmt.com/videos/aaron-lewis/648041/massachusetts-live-from-nashville.jhtml#fbid=xWOQJoW2jMJ
“I wear my Red Sox hat around the world with pride” WTF??? except your not wearing it in this video.
“your hero teaches class everyday” huh?! Are you saying your hero is a teacher? Nice touch but didn’t you hate school as Staind lead guy?
Oh, and now they are pimping “Country Boy” as a salute to the troops, just in time for the 4th.
What fucking loser.
July 18, 2011 @ 3:31 pm
I realize I may be a little late to the party on this one,but after commenting on that wretched music video for the song on YouTube saying that he was not,in fact,country I quickly became a target of all the “gud ole boys that live way out n th sticks and carry there fourtyfive wit em errywere they go”.
The way I see it: Aaron is following the path that darius rucker has taken.They spend years in a band that appeals to the less desirable members of our society and makes ungodly amounts of money off it until people move on and said band is no longer relevant.So they march themselves down to Music Row and make a “country” record and they are once again rolling in their millions.
It’s a disturbing trend and I believe we will start seeing it more often.I stated something similar to what you said about this being a pathetic,misguided re-working of Hank Jr.’s “A Country Boy Can Survive”.And the fact that Charlie and George signed on to this is a disappointment.My guess is that Aaron pulled out his checkbook and wrote a check for half-a-million each.No other way I could see them being on board with this abomination.
So according to Aaron all you have to do to be country is drive a diesel truck,have a hard-drinking Granddad,be overweight,and wear old t-shirts.Sounds easy enough to me!
November 25, 2011 @ 10:49 pm
Aaron discusses how Charlie Daniels and Goerge Jones came to be on the record.
http://youtu.be/8_lFgkaYEE4
August 3, 2011 @ 9:24 pm
your an idiot… i am a country music fan and this is def. one of my favs
August 4, 2011 @ 8:54 am
Eloquent
September 2, 2011 @ 11:25 pm
Let me start by giving my own history, I grew up in a small town in West Virginia right across the river from Kentucky where the biggest attractions in town were a bowling alley and a swimming pool. Now I wasn’t some kid who lived so far out in the boonies that people could barely understand the words I spoke between my moonshine covered breaths. I have a love of the country, and a love of rock, though I have never been a hardcore fan of straight country music. Don’t take me wrong though as there are some I respect. I have to partially agree with bassplayer79, with the artists who were once looked down upon from their changes to the music. Change is good, and there is nothing I dislike more than a blind ass political dumb ass who fails to give someone a chance to air their own and speak their mind and heart. I am as against Hollywood as much as anyone who respects good music, I liked Stainds music, and I like this song in particular. Why, you may ask, and to that I say, because he keeps his tone. Now country or not, I have to give him credit for not losing his style as there is that Stained-esque feel to the music. I will not say this song is country, but I will say I like it, even though it took a step away from my favored music. I’ve been a fan of southern rock since I was a kid, a genre that is almost unheard of anymore, I would love to see this transition start something. I also will not agree or deny the selling points Triggerman posted he may be right, or this may really be a from the heart song, but I will not blindly post blame to anyone. I do want to take this another way though. With the ideas of southern rock and styles boarder-lining country and rock both but settling somewhere a bit on the side of rock, I feel Aaron Lewis has done the opposite with this. I must encourage everyone who posts here to check the original version of this song out, (the non album version which lacks Charlie Daniels and George Jones). It was the version I first heard and honestly is less humiliating. I know this is not some well structured response but I was searching around and found it and was appalled by the vicious responses attacking on both ends, everyone is entitled to their opinions but there is no need to slander one or the other. Give everyone some space and watch to see what transpires. If they fail twice you know it wasn’t meant to be, and even so if you don’t like it ignore it. Perhaps Aaron Lewis realistically may be a dumb ass and a hypocrite but it’s the listener’s own interpretation that makes the song, not the person who sings it. Hell, Axle Rose could have written this song, but regardless of who wrote it, if you live it, it’s for you. As for the music videos, is it not about the music? Forget the videos, music isn’t about visuals, that’s altogether another controversy.
