Ryan Adams Calls Out Jason Isbell at Show in Raleigh
At a show on June 21st at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh, NC, Ryan Adams called out Jason Isbell in an impromptu song possibly called “Don’t Forget The Laundry List.”
“This concert is a lot like if you went to see Jason Isbell, but only if the songs were really good,” Ryan Adams sings, “And you didn’t leave and it didn’t sound like someone was yelling at you for two f–king hours, playing some suspiciously sounding Molly Hatchet guitar. F–k you, f–k yourself, f–k you Jason Isbell.”
Ryan Adams continues, “I guess now it’s only ’23 Frames.’ Have to tell somebody else how to live their life, how to date a girl, how to be insane. It sounds like I’m pissed. Don’t forget the laundry list. Don’t forget the grocery list. Don’t forget to pick up a baguette. Don’t forget, or you’re gonna catch hell. We’re gonna lock you in a Gap overnight with Jason Isbell.”
These types of impromptu, ad-lib songs are a regular feature of Ryan Adams shows, and are often aimed at someone specific. In 2014, Saving Country Music addressed some statements from Ryan Adams saying that he only liked country music ironically. Shortly after, he dedicated a song to Saving Country Music called “Gold’s Bar” that included the choice line, “Put that on your f–king country music website.”
Jason Isbell and Ryan Adams used to be close friends. Adams was originally scheduled to be the producer of Isbell’s 2013 landmark album Southeastern before Dave Cobb stepped in due to scheduling conflicts. Ryan Adams was integral to Isbell getting sober and going to rehab in 2012. Jason Isbell’s song “Chaos and Clothes” from his Grammy award-winning 2017 album The Nashville Sound is thought to be about Ryan Adams and his relationship with Mandy Moore.
But the two songwriters had a falling out around the time The New York Times ran a #metoo-style piece on Adams in 2019 that alleged disturbing and harassing behavior from Adams towards numerous women. In 2020, Isbell said while talking to GQ, “…The situation with Ryan and with the Times story made me rethink my friendships with other men and how much we’re actually sharing with each other. And I think it really helped me redefine, you know, what kind of a friend I want to be to somebody.”
Isbell has been criticized in the past for abandoning Ryan Adams while Ryan Adams stepped up to help Isbell in his time of need.
It’s worth noting that sometimes these ad-lib songs from Ryan Adams are meant to be taken sarcastically. It’s also worth noting that even though Adams implies that Isbell’s songs are not good, Isbell is considered one of the greatest songwriters of our generation from a wide range of critics and awards. Isbell’s song “King of Oklahoma” is currently the Saving Country Music Song of the Year, for example.
Though Adams is considered one the the few legitimate “cancelled” celebrities coming out of the #metoo movement, he has remained prolific over the last few years, releasing numerous albums, and regularly playing to sold out or near capacity theater shows.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:54 am
I’m a big fan of both. Gotta hand it to Ryan for his ability to improv a song like that.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:27 pm
Who is Ryan Adams?
Never heard of him/her.
June 27, 2024 @ 10:02 am
LOL. Sure you don’t.
June 27, 2024 @ 10:27 am
Let it ride. Let it roll. Let it go. DRA for life.
June 29, 2024 @ 5:52 am
Ryan and Jason are two dicks in the se pair of pants.
June 29, 2024 @ 5:53 am
*am
July 14, 2024 @ 12:49 am
Damn, that is the most succinct and apt description possible.
Hahaha.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:03 am
Ryan Adams is great songwriter. He’s even a greater spoiled brat, cry baby, whiny little bitch when he wants to be. It is what it is.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:28 am
Quite ironic coming from a Isabella barebacker????????
June 25, 2024 @ 8:05 am
I am shocked that Ryan Adams has ever had a friend. Dude is so tiresome.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:12 am
Ryan Adams might be the single most disliked musician by his home state to ever come out of North Carolina. Maybe celebrity period, if we exclude Duke basketball. Jason Isbell seems like a hard dude to get along with, but Ryan Adams flat out sucks. Play Summer of 69!
June 25, 2024 @ 9:18 am
That’s Bryan Adams my friend
June 25, 2024 @ 9:50 am
Ya that was the joke
June 25, 2024 @ 1:31 pm
Really, it was a joke? Anytime that needs to be explained is a time when the “joke” was not remotely funny. What’s also not funny, but just weird is that your explaining this for someone else’s comment. Smh
June 25, 2024 @ 2:37 pm
Most of us got the joke the first time.
June 25, 2024 @ 5:25 pm
Also…pretty much everyone knows Ryan Adams is famous for kicking fans out of his concerts (on multiple occasions) for requesting Bryan Adams songs.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:19 pm
(1) Ryan Adams has melted down about the Bryan Adams stuff in the past.
(2) Ryan Adams also did a SICK cover of “Run To You” as a joke about his prior conduct. I think it was at the 9:30 Club.
Not here to comment on either side of this argument, but that’s a great cover song if you can find it.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:30 pm
It’s usually that the folks who white knight a bag like Ryan Adams are all up in their feelings.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:43 pm
Country music incels.
Lol, winner winner, chicken dinner!
June 25, 2024 @ 9:31 pm
I gotta say, zi thought it wad was funny????
June 27, 2024 @ 6:59 am
Lol why admit you’re too stupid to understand jokes?
