We All Know Where This Gavin Adcock Thing Is Headed

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Predictability is one of the killers of the joy of music. Music must include things like a regular beat and recurring melody to find appeal to the human brain. But when even the most novice listeners can hear a song and predict what’s coming next, the magic of music is lost, rendering it inert, or even cliché where it’s not just uninteresting, it’s repulsive. Of all people, Jordan Peterson explains this important element of music better than anyone.

It’s not necessarily the music of Gavin Adcock that has become so predictable that it veers into the realm of cliché. His music might be the least offensive part of the Gavin Adcock experience, even if it isn’t especially appealing to a distinguishing ear. It’s his behavioral pattern that we have seen play out in music ad nauseum, and we can all predict where it’s headed.

On Wednesday night, May 21st, Gavin Adcock was arrested for reckless driving, and violating the open container law by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in Wilson County, just east of Nashville. He was pulled over on Interstate 40 at mile marker 229. Saving Country Music has some inquiries out to local law enforcement to see if more information about the incident can be found. But so far, all we know is that he was arrested, and then discharged Thursday morning (5-22) at 4:34 am after posting a $1,000 bond.

For those who might be unaware, Gavin Adcock is a viral country star signed to a major label in Warner Music Nashville. He’s become famous in part from his antics on and off the stage, with his shows at some point usually descending into him going wild, slinging beer and whiskey on the audience, and fans reciprocating in a drunken mess. Many viral videos of Gavin Adcock in dumb, drunken incidents have fueled his dramatic rise in popularity arguably more than his music.

In some respects, the music feels like a side show with Gavin Adcock. If you need a more familiar frame of reference, imagine Koe Wetzel on steroids. But where Koe never really did anything terribly problematic and it was all more an extension of the persona he presented through the lyrics of his songs, the Gavin Adcock experience is most definitely translating into real world ramifications, and ones that are spilling out into the country music scene like the beer of someone who’s blacked out in the alley behind a Gavin Adcock show.

As was highlighted just last month, the behavior of whipping beer cans/bottles at the stage inspired by Gavin Adcock concerts has begun to become so pervasive, you can basically see it at any show with fans of similar demographics. If you’re at a festival, this behavior will commence during any set if artists like Gavin Adcock or Treaty Oak Revival are on the bill. This specifically affected the Two Step Inn festival in Texas in April, and a Braxton Keith performance where he had to avoid multiple beers getting thrown at him.

As Braxton Keith said in a now viral Instagram/Tik-Tok post at the time, “Hey listen up. I didn’t come here to get beer cans thrown at me, alright? This isn’t a godddamn Gavin Adcock concert, okay? Don’t be throwing f–king beers out here. These people at the front are getting wet up here and it’s gonna piss them off, and it’s gonna piss me off.”

Keith continued, “This little girl right here has never been to a country concert before and it’s her first damn time, okay? We’re gonna have a good show for her, okay? I just want to get myself clear. I am not Gavin Adcock. I’m Braxton mo’fukin Keith, okay? Alright, that’s what I thought. We came here to listen to country music.“

But there is a much deeper concern beyond concert behavior involved here, and it goes back to the incredible predictability of Gavin Adcock. As I said on April 9th, “We all know where Gavin Adcock is headed, and he seems to be the last to know. And the people using his behavior to market him are running a big risk. I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but I’ve had to write too many obituaries to sit back and think that all of this is cute. People first, then music. Luckily Paul Cauthen woke up from the ‘I’m a badass’ persona before it was too late. It ended up being too late for Justin Townes Earle, Luke Bell, and others.”

For the record, performers Luke Bell and Justin Townes Earle ended up dying of overdoses. Paul Cauthen leaned into his behavior after being arrested for possession of numerous substances in 2023, including heroin, afterwards releasing a song and trying to piggy back off the arrested for marketing purposes before Cauthen more recently announced he was stepping away to focus on his mental health, and eventually revealed a Cancer diagnosis.

Similar to Paul Cauthen, the marketing of Gavin Adcock’s behavior is very much part of the equation. It is fundamental, if not essential, to his popularity, and so you not only have a major label in Warner Music Nashville being permissive of it, they’re leaning into it. Today in the offices of Gavin Adcock’s management, label, booking, and publicity, they’re probably celebrating the arrest since it will goose Adcock’s bad boy persona. Some of this is also what’s involved in Morgan Wallen’s popularity.

And predictably some will say, “Oh quit being such a prude. The old country greats in the ’70s did way worse than anything Gavin Adcock is being accused of.” Yes, and some of them died like Hank Williams, Eddy Shaver, and Townes Van Zandt, others injured themselves or killed other people like George Jones and Johnny Rodriguez. It’s not 1975. It’s 2025. We know better now. And most predictably, we all know where this is headed with Gavin Adcock.

What is a guy on a major label like Gavin Adcock even doing driving himself around late at night anyway? We all know this is when bad things happen. It’s predictable.

The charges against Gavin Adcock are petty. The pattern of behavior is seriously problematic. Instead of prolonging the predictable trip to rehab, or waiting around the long list of RIPs that would follow the worst case scenario, it’s time to nip this in the bud. Because it’s all coming across as incredibly cliché.

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