September 27, 2011 @ 5:49 pm
Just noticed this by looking at Aaron Lewis’s wiki page. He was born in Rutland, Vermont, the third largest city in Vermont, and he spent most of his childhood in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, which is the most affluent suburb of Springfield and has a population of over 30,000. So where the hell is he drawing the experiences in his songs from? I’m from a small town in Iowa, I don’t wear cowboy boots, and I don’t have a southern accent, so maybe I’m not qualified to talk. But Jesus, how can you rattle off all this bullshit and get legends to come on when you’re as phony as they get? And all the right wing political pandering is a crock of shit too. You know Aaron Lewis doesn’t give two fucks about politics, he just knew that the crowd he was trying to appeal to would eat it up. Staind sucked, and this sucks. Aaron Lewis is about as country as Rascal Flatts.
November 3, 2011 @ 10:01 am
You dont know what you are talkin bout triggerman. That song is country. I am a country boy. Its a great song that song talks bout havin pride for our country. I like his mentality. It is a country boy mentality. Ill tell you ho isnt country kenny chesney maybe you should blog bout him instead.
November 25, 2011 @ 11:19 pm
Everyone keeps saying this isn’t country…this isn’t country. What is country? If you listen to ANY country song on the radio you would think country music originated on the beaches of Mexico! As far as country pride goes if Aaron doesn’t have it what does that say for “artist” like Toby Keith?”We’ll put a boot in your ass” Give me a break!! And as a musician I can say this…most of us get into this business around the time were in high school for two reasons, girls, and money. Sure some people may have talent and a message but the reason we start is the same…to make a living. Selling out starts the moment you decide this is what your gonna do…and that goes for any job, you do it for the money! I like the song,I don’t care if its country or rock, I just like it. I like Aaron Lewis, I’ve gone and seen him during his solo tour on several occasions because he’s entertaining. He tried to market this as a rock album but his label said it was too country, and the country label said it was to rock…the only people that care about the marketing is the labels, its usually not an artist decision.I read somewhere on here about how he doesn’t really support troops and he sits in his big 3 or 4 million dollar mansion(don’t they all) and he’s lost sight of reality. How do you support our troops? I am thankful for what they do but I can’t really say I actually do anything to support them…can many of you? He does the whole USO tours and that probably means alot to the soldiers. If you made millions of dollars what kinda house would you live in? I’m sure it wouldn’t be in a little shack in the woods, or a nice double-wide in the trailer park. He also does great work for children with his It Takes A Community Foundation to raise money for schools in his area that were shut down by the state and he now has re-opened as privately funded schools. People if you don’t like it thats fine, but the bashing, hating, and downright disrespect some of you have displayed on here without actually knowing this man personally(and no I do not either) is absurd! If talking about someone in the way that a lot of you have on here is a requirement of being “country” then I would like to turn in my membership card.
November 12, 2011 @ 12:18 pm
Did you really say Aaron has “monotone vocals with no range?” Punch yourself in the face please….
November 20, 2011 @ 9:57 pm
Ok first off I wanna say that from what I’ve been reading you guys are mad because this plays on country radio, well it plays just as much on rock radio and its not really trying to be a country song or a rock song. Its just a song between the genres. Aaron never sings anything that doesn’t come straight from the heart and this song is no different. Whether he’s singing about drug addiction or hunting its still from the heart. He’s not trying to destroy the country world with this one EP he decided to do as a side project from Staind. He wanted to do something for himself and its not a gimmick to sell records. This man doesn’t not need to have a gimmick to sell millions of records. He can sit on a stage with nothing but a guitar and his voice and that is all he needs. If you guys are wanting rock to stay away from country then lets start with telling your country artists to stop doing shitty covers of rock songs.. I am not saying all are shitty but a good majority sound like crap and yet make it to mainstream and sell millions. What is the damn difference? Country can rock but rock can’t touch country? What kind of one sided crap is that? CMT Crossroads anyone? There has been some pretty epic performances on there. I would say this. Music is music. It don’t make a damn what genre it belongs in and blurring those lines creates new sounds. Don’t be afraid of it people just either enjoy it or don’t but don’t sit here and bitch about it. The world needs fresh new sounds and I am not saying that Aaron Lewis’s Country Boy is the answer to that but for you to say that you wouldn’t mind it if it was a rock song is ludicrous so your real argument here is that its playing on country stations. Well some country plays on rock stations as well.. we all know that most of the real legends of country are either dying off or too old to sing and no one will ever fill their shoes. So we need to face a fact.. music changes, styles change people change and that is true for all genres. Its not all good or bad it just is.