June 26, 2024 @ 2:00 pm
lol hope you’re being sarcastic about the summer of 69 crack ????????If not you’re referring to the wrong artist.
June 27, 2024 @ 10:05 am
He is the best singer/songwriter of the past 2 decades. Keep mumbling bs.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:20 am
Isbell played Chaos and Clothes for the first time since 2022 the following night in Kalamazoo!
June 25, 2024 @ 10:58 am
And if that was because of Ryan, I want to thank him, because it was awesome!
June 25, 2024 @ 7:36 pm
Interesting.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:21 am
Talented, prolific, etc. I wish he weren’t such a prick sometimes, but whatever. The oriental rugs and bougie set makes me think he was raised by his grandmother: no matter how punk he tells himself to be, he can’t let his memories of her go.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:28 am
“Though Adams is considered one the the few legitimate “cancelled” celebrities coming out of the #metoo movement, he has remained prolific over the last few years, releasing numerous albums, and regularly playing to sold out or near capacity theater shows.”
Considered cancelled by whom? Most artists will never have the opportunities that Ryan Adams does right now. He doesn’t seem to be signed by a label at the moment, but he’s been regularly releasing music through his own label since as far back as 2010, well before the controversy. His new music is available on Spotify and presumably other platforms and, as you mention, he regularly sells out theater shows. Was he playing stadiums at some point that I’ve forgotten about? He seems to be in pretty much the same spot he always was, with any diminishment in stature just as likely due to the fact that his best music is 25-30 years behind him as any incidents in his personal life. The guy playing tonight at your nearest dive bar would love to be as “cancelled” as Ryan Adams is.
Not everybody will like Ryan Adams’ music or like Ryan Adams as a person. There isn’t an artist alive or dead who that cannot be said about. Most of them didn’t bitch and moan about being “cancelled.”
He’s correct about Isbell, by the way.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:33 am
Excellent post.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:36 am
Well, that’s why I put “Cancelled” in quotations. What is for sure is that you do not see the media covering Ryan Adams whatsoever, except in the context of him trying to come back from his “cancellation,” and you will never see him booked at a festival, though I think there was one last year that did book him and it caused a massive media stir.
I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about Ryan Adams post his “cancellation,” especially in the media. I think they’re stupefied to find out he’s not holed up in a basement somewhere.
June 25, 2024 @ 9:54 am
Ryan Adams was canceled by the media. He was a hipster media darling for years. The Pitchforks, ND, Slates etc all used to fawn over his every move. They loved that he could be labeled country, but shared their views, in other words, he wasnt some hayseed from the sticks, he was media marketable cool. At one point he made a record with Willie, had television appearances, tours that got attention etc. There has been a media blackout on him ever since the underage girl scandal. I haven’t read much about him in years. Largely because their hasn’t been much about him in writing.
Isbell, in the wake of MeToo, distanced himself from his compadre quicker than a Valvoline Instant Oil change on Friday at 4pm. Cause, ya know…
June 25, 2024 @ 5:33 pm
Ryan Adams was cancelled by Ryan Adams texting 14 year old girls. Good on the media for blacking him out. He doesn’t deserve attention, no matter what a person thinks about Isbell.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:39 pm
I remember when he did his cover of Taylor Swift’s “1989” album cover to cover. I thought I was living in a bizarro world how the media was fawning over it like it was the greatest thing ever. I think in some respects that led up to the New York Times piece. The praise was so overblown, there were a lot of folks saying, “You know, someone should check his closet and see if there are any skeletons in there.”
June 26, 2024 @ 6:16 pm
I wonder if Taylor Swift ???? has gotten any late night texts from Ryan Adams?
June 25, 2024 @ 11:01 am
You can think whatever you want about Isbell as a person, but insinuating his songs are bad is a flat out lie.
June 25, 2024 @ 12:46 pm
Michael Jackson Rule
June 25, 2024 @ 8:29 am
Full disclosure – never really clicked with Ryan Adams’ music. I heard it, it never had the resonance I’ve felt with some of his peers, not to the point of dislike but disinterest.
But the indie music grapevine around this guy was pretty rancorous at best, the sort of bad vibes where when Phoebe Bridgers and Mandy Moore detailed the allegations in the late 2010s, a lot of the response I saw and heard was ‘…yeah, no duh’. Didn’t give me much incentive to go back.
So I think the comparison point between him and Isbell is interesting – Isbell might be sanctimonious and hypocritical and messy, where he’d probably admit to it (and ‘Reunions’ feels especially prophetic now, in both politics and relationships), but I can tell for all of his missteps he’s trying to be better. Often failing, often caught up in his own story, but there are steps being taken.
Adams has never really seemed to take that step, and for a dude who turns fifty this year, it just comes across as sad. To quote Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s review of that 2020 album ‘Wednesdays’, “the songs collectively create an impression of a singer/songwriter who feels quite sorry for himself, but not necessarily sorry for anything he may or may not have done”.
Feels revealing, all I’m saying.
June 25, 2024 @ 9:00 pm
Yeah the fact that Ryan Adams has had success for a long time and still felt the constant desire to go after underrage women makes it all the more obvious that he is a predator.
