Country artist Bryan Andrews hails from a one stoplight town in Carroll County, Missouri with no buildings higher than two stories — but his music has taken him around the country, deeply influencing his world views.
Those views, which often lean to the progressive left, are expressed in his music in such songs as “Yeehaw,” “Are We Great Yet” and “The Older I Get,” all featured on his aptly-titled July EP, Independence Day. They have also resonated deeply with his more than 3.8 million TikTok and 1.5 million Instagram followers.
Standout track “The Older I Get,” which takes on big pharma, the Epstein files, ICE and un-Christ-like behavior by so-called Christians, reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart last year. Between its release and the new EP, Andrews popularity — and and notoriety — has only increased.
Come November, Andrews’ will embark on his headlining Taking My Flag Back tour, his biggest outing yet that not coincidentally, kicks off on Election Day, Nov. 5, in Washington, D.C. The WME-booked artist capped tickets at $28, with a certain percentage going to a charity to be named shortly.
During a recent trip to Los Angeles, Andrews — who is also a former welder — talked to Billboard about his career and how he manages being an outspoken liberal in a format known for its conservative bent.
You wrote EP track “Yeehaw,’’ a hardcore song calling conservatives sheep for not standing up to ICE, with Laura Veltz, one of Nashville’s top songwriters. How did that come about?
We had just started writing together right when I was wanting to do that mixtape. We had written a couple other songs too that are great and, hopefully, we’ll get to put them out someday. I wrote “Yeehaw” with her [and] Lou Ridley, who’s going on tour with me, and the producer Steve Rusch. That’s one of my favorite rooms I’ve ever been in. Every time I’m in Nashville, we always try to put that room back together,
Are there writers who don’t want to write with you in Nashville because of your political views?
I’m sure there are. I’ve never been explicitly told, “I’m not writing with him.” I think most of that stuff goes through management anyway, so if that did ever occur my team wouldn’t tell me about it probably. But there’s definitely people out there that I would never even reach out to write with.
Do you want to name names?
No. We just see the world differently and that is what it is. If they don’t want to write with me, I don’t hold it against anybody. Even if they agree with me, but don’t want to align themselves with me or whatever I’m doing, then I won’t hold it against them. You live your life the way you want to.
You call yourself a protest singer and have mentioned some of the artists that you grew up listening to that you also consider protest singers, including N.W.A., Tupac and Rage Against the Machine. Have you ever met Rage’s Tom Morello?
I would love to sit down with Tom Morello. He’s one of my greatest idols– to see somebody whose message is just as loud as his music, and he’s able to still live out his dream of being a musician and also being an activist. He’s trying to help people and bring light and awareness to issues that we still very commonly see today that we saw in the ‘90s, just like we still saw in the ‘50s and ‘60s, or even since this country’s inception.
Charley Pride is a really big one for me and a lot of the blues artists that you probably never even heard of down in the Mississippi Delta. A lot of those guys were surrounded by people that disagreed with them, but they were still making the music they made, and people eventually came around to it.
Has your management or your label ever asked you to tone down your songs or your rhetoric?
I think there’s been moments where the team has been like, “Maybe we should pivot.” And in my mind, it was never going to be a linear projection. I knew there was going to be highs and lows in doing this, but it was worth it. To be honest with you, even if I torched my whole career over the things I say, who gives a sh-t? I just think that if I was going to go down for something, it was going to be for the things that I believe in.
Has your record label, Disruptor, which goes through Sony, talked to Sony Nashville about taking your music to country radio at some point or do you not see that as part of your path?
I actually do. At some point, I think country radio comes around. I think there’s a world that exists where this music] lives in the mainstream country space. Never say never, right? I think Disruptor probably has talked to people about it, but I think right now we’re still on a development deal so we’re not even thinking about radio, really. I mean, it definitely crosses [my] mind, but for me, it was more about building the community that was always going to be there for me and that I would always be there to support before we tried radio or anything like that. We just wanted to build as much organically as we possibly could.
You played CMA Fest for the first time in June, and you brought liberal Tennessee Representative Justin Pearson on stage with you. He addressed the crowd, including extoling them to vote. How did that come about?
The [Country Music Association] asked me to play the Reverb Stage at CMA Fest back in January. We were just gonna go play a normal show, the protest songs and everything, but about a month before CMA Fest, [Republican lawmakers] gerrymandered Justin out of his seat and the Memphis district [and redrew] the only majority black district in the entire state of Tennessee. When I saw that, I hit him on DMs and was like, “Hey, dude, would you like to come be a part of CMA Fest with me? I think it’d be a really cool moment.” [The CMA] told me not to bring him on stage for any activities or performance. They just wanted me to bring him for a guest, which I said OK to, and did it anyways. They never said anything to me about it [afterwards]…I don’t hold it against CMA if they have any bad feelings towards it because they told me not to do it, and I did it anyways. But I do not regret the decision we made that day, and I do not regret the performance. [The CMA did not respond to a request for comment.]
Is there someone on the right that you respect that you may disagree with?
[Kentucky congressman] Thomas Massie. I think we would disagree on probably 95% of issues, right? But I can at least respect somebody who stands by their values.
If you and John Rich, who is one of country music’s most outspoken conservatives, debated, who would win?
Me for sure, 1,000% without a doubt. I would love to sit down with him and actually talk to him. He had quote tweeted a video of me bringing Justin on stage. I will have a respectful conversation with anybody that wants to come sit at a table with me.
Do you wish Nashville would embrace you more?
No. I think that anybody who wants to embrace me can, and I think if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. I think we live in a free country, and at the end of the day, if you don’t like me, you just don’t like me. It is what it is.
