Zach Bryan, one of the biggest stars in US country music, has been criticised by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over a new song in which he sings about immigration raids by Ice.
The DHS’s assistant secretary of public affairs, Tricia McLaughlin, told Bryan to “stick to Pink Skies, dude,” referring to one of his previous hits, in comments reported by the Independent. The DHS also made a provocative post on X, laying another Bryan song, Revival, over footage of Ice officers arresting migrants, with the caption “we’re having an All Night Revival”.
Using rhetoric that is characteristic of its public messaging during Donald Trump’s second term in office, the department is responding to a snippet of unreleased new song Bryan posted on social media earlier this week, featuring the lyrics: “I heard the cops came, cocky motherfuckers ain’t they? / And Ice is gonna come bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more / Well I got a telephone / Kids are all scared and all alone”.
Bryan has elaborated on the song, presumably titled The Fading of the Red White and Blue after he used those words as a caption alongside the song snippet.
“This song is about how much I love this country and everyone in it more than anything,” he wrote on Instagram. “When you hear the rest of the song, you will understand the full context that hits on both sides of the aisle. Everyone using this now as a weapon is only proving how devastatingly divided we all are. We need to find our way back … Left wing or right wing we’re all one bird and American. To be clear I’m on neither of these radical sides.”
The song also more generally laments discord in American society, as Bryan sings: “The middle fingers rising and it won’t stop showing / Got some bad news / The fading of the red white and blue.”
Bryan, 29, was born to parents in the US Navy, and himself served in the Navy for eight years as a younger man, writing and uploading his earliest songs while enlisted. “I am so proud to have served in a country where we can all speak freely and converse amongst each other without getting doxed or accosted on the internet or worse; the violence and heartbreak we’ve faced in the last few months!” he wrote in another message this week.
Bryan self-released his debut album DeAnn in 2019, and broke through with American Heartbreak in 2022 which reached the US top five. His self-titled follow up reached No 1 in 2023, and his latest album The Great American Bar Scene reached No 2 and is certified platinum. He also topped the US singles chart in 2023 with his Kacey Musgraves duet I Remember Everything.
Earlier this month he broke the record for the highest attendance at a ticketed concert in US history, with 112,408 concertgoers, beating another country star, George Strait, who who drew 110,905 to a 2024 concert. Bryan’s huge gig also broke the record for merchandise sales, shifting $5m worth of goods.