June 27, 2024 @ 7:12 am
I find both Adam’s immaturity and Isbell’s sanctimonious cringe at best and insufferable at worst. I’m big fans of both of them, and have seen them both live multiple times.
Adams is undoubtedly mentally ill. Isbell is just a pretentious asshole who probably enjoys the smell of his own farts. He’s been divorced twice, so I’m guessing that his treatment of women is no better than Adams’s, he is just better at hiding it. When Isbell started becoming a MSM darling and got introduced to the Hollywood crowd, he became much, much worse. He used to have a degree of humility, and that is all but vanished now. Image not seeing the hypocrisy of preforming Chaos and Clothes and not seeing himself in it.
June 25, 2024 @ 9:25 am
Cold Roses and Dirty South came out around the same time. That was an incredible few years in music. Those two albums were so profound to me. I lived around Nashville and would go see DBT at Mercy, Cardinals at the Ryman. I remember thinking they were both amazing songwriters and just rising stars. I still look back on those years so fondly. funny how time changes things.
June 25, 2024 @ 9:32 am
Love both of these guys, but man that relationship is a weird one.
Successful artists with egos and history, it’s about as much piss and vinegar as one would expect.
Forget Drake and Kendrick, let’s trade passive aggressive songs about one another and fight like real hipsters.
Chaos and Clothes
Birmingham
Keep it going, gents!
June 25, 2024 @ 2:04 pm
I’m kind of surprised Birmingham hasn’t been mentioned, except for your comment.
June 25, 2024 @ 2:51 pm
At least Axl Rose told Bob Guccione to “Get in The Ring, mother…”
June 27, 2024 @ 1:44 pm
Shit, Birmingham ain’t nothing. For a real FU, listen to Red and Orange Special, which is about Mandy Moore. Great song…but brutal. Moore sounds like the typical Hollywood actress…completely self-absorbed and vindictive.
June 25, 2024 @ 10:10 am
Anything that paints Jason in a bad light is gonna be mentioned on here when theres an opportunity if its not Justin’s widow running him down because shes got a new JTE record to plug and wants some publicity.
Cant see that politically Jason has said anything controversial i mean Donald Trump should be behind bars not running for president against someone who has dementia and wont last the next four years in office if he got in. If your commenting on both potentially presidents neither of them are fit for office so theres nothing controversial there anyway.
And he did a some about gun control which should be applauded every american should want that with all the mass shootings that go on over there.
June 25, 2024 @ 10:33 am
First, let’s please not get into divisive Presidential politics here, and any further comments on that subject can and will be deleted.
Second, I’m not exactly sure this paints Jason Isbell in a negative light. It was definitely newsworthy, especially at an outlet that has covered these two artists and their relationship in the past, and in-depth. But I think Ryan Adams is the one that looks bad here if anyone does.
I can’t speak for everyone. But it’s not just necessarily the political stances that Jason Isbell takes that people find problematic. It’s his elitist attitude. When he is telling people very directly to not listen to his music if they think differently from him politically, how do you expect to move the political needle? How do you expect to convince people to not vote for Trump when you’ve excluded those people from your audience? This isn’t activism. It is the exact opposite of activism.
I do not get into politics. I believe all politics is a scourge, and the current lose/lose binary choice for President is a great example. But if I was on Jason Isbell’s side of the political divide, I would be diametrically opposed to his political actions and stances, because they are very actively injuring the cause by their inability to assuage people to your side to create consensus. He’s a conservative’s best friend.
June 25, 2024 @ 12:48 pm
I think Trump, Biden and Kennedy TNG all support punctuation.
June 25, 2024 @ 5:23 pm
I think he wants to say things he believes in (things an outlaw wouldn’t say), not be an activist. He’s not recruiting conservatives, he’s just stating his beliefs, take them or leave them. He’s not hurting liberals or helping conservatives. They’re just opinions with a bigger platform, say as anybody.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:42 pm
No, he’s not just stating his beliefs, take them or leave them. He’s stating his beliefs, and saying if you don’t believe them you are inferior and subhuman, which is bigotry. Then he says he wants those people to not listen to his music and to go away. Maybe he doesn’t want to be an activist, but he is actively hurting his own cause, and insulting the power of music to change perspectives and soften hardened hearts, which is exactly what the media praises him for on a regular basis.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:49 pm
Intolerance of racism is not bigotry. Should he do what you suggest? Yes. But he’s not a bigot for not opening his arms to racists and sexists.
June 26, 2024 @ 5:46 pm
The problem is that “racism” to people like Jason Isbell is too often assigned anyone he’s having a disagreement with online at the moment who does not buy into his lockstep corporate political party ideology. It’s anyone who votes differently from him. In some cases, it’s someone who tries to explain to him that he has an important platform that could soften hardened hearts with songs like “Cast Iron Skillet” if his public persona wasn’t so prickly, and he wasn’t actively telling the people who most need to hear the song to not listen to it because he hates them.
Do you want to address racism? Or do your want to just remove it from your purview and pander to a constituency?
June 25, 2024 @ 11:17 pm
It’s not bigotry to despise racism, corruption, political deception and fraud, sedition, cronyism, malevolent nationalism of any sort, etc.
It’s funny, if an incel MAGA tells a lib to ‘piss off’, it’s celebrated, it’s considered rebellious or some crap. But if Isbell tells ‘deplorables’ (small minded idiots) to piss off, it’s ‘elitist’.
