10 major feuds in country music: From Dolly Parton vs Porter Wagoner to Eric Church vs Garth Brooks
10 of the biggest feuds between country singers
Country music singers, while representing the spirit of Americana, often sing about love and compassion. But as the close-knit community supports each other, often, the singers get embroiled in feuds with fellow artists. Here are ten such feuds which dominated the arena of country music.
1. Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner
Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner's feud goes more than 40 years back. Wagoner initially gave Parton her big break as she started appearing in 'The Porter Wagoner Show' in 1967. After she left the show in 1979, he sued her for $3 million, citing a breach of contract. Parton wrote about the incident in her memoir 'Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics', and recalled, “After I left and started doing well, Porter sued me for $3 million, and that was money that I didn’t have. I had to pay that over a long period of time,” before adding, “He gave me great opportunities, and I did appreciate him. Later on, we got back together and he said he was sorry about all of that. So I forgave him, and I asked him to forgive me. I’m sure I was a pain in the ass to him. I was, because I believed in what I believed in, and I was going to fight for it. There’s truth on either side," per InTouch Weekly.
2. Eric Church and Garth Brooks
Eric Church and Garth Brooks' feud initiated in 2018 after Brooks won the Entertainer of the Year honor at the 2017 CMA Awards. Later, Church called out Brooks for lip-syncing, saying, “So the winner of the biggest category of the night lip-synced in the biggest moment on the show?” Next year, when he lost again to Brooks, Church told the crowd, “I told ’em I said, ‘Listen, I’m fine with it. [But] you pissed the wrong fans off.’” Later, Brooks appeared on NASH FM 93.1 in November 2019, where he shared his views on the tiff. He shared, “The crazy thing was that we hugged each other right before. All I’ve heard from him — and he might be hearing different things — [but] I’ve heard from him that it doesn’t bother him. But the line, ‘They pissed the wrong fans off,’ that’s perfect. Because if our name hadn’t been called, then in Knoxville (the concert venue), there would have been signs everywhere,” and added, “It brings you closer to your team. Those guys will keep going, and the year that he wins it will be the sweetest year for him. So I guess I just don’t see what everybody else is seeing.”
3. Eric Church vs Rascal Flatts
Eric Church had another massive feud with the Rascal Flatts in 2006 when he was replaced from their 2006 tour with a young Taylor Swift. Gary LeVox, Joe Don Rooney and Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts were touring when they had to let go of Church. Appearing in an interview with Tucson.com in 2011, Church shared, “We played a little bit too loud, a little bit longer than we were supposed to. I was a new act and I came out there and people paid a lot of money for a ticket and I was going to give them a show. We came out and gave them a show. We got fired at Madison Square Garden, which is a fun story,” before adding, “[Taylor] called me after I got fired. I read in the paper that we were fired. She called and said ‘I want you to know that I love what you do.' I joked with her, ‘This is your crowd; they're going to love you. You're going to owe me your first gold record.' I was kidding, but when she got her first gold record she gave me one. It came with a note: 'Thanks for playing too long and too loud on the Flatts tour. I sincerely appreciate it. Taylor.’” DeMarcus later shared their side of the incident in 2014, when he recalled, “We asked him four times to stay to the allotted amount of time that he had to play. We sat him down in our dressing room and were like, ‘Look. We’ll put you on early so you can play longer. But please, just be off the stage because we still have to do our show.’ … For every minute that you go overtime, especially in New York City, you’re charged thousands of dollars by the minute in labor fees. It was just a bit disrespectful because when you’re an opening act, we did our best to abide by the rules that the headliner laid out for us. And you just do that and there was no goodwill being sent back to us, and it wasn't worth the trouble, so we said, 'See ya.'"
4. Eric Church vs Miranda Lambert/Blake Shelton
In 2012, Eric Church courted controversy again during an interview with Rolling Stone. While criticizing reality shows, he said, “Honestly, if Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green turn around in a red chair, you got a deal? That’s crazy,” he said. “I don’t know what would make an artist do that. You’re not an artist. Once your career becomes about something other than the music, then that’s what it is. I’ll never make that mistake. I don’t care if I starve.” Miranda Lambert, who was married to Blake Shelton then, took to Twitter to shade him, saying, “Thanks Eric Church for saying I'm not a real artist. Or @kelly_clarkson, @carrieunderwood & @KeithUrban. Your welcome for the tour in 2010.” Church later responded, saying, “The comment I made to Rolling Stone was part of a larger commentary on these types of reality television shows and the perception they create, not the artists involved with the shows themselves. The shows make it appear that artists can shortcut their way to success. There are a lot of artists due to their own perseverance that have gone on to be successful after appearing on these shows, but the real obstacles come after the cameras stop rolling. Every artist has to follow up television appearances with dedication towards their craft, but these shows tend to gloss over that part and make it seem like you can be ordained into stardom.” Nevertheless, the feud subsided as Lambert later told Yahoo! Music in 2012, "I think that anybody can get roped into a really bad interview situation, and I've had things printed about me that sounded way worse than they were. I know he said what he said, but it died off just like anything else that happens. … You move on."