November 23, 2011 @ 1:56 pm
Couldn’t have said it better myself sharon. I agree 100% with you.
February 4, 2012 @ 12:33 pm
Damn sharon, why dont you take this trigger fucks spot? What you wrote was fact, what trigger wrote sounded like a steep opinion
February 5, 2014 @ 8:07 pm
“This man doesn”™t not need to have a gimmick to sell millions of records” Yes, he does. Staind has recorded 7 studio Albums and with the exception of Dysfunction, Break the Cycle and 14 Shades of Gray. The other 4 albums have not sold a million copies combined. Their last two albums failed to reach gold status. In the documentary about Making the “Staind” album, he was criticized by his bandmates for his shitty work ethic. He was so busy recording and promoting the EP that it took him to the night before the deadline to record the vocals, and it showed. The music on the Staind Album is great, but the lyrics SUCKED. Which is more a testament to Mike Musok’s talent than Aaron’s. The tension was so bad that the drummer of Staind left the band after making the CD.
December 24, 2011 @ 10:54 am
Hey Trigger – Your condescending article sucks. Period.
January 6, 2012 @ 11:32 am
Hey John…..two-shaaaaaay;) lol…I’m glad somebody pointed it out:) lol
January 19, 2012 @ 8:20 pm
Your just jealous that your dick is so small you cant even get mammas shitzu to lick peanut butter off your Dick. Shut the fuck up and go back to your frantic masterbating
January 20, 2012 @ 7:39 am
And your name is Christian? Too fucking funny.
January 23, 2012 @ 9:52 am
It was completely by accident that I stumbled upon this…ummm…”stunning” review of Aaron and his song and at first I wasn’t going to bother commenting because, as youtube will show anyone, usually if you comment on ignorance you get mostly ignorance in return. I believe it might be part of the great circle of life. Still, here I am, attempting to enlighten you anyway. Aaron did not write this song according to any formula. He wrote it the same way he writes all of his songs. A thought came to him and he wrote it out. He put the reference to weed in there because Aaron smokes on a daily basis and he smokes all day long. And the reason he put information about his life in there is because it is meant to be autobiographical, this song. Usually when one writes anything that is autobiographical, it tends to have…well…biographical information in it. The world is just funny that way. Charlie Daniels and George Jones appearing on the song was not something Aaron intended. His producer happened to have connections to both men, he asked them to come listen, and both WANTED to appear on the song. It really is that simple. He has a version of the song without either because he had already recorded it when the two decided to make appearances. He did NOT write this to be a country song. As he said, the songs on Town Line were considered too rock for country and too country for rock so they ended up on CMT. But they also ended up on VH1. So that kind of blows your entire theory out of the damned water, don’t you think? I must assume that if Aaron really does constantly carry around his 45 it is probably because he lives in the woods. There are crazy things in the woods, you know. Things like bears and what have you that have a tendency to pose more of a threat perhaps that any of the 1,200 people in the town that he calls home. Piggly Wiggly’s are also unlikely to be found in Massachusetts as those happen to be more of a southern grocery chain. For instance, they can be found in Kentucky but we have none in Ohio. Sorry, I am just trying to make sure I do not leave out any of the uninformed remarks you made in the course of this post. Did I go too far with that one? I apologize. The bottom line is pretty simple. If he wanted to formulate a song pandering to American pride he could have used the same ignorance and lack of lyrical abilities that has gotten Toby Keith by for the last eleven years because when it comes to Toby that is EXACTLY what has kept his career alive since 2001. Sad but unfortunately true. Aaron has no need to pander to any country based demographics. He has fans…millions of them…who love and adore him. He has a new album with his heavy metal band that is doing very well right now and he is about to start the second leg of the tour to support the new album with that band…w