The hypocrisy is just insane.
I’m really not hearing truly, truly great storytelling and musicianship from anyone, at all, on the far right currently.
It all seems to just be autotune crap.
June 26, 2024 @ 5:54 pm
It’s amazing how Jason Isbell has the purity as a human, and the omniscience to assign these awful traits to people simply from a brief online interaction.
At one point, Jason Isbell said that I was an “incel” and a “Trump supporter” simply because another reporter was complaining that I accurately fact checked them. This is the kind of wild-eyed assumptions and “othering” he engages in on a regular basis.
Also, I have an issue assigning people with this term “incel” on a wholesale basis. Incels are usually self-described, and rare. But part of the LGBTQIA+ group is “Asexual,” meaning people who do not engage in sex. By cutting certain people down by calling them “incels,” you are directly insulting a marginalized group, and actively engaging in intolerance. Jason Isbell has done that to me, and you have just done that in this comment.
Either these things matter to you, or they don’t. Down talking people is rarely helpful to anyone’s cause.
I also just want to point out again that on a personal level, in this instance, I think Ryan Adams is in the wrong. Jason Isbell is a good songwriter, and I don’t personally see the value in saying “F–k you” to him. It’s even more unhelpful than what Jason Isbell does.
June 26, 2024 @ 6:23 pm
“Do you want to address racism? Or do your want to just remove it from your purview and pander to a constituency?”
We’re absolutely on the same page. But what you’re describing (viewpoint hostility) is not bigotry. You’re clearly trying to dilute the word, while complaining about him diluting the claim of “racist”.
Also, I don’t think it was a reply to me, but asexual (ace) and involuntarily celibate (incel) are not the same. A person who is ace is generally voluntarily celibate. You should examine that argument you’re making. I’m not going to accuse you of intentionally making a bad argument so I’ll leave it there.
June 26, 2024 @ 6:29 pm
Totally understand there is a different between asexual and incel. That is my whole point. To just blanket assign people as “incels” simply because you have decided you do not like them or are having an online disagreement with them (as Isbell did to me, and the previous commenter did), is to make a set of assumptions that could be damaging to someone of a marginalized group. Then of course you have the other issue that the person may not be asexual, or an incel at all. In fact, that is likely the case. They may be married. My deeper point is that calling someone “incel!” seems like a very intolerant attack/insinuation from someone professing open-mindedness toward marginalized groups.
June 26, 2024 @ 9:55 pm
Incels aren’t a marginalized group. Making fun of someone for being unable to get laid, while shitty and toxic, isn’t bigotry and has nothing to do with ace people. It’s weird you’re doubling down on conflating the two groups just because they both don’t have sex. Calling someone an incel isn’t disparaging towards asexual people.
June 26, 2024 @ 10:04 pm
I never said incels were a marginalized group. What I said is you can’t assume that just because someone is not having sex, they are an “incel.” When you make that assumption, you run the risk of attacking someone for their choices and/or lifestyle in a marginalized group. It’s also probably not smart to assume that someone is not having sex simply because you’re having an argument with them on Twitter and they don’t hold the same opinion as you do, just like it’s just as foolish to assume they voted for the opposite person you did for President.
June 26, 2024 @ 10:11 pm
It’s mostly not the celibacy part referenced when he calls you an incel, it’s the toxic woman hating culture that the incel community gravitates to. He basically called you an Andrew Tate listener.
But this is getting too pedantic even for me, hope you’re doing well after a busy festival, and have a good night.
June 27, 2024 @ 1:50 pm
Exactly…Isbell has regularly gone after other songwriters/musicians for their politics. He’s not just speaking his mind, he’s giving shit to people who are speaking theirs. Going after Oliver Anthony was particularly weird because Anthony’s song was so clearly in the country tradition of the working class fighting the political machine and the billionaires.
June 27, 2024 @ 6:20 pm
Trigger I gotta say I don’t really agree with a lot of what you argue on here, especially when it comes to Isbell, but I sure do appreciate the good faith in WHICH you argue. You seem like a solid dude.
June 27, 2024 @ 8:23 pm
Thanks for reading. What fun would it be if we all greed on everything? We argue because we care, and I always try to respect everyone’s opinions.
June 25, 2024 @ 10:14 am
There’s only one way to settle this:
A duel at high noon.
June 26, 2024 @ 11:30 am
Everyone is a mixed bag. Isbell has a ton of positives, but he seems to be unable to resist disdainfully punching down at those with a different worldview than his. As someone who is on his side of the political divide, I wish he would give it a rest. At least limit it to bashing the powerful. He seems to think humiliating some unsophisticated souls who aren’t coping well with the changes they see in the would is good sport. All it does is make them angrier and more entrenched in their beliefs.
June 25, 2024 @ 10:24 am
If Ryan Adams put half as much effort into his songs and craft as he puts into being a prick, well, maybe he’d be the next Jason Isbell. Such a waste of talent.
June 25, 2024 @ 10:25 am
I used to love Adams but now find him unlistenable. For all the talk about Zach needing quality control, Adams needs someone to tell him to turn off the horrible echo echo echo he puts on his vocals now. I can’t listen to anything Adams puts out — fucking horrible. Meanwhile Isbell keeps putting out great records.