5. Maren Morris/Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Wallen
While Morgan Wallen's feud with Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini wasn't a result of personal issues, it was rather an issue of a protest. After Wallen courted controversy for using the N-word in 2021, Ballerini and Morris took to the social media to slam the star. After the video circulated, Ballerini tweeted, “The news out of Nashville tonight does not represent country music,” to which Morris responded, “It actually IS representative of our town because this isn’t his first ‘scuffle’ and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless. We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse."
6. Marren Morris vs Jason and Brittany Aldean
Marren Morris' feud with Brittany Aldean, wife of Jason Aldean, started when Brittany took to her social media in 2022 to thank her “parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase." After several musicians joined in slamming the Xo Britt founder, with Cassadee Pope writing, “You’d think celebs with beauty brands would see the positives in including LGBTQ+ people in their messaging. But instead here we are, hearing someone compare their ‘tomboy phase’ to someone wanting to transition. Real nice," Maren wrote, “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie." Jason Aldean got inserted into the tiff when his fans booed Marren during his Nashville concert. During a concert at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, he told his audience, “I thought, man, who could I call? I got some friends in town,” before adding, “I could call Luke Bryan. I could call Kane Brown. See if Kenny Chesney’s here and not at the beach.” As he called Marren's name, the audience booed loudly with Jason making a face implyong he did not understand the reason for crowd's rejection.
7. Chase Rice vs Kelsea Ballerini
Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Rice's feud peaked in the middle of the first wave of the Covid pandemic when Rice performed in a concert in June 2020 with no masks or social distancing. Ballerini wrote, “Imagine being selfish enough to put thousands of people’s health at risk, not to mention the potential ripple effect, and play a NORMAL country concert right now," before adding, “@ChaseRiceMusic, We all want (and need) to tour. We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait.” Rice later shared via Instagram, “I took a video of the concert, everybody had a blast, but then once I posted the video, a lot of people seeing that online had a big problem with how the show looked, how the show went down,” and added, “I understand there’s a lot of varying opinions, a lot of different opinions on COVID-19, how it works with live music crowds and what all that looks like.”
8. Bobby Bones vs Kacey Musgraves
Bobby Bones attacked Kacey Musgraves in 2014 after creating a segment in his show titled 'Is Kacey Musgraves Annoyed?' after interviewing her for his 'The Bobby Bones Show'. He later wrote in a tweet, “Will @KaceyMusgraves ever respond to my tweets. Enter your answer now; A: yes, B: no.” Musgraves later fired back, “If you’d play our original interview in full and tell people how you unfairly re-edited it I might think about talking to you.” After Bones called his interview experience as "miserable" and both are “known s—t heads", Musgraves said, “I normally wouldn’t take part in this kinda stuff but since it’s gotten outta hand: The original interview that audio was taken from, unfairly edited, and played on air can be found through the link on this page. … I am a songwriter and a musician. That’s what I’ve been passionate about my entire life and it’s really sad that the focus got taken away from that. Above all- I’m human. Not a robot. Especially at 8 am. I don’t stroke egos and that doesn’t make me a ’s—t head.’ When you hear the music that means so much to me to make, that’s all that should matter," per Us Weekly.
9. Tyler Hubbard vs Brian Kelley
Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard's feud started in 2020 during the presidential election. After Kelley and his wife Brittney Kelley, showed their support for Donald Trump, Tyler Hubbard and his wife, Hayley Hubbard, unfollowed him on Instagram. Tyler, an ardent Biden supporter, said during that time, “I unfollowed BK for a few days while we were through this political, you know, in the middle of this election and everything going on,” before adding, “And even called him and told him, I said, ‘Hey buddy, I love you. And I love you a lot more in real life than on your Stories right now. So I’m just going to, so that’s why I’m unfollowing you. Nothing personal. I still love you. You’re still my brother.’ I just didn’t want to see it every time I opened Instagram. And so it wasn’t a big deal.” After the Florida Georgia Line members launched solo careers, the tiff intensified with Brian releasing his song 'Kiss My Boots' shading Tyler.
10. Natalie Maines vs Toby Keith
Natalie Maines of The Chicks and Toby Keith have a long history of feuding, starting in 2002 after he released 'Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)'. Maines reacted to the song in an interview with Los Angeles Times by saying that "I hate it," before adding, "It's ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant. It targets an entire culture — and not just the bad people who did bad things. You've got to have some tact. Anybody can write, 'We'll put a boot in your a--.' But a lot of people agree with it. The kinds of songs I prefer on the subject are like Bruce Springsteen's new songs." Keith later fired back at Maines saying that the Chicks were "ashamed" that then-President George W Bush was from Texas amid the Iraq War. He, however, later said to CMT in 2003, "I'm embarrassed about the way I let myself get sucked into all of that," before adding, "I disappointed myself. I didn't disappoint anybody else. Everybody else loved it. They wanted me to attack that. But I probably disappointed myself more than anything, because I'm better than that. It got pretty vicious sometimes, putting her and Saddam Hussein up on the screen. That was funny for a night or two, and then it was a little over the top for me. I'm not that mean. I just said, 'You know what? She's getting kicked enough without me piling on.' She would have got the same thing she got without me even saying a word. I'll know better. I'll learn something next time … Maybe."