June 27, 2024 @ 1:10 am
I am a big fan of both, but I totally agree with this, particularly all the echo. I hate echo on anything, but Adams uses it way too much.
Saw him in Bham last year and he “made up” a song about a guy who had a taco truck to the left of the stage that was very funny. But I can’t help but thinking these “made up on the spot” songs have had a bit of forethought in them. Either that or everything he records is made up on the spot as it is sometimes these days to differentiate.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a fan and ultimately I believe he can say what he wants about who he wants, just as I believe Isbell can. Hell, I even believe some of the cro-magnons here have the right to spout the stuff they spout. 🙂
But in the end it comes down to the music. Do it good, great. Do it bad, I have no use for you.
June 25, 2024 @ 10:32 am
Jason is a selfish, inconsiderate POS for releasing that song about Justin Townes Earle. Ryan seems to be reformed, changed, and more humble an individual than he once was. Without question, Ryan is the better, more prolific songwriter.
June 25, 2024 @ 11:24 am
Jason and Justin had a shared history. Jason is entitled to write about that history. Jen Earle is upset because her daughter heard the song. Maybe she should have vetted it before letting her daughter listen to it. There’s no way a little kid recognized that the song was about her father if she wasn’t told that.
June 25, 2024 @ 1:40 pm
It’s crazy how some folks are so quick to defend Jason and just as quick to critique Justin’s widow’s parenting, when Jason could have easily kept his opinion to himself rather than directly putting that laundry in public.
June 25, 2024 @ 4:41 pm
Why should Isbel have kept his opinion to himself? He composed a nice remebrance and tribute Justin Earle (presumably, although he never mentioned Earle by name, as I recall) that moved a lot of listeners. He certainly shouldn’t let himself be constained based on how some self-appointed mob of Internet trolls and wack jobs might choose to interpret or spin his work.
June 25, 2024 @ 7:46 pm
Jason Isbell could have simply called or texted Jen and told her about the song before it was released, and/or simply apologized for the song hurting her and Justin’s daughter afterwards. I reported on this point specifically. Jen listened to the song for the first time with her daughter, telling her it was a tribute to her father. She didn’t think there would be words about him being “on the tiles” and mention her daughter specifically.
Jason Isbell has a right to express whatever he wants through his music. Even if there was previous bad blood, it would hurt nothing and help a lot for Isbell simply to say “Sorry,” even if he doesn’t think it is warranted. Because that is the reasonable thing to do.
June 26, 2024 @ 3:42 am
Yeah so thats bad parenting she knew the song was about Justin and no one would play that song too a six year old . She should also be saying sorry to her daughter for having a bad lack of judgement as a parent. Did Bob and Sara Dylan play Blood on the tracks to say Jakob at six and say hey this is about our divorce? No its poor parenting.
Turns out that making a big deal about the song gets a bit of publicity for Jen with a “new” album of outakes, coming out soon.
June 26, 2024 @ 6:29 pm
So, I’m addressing a previous comment here. My own child identifies as ‘asexual’, and part of the LGBTQ community. Thanks for the explanation from your POV. I’m 1000 % certain that the Isbell camp is far more accepting of sexual visicitudes of any stripe (as evidenced by the inclusion of Anna Butterss, etc).
The first thing I ever read on this site had something to do with speculation that Jason was somehow ingenuous with regards to something that happened with Brandi Carlisle. Nothing that I have ever heard or seen him do was anything but positive in that regard.
The political undertone of the incel jab is more about perceived slights making some men (and women) hostile towards the other sex, and developing irrational hatred and fears towards them. And yes, here in the U.S., that almost always has meant white, often marginally educated, often right leaning, and from religious backgrounds.
Sure, not always, but that’s the trope.
And what is usually the cause of this animosity? Ignorance.
And fear.
And those are two things that MAGA is attempting to propagate, and use, in the same way despots always have throughout history.
Essentially mass hysteria.
And this is the danger of embracing demogogues…it becomes a zero-sum game, and violence (and sometimes genocide) usually follows.
June 26, 2024 @ 7:07 pm
You need to be very careful using the acronym MAGA, and, genocide, in the same thought.
June 27, 2024 @ 8:52 am
You know what people fear? Real people that aren’t in some bubble that you reside in? High taxes. Their dollar not going as far as it used to. Putting food on the table. Being able to afford somewhere to live, afford to buy their kids clothes and school supplies, etc. If someone they care about goes for a run in a park, that they won’t get raped or murdered.
Genocide my ass. When you say someone you disagree with politically are prone to commit genocide, or that a politician you don’t like is “just like Hitler” then you cheapen the lives of all of those that have died under evil regimes like Nazi Germany, Castro’s Cuba or the Soviet Union.
July 2, 2024 @ 9:28 am
…but why would he text a non-songwriter with whom he has no relationship, after getting the go-ahead from a fellow songwriter with whom he does have a relationship?
And what would subsequently reaching out to this stranger fix?
As soon as she revealed that he’d reached out to Steve for permission, and gotten it, this became an absolute non-story.
July 2, 2024 @ 10:26 am
First, reporting that Steve Earle had been notified was an important part of the story, and that’s why I reported it. So I’m not sure that made it a “non-story” as much as it clarified important details.
That said, whether JTE’s widow is a songwriter not is irrespective of the idea that it would have been nice to have notified her. Essential? Maybe not because Isbell did reach out to Earle. But Earle did not reach out to Jenn, and that is what led to that issue. Also, having heard that Jenn was upset with it, sending a simple text message would have been the nice thing to do. And Isbell and Jenn know each other. They are not “strangers.”
But honestly, this is water under the bridge. Strange it’s being brought up again here. Jenn is not the one not letting it go at this point. It’s Isbell surrogates.
June 25, 2024 @ 11:54 am
She played the song to a 6 year old thats irresponsible parenting, dont get me wrong its probably a real struggle bringing up a little one on her own but its still bad decision making on her part.
As for the song its not as derigatory as its been painted, its a song that sort of says I miss you, I had memories of you, I wish id made peace with you and how did I beat the addictions and you didnt get through? And it might actually save someone if someone listened to it properly. The only way a six year old would know it was about Justin was if someone told her and at that age thats pretty irresponsible.
June 25, 2024 @ 1:41 pm
The lengths that Jason’s followers will go to in justifying thier hero’s actions is extraordinary.
June 26, 2024 @ 3:47 am
The sentiments of the song isnt nasty its portrayed that way because Jen wants a bit of publicity.
July 2, 2024 @ 1:05 pm
[Wow, minimizing a widow’s grief plus gaslighting her is crazy. You are one stellar human being. Just like Jason. No wonder you defend him.]
July 2, 2024 @ 9:23 am
The song he cleared with JTE’s dad…a fellow songwriter, who could provide an informed opinion on whether it was okay?
June 25, 2024 @ 10:42 am
Jason is an Elitist Prick. I used to listen to him but after he started his political stance and going after his fans if they were Republicans i was done with him.
June 25, 2024 @ 9:31 pm
100% I used to occasionally listen to him in the past and I still see the merit in his music. It is howerver a bridge to far when him or anyone says “don’t listen to my music or come to my shows if you are Republican/Trump supporter.” And yes he has made these statements on his Twitter. There isn’t any artist alive now who I love so much to where I would not ablige that request and simply stop listening to their music. It’s close-minded of him to not realize that a sizeable chunk of his audience doesn’t share his political beliefs. (although Black Rifle Coffee is still around because being right-leaning doesn’t mean being well-read or willing to boycott) Isbell is a slimey prick because he postures himself as an intellectual yet pretends to not know that political beliefs are often a conglomeration of beliefs on multiple issues, not picking the wrong “team” by default being a morally reprehensible person. He is also not that intelligent. Sure he has talent in some areas but anyone who cannot accurately understand the beliefs of someone they don’t agree with is lazy and frankly not that intelligent.
June 26, 2024 @ 3:57 am
Surely there is no right or wrong side when your commenting on american politics neither Trump should be in prison and poor Biden has dementia so both candidates arent fit for office. How does saying that make anyone an asshole?
You can always tell when a politician is lying , because their lips move.
One example is how the president normally says how sorry they are after theres been a mass shooting in america but never does anything to bring strict gun control laws into power. Should really have happened as far away as when John Lennon got shot really.
June 26, 2024 @ 2:07 pm
Bro, Isbell has a history of being a jerk on Twitter. That is why he’s an asshole.
June 26, 2024 @ 10:17 am
That’s your loss then. Can’t take the heat? Maybe do a little soul searching, brother.
June 25, 2024 @ 10:43 am
Exactly !!
June 25, 2024 @ 10:48 am
I approve of this message. All artists get some crazy latitude because artist, but in my opinion, Jason Isbell far exceeds that grace period and is a straight up narcissistic asshole.
Just added this dude to my play list in place of Isbell.
June 25, 2024 @ 2:51 pm
So the narcissist is too far but the predator is okay?
“i would get in trouble if someone knew we talked like this”
“If people knew they would say I was like R Kelley lol”
-44 year old Ryan Adams while sexting a 14 year old.
June 25, 2024 @ 9:20 pm
Every line in your comment is a lie or context is left out to fit your narrative. Your types are whats wrong with the world.
June 26, 2024 @ 9:30 am
Where’s the lie? Those are direct quotes he said to an underage teenager.
Predators like Ryan Adams, and pedo defenders like you are what’s wrong with the world.
June 26, 2024 @ 12:20 pm
In the 1st line you say he is a predator. Not true. You leave out that she lied about her age. And the FBI didn’t go after him for being a predator so how important are you that you can call him that?
The two quotes were also under impression that she was of age.
And you leave out that he was married at the time so he would probably “be in trouble” from his wife for talking to any woman.
The R Kelly thing again under the impression she was of age, but still a very large age difference.
As far as your last line. He was 40 and she was 16, not 44 and 14. She had followed him when she was 14 and he followed her back, as he has done with many fans and musicians. And she was already playing bass in adult clubs at that time. And once again she lied about her age multiple times.
You see what i did there? I used logic and facts to destroy your case and expose your lies. Pretty simple. If you want to call him creepy for sexting an 18 or 19 or 20 year old (we dont know what she said cause the times conveniently left that out) when he was 40 then have at it, but stop speadings lies.
June 26, 2024 @ 10:06 pm
He is a predator. Not just because he knew she was underage, but because of all the other women he preyed on.
There is no context where that R Kelly reference is implying a legal adult.
Do you think it’s any better that he was sexting with a 15 then 16 year old? Sorry I confused his age when the article came out, it’s pretty irrelevant if he was 40 or 44.
He knew she was underage, that’s why he asked so many times. The article said she lied “sometimes” in response, but not every time. If he thought she was 18 he wouldn’t have asked so often.
What kind of idiot just trusts the FBI when it comes to famous predators?
But by all means, keep defending a predator.
June 27, 2024 @ 2:07 pm
Your comments hold no water. The girl admitted that she lied repeatedly about her age and even publicly apologized to him because of these lies. All of the other noise was just women who are toxic who thought one day they would try to destroy someone who they no longer liked. Bridges is known to basically sleep with any man who enters her space and Adams was the one who gave her her start by putting her on his tour. She even publicly cried the last night of the tour and told the audience how much she appreciated Adams. Moore’s claims are bogus because she hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with her music in the last 8 years. I’ve listened to it. It sucks. There’s even one nutjob who has claimed that Adams literally murdered one of her friends.
Saying all this, do I think Adams is a “great guy?” No. I’ve heard he’s a misogynistic dick from many people, but what rock star isn’t? Isbell’s been divorced twice now, so obviously he is no white knight either.
Adams is who he is. He’s probably diagnosable as someone with BPD, but he ain’t a predator.
June 27, 2024 @ 4:36 pm
@ElJefe
That’s a lot of words to say you’re a defender of predators. What a sexist screed.
June 25, 2024 @ 11:01 am
It’s funny as someone who really likes Ryan Adams music it’s weird how often commenters on this site will only defend Adams as a person or something. Like I get if you love his music going to bat for your guy we all do that sometimes. But some people hate Adams music but somehow like the guy when by all accounts he seems like a not very good person.
Old 97’s wrote the song crash on the barrel head about what a bad guy Adams is back in 1999. He’s been known as a problem for a long time.
Personally though I still love all the whiskeytown stuff, heartbreaker, Jacksonville city nights. But the guy himself you’re never gonna catch me defending. I don’t get the people who hate his music but defend the guy.
June 26, 2024 @ 6:13 am
I don’t get the people who hate his music but defend the guy.
There’s the notion that he has been “canceled.” And he’s talking shit about Isbell. For some, that’s enough.
I got into Whiskeytown (and several other “alt-country” bands) shortly after the Mermaid Avenue albums by Billy Bragg and WIlco. Really enjoyed the first two Whiskeytown albums. I remember some drama around the third album (which I didn’t pick up) and the breakup of the band. And then previewed his Heartbreaker album in a Borders border, but didn’t pick it up that day (would buy a used copy years later). I think it was around 2002 when I read an article in the old No Depression magazine on his former bandmate Caitlin Cary, where she described how Adams would torpedo about every third show with some performative “punk rock” (his words) bullshit like lying on the stage, writhing and moaning. The band would get really pissed at him, because they felt that the folks in the audience paid to see them and deserved a real show. I just imagined being at a show where I paid for a ticket and someone pulling that bullshit. And just about everything I’ve heard from him since (interviews and such) confirms this negative personal opinion I have of him. Too cool for school hipster jackass.
June 26, 2024 @ 10:25 pm
that first whiskeytown record was stellar. i had high hopes for that band, and for him. but it blew up fast. really fast.
i couldn’t wait to go see them live, but that was never an option they imploded so fast. and it was all due to ryan, from what i could tell.
what a shame. isbell? i got nothin’. i guess there’s some good songs there, but they’re too depressing for me right now. now, if you wanna talk about guitars/amps, let’s go! he’s got the dumble #22, and he paid a LOT for it. why’s he so depressed?
June 25, 2024 @ 11:37 am
Two amazing songwriters. Two amazingly insufferable people.
June 25, 2024 @ 11:47 am
Both Adams and Isbell deserve each other. Both talented but neither particularly likeable.
June 25, 2024 @ 12:00 pm
Two insufferable humans but Isbell skews holier-than-thou. The type of moral busybody that C.S. Lewis warned us about. The kind of person who would turn in Anne Frank to appease the state.
June 25, 2024 @ 3:25 pm
“turn in Anne Frank to appease the state.”
And Ryan Adams is the kind of person who would have asked for nudes from her.
June 25, 2024 @ 1:22 pm
‘They’ – and you can add whoever you like to that They – tried damn hard to bury Ryan Adams. He was down, but never out, and now he is back and better than ever. I have always been a fan of his, but I support him even more now since the crazies tried to end his career. He made it out the other side. Good for him and good for us that he’s making a lot of great music.
June 25, 2024 @ 2:53 pm
You seem very proud to support a predator.
June 25, 2024 @ 4:57 pm
He’s just a horny old guy, no big deal.
June 26, 2024 @ 10:24 am
So it’s just the “crazies” who have a problem with an adult hitting on a kid???
Wow, that says more than you (Jeff) seem to realize.
June 25, 2024 @ 1:55 pm
Isbell is surfing a gargantuan wave of success at the moment, this criticism from Ryan Adams just seems idiotic. I’m sure Isbell’s two grammys, blockbuster movie role, critically acclaimed album and having Zach Bryan literally bow down to him in front of a stadium audience will comfort him if he deigns to actually give a shit about this insult.
Piss off Ryan Adams.
June 25, 2024 @ 4:59 pm
Isbell is a talented writer and singer but his music is often a drag. Rehabcore for lack of a better word.
June 27, 2024 @ 2:32 pm
“Rehabcore” I love it.
It seems like half of his songs are about some kind of addiction. It gets kind of old after awhile. I get it. You like to drink and do drugs and bang chicks. Good for you. Move on to something else.
June 25, 2024 @ 6:25 pm
Ha. I find all the bickering about one or the other quite humorous when it’s really quite simple.
They’re both a couple of a-holes that also happen make good music and that’s that.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:08 pm
Yep both of them are cut from the same cloth. It’s quite funny reading these comments bashing one and/or supporting the other. There needs to be a picture of these two on a Pam from The Office meme saying theyre the same picture…
June 26, 2024 @ 9:46 am
They are both assholes, but they aren’t the same. One is an asshole/bad husband/narcissist/addict, the other is an asshole/bad husband/narcissist/predator. The sexual predation, especially with a minor, is way fucking worse.
June 26, 2024 @ 6:54 am
What TreeMan said!
June 25, 2024 @ 6:36 pm
Ryan Adams is a jerk, no talent ass…totally over rated…
A whiney little bitch, that hits women. Rappers make up songs too…
June 25, 2024 @ 8:41 pm
Funny AF. Luv Ryan Adam’s. And Isbell is a sanctimonious autodidact.
June 25, 2024 @ 8:55 pm
I can understand Ryan being hurt about being abandoned by a friend but his offense made him essentially radioactive. Maybe he’s trying to pull the Youtube/social media commentator stunt of throwing blame to make himself seem innocent simply because he made the accusation.
I assume every music star has some dirt by default. It’s only in the past 15 years that everyone is under the microscope with social media and smart phones everywhere. Also Isbell has every right to be an asshat online. I saw him live once (during the Trump admin no less) and he was good.
Question: Do you think more people on the Left are for a path of redemption for Ryan Adams vs. Morgan Wallen?
June 25, 2024 @ 10:33 pm
Two of the easily most unlikeable (although talented) songwriters don’t like each other…not that surprising…when you think you are better than the rest of us and your opinions matter to us we see through that pretty quickly…love the music – hate the bullshit…
June 26, 2024 @ 3:37 am
As much as I admire and appreciate Trigger’s writing, even while in disagreement, this comment section is just flat out insufferable. There is no corner of the world or internet that won’t be infiltrated and ruined by this authoritarian mindset…..all while believing the exact opposite of themselves.
June 26, 2024 @ 4:50 am
I’ve loved Ryan and Jason’s music for years and still do. When these two were on stage together it was magic. It’s sad their friendship ended. Ryan’s shows have always been a crapshoot in my opinion. He’s got some “growing up” to do.
June 26, 2024 @ 6:05 am
A couple of knob heads. Though Ryan is a bigger jagoff historically.
June 26, 2024 @ 9:49 am
There’s a quote from the show “justified” that perfectly describes Jason Isbell. “You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole.”
I’ve enjoyed Jason’s music for years and seen his online bullying of anyone and everyone who he views as beneath him in terms of political views, songwriting (honestly most everyone is), whatever. He is soooo freaking petty. Attacking fans, musicians, just anyone.
I still love his songwriting, most of it, but no doubt, HE’S THE ASSHOLE!
June 26, 2024 @ 11:17 am
I think I’ve shared this once before, but here’s a funny Ryan Adams story from Chuck Prophet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-XKouNquYM
June 26, 2024 @ 12:40 pm
cRyin’ Adams at it again????
June 26, 2024 @ 1:41 pm
I knew a female artist who was trying to make it back when Ryan Adams was riding high. She had ran in the same circles of Adams and had some interactions with him. I told her that, at the time, that I liked Adams and had brought his music. She told me he was an asshole in person and implied that he was totally uncouth around women. I didn’t want to believe her back then being a fan of Adams, but it looks like she was spot on.
June 26, 2024 @ 1:51 pm
Love Ryan Adams’ music, particularly the early stuff and Whiskeytown. Hate Ryan Adams the man.
I read Lucinda Williams biography (fantastic book!) last year and was disturbed to learn for the first time that many of her songs were written about Ryan Adams after the two had a relationship(!) Puts Essence and Those Three Days in a whole new perspective.
June 27, 2024 @ 7:28 am
I always like that Ryan Adams song Summer of ’69.
June 27, 2024 @ 8:17 am
I’m a “Cuts Like a Knife” man, myself. 😉
June 27, 2024 @ 7:46 am
Boys,boys…….
June 27, 2024 @ 8:00 am
I hope Isbell is compensating Adam S for his services!
They both stink as people. It is a good reminder of how talent grants free passes. See pro athletes as well. Folks turn a blind eye when a guy can catch a pass or turn a verse.
June 27, 2024 @ 4:37 pm
You think he’s paying me for calling him an asshole, narcissist, bad husband and addict?
Sorry that, unlike you, I don’t support pedophiles and predators.
June 27, 2024 @ 12:21 pm
Sheesh, one rap ‘beef’ gets a bunch of attention, and now everyone needs to get on board. Obnoxious…
December 11, 2024 @ 1:38 am
Fuck Jason Isbell