Some country artists wear their politics on their sleeve, and others are more reserved.
Recently, Jelly Roll made a point to be apolitical in his acceptance speech remarks at the 68th Grammy Awards, championing Jesus by stating, “Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party.“
Afterward, Jelly Roll was asked about his stance on immigration enforcement, to which he replied, “People shouldn’t care to hear my opinion, man. You know? I’m a dumb redneck.”
He went on to say that he has “a lot to say about” politics and would be releasing a statement in the next week, adding, “Everybody’s gonna hear exactly what I have to say about it in the most loud and clear way I’ve ever spoken in my life, so I look forward to it.”
That was said on Feb. 1, and the month has nearly passed without Jelly Roll’s statement on politics being released.
Then, there’s an artist like Luke Combs, who is more straightforward about his politics, even when his feelings are not easily compartmentalized.
Not shying away from speaking on a variety of political and social matters, Combs was a guest on the Popcast podcast, where he spoke on his confidently “moderate” views.
Luke Combs Says He’s “Heavily Moderate”
Speaking on Popcast, a podcast of The New York Times, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, country artist Luke Combs was on hand leading up to the March 20 release of his sixth album, The Way I Am.
There, he was asked about his connection to politics in America.
“I’ve never said what I am because the thing that blows me away the most about it is, basically … five, six years ago, now, me saying that I was not a racist was then people saying, ‘Well, then you must be a liberal,’” Luke recalled. “I’m not sure those things really are mutually exclusive.”
Here, he is referring to a series of interviews he did in 2021 and beyond, looking back on his presence around Confederate flags earlier in his career. This conversation followed the year of the George Floyd protests, which were preceded in 2020 by the highly controversial killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.
2021 also saw country chart-topper Morgan Wallen caught on camera using the N-word.
Participating in the 2021 Country Radio Seminar, Combs said of the Confederate flag, “There is no excuse for those images … I think as a younger man, those were images that I associated to mean something else.”
Combs went on to say in that 2021 interview, “And as I have grown in my time as an artist and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, I am now aware of how painful that image can be to someone else. I would never want to be associated with something that brings so much hurt to someone else.”
Continuing his Feb. 24 conversation on Popcast, Combs said, “I’ve been accused of a million things, man. Like, I would consider myself heavily moderate in everything. That’s to the point where, like, I’m not liberal enough for liberals, and I’m not conservative enough for conservatives, right?”
He added, “I kind of like it that way. Also, I kind of like people not really knowing what I have going on, politically. Like, why do we all care what everybody is? … I have friends that are liberal, I have tons of friends that are conservative. You know, it’s like, I have friends all across the board.”
From there, he spoke of attempts to “cancel” him that have been made by people dismayed with their perception of his politics.
Still, Combs said those efforts begged the question: “How is it hard to say ‘I’m not a racist?’”
Expounding on that, Combs said, “I’m not a guy that feels like I need to, like, push an agenda. One, I’m a musician. No one’s calling Donald Trump and asking him how to write a song. No one’s calling AOC and sayin’, ‘Well, how do I make my album better?’”
Further, he said, “I’m not on here to change anybody’s mind, or change what country music is, or tell anybody who they should vote for — how they should live their lives. I’m also not afraid to go out and say, ‘Hey, man, country music is a place where I feel like anyone should be able to come and enjoy the music.’”
The artist then lamented the lack of a “middle ground” or “grey area,” adding, “There’s no headlines, there’s no clickbait in being a moderate.”
“This incredibly loud minority of people that are on the extreme of either side are the things that folks in the media always are focusing on. In fact, a lot of people are out, living their lives. I go to the poll, and I vote on Election Day, and to me, that’s the most I can do. Like, I didn’t set out to be a political activist. I wanna come sing country music, people come to my shows, I want them to feel welcome. I want them to have a good time. We came here to forget all the bullsh*t that’s going on everywhere else.”
Combs then states that he wishes there were more spaces for people to just be themselves, saying, “We’re all different. That’s the beauty of the world.”
However, Combs did provide some caveats to spaces for everyone, stating, “Obviously, there are things that are not OK. To me, like being inherently a racist is not OK. That’s not something I’m in support of.”
Near the end of this discussion on politics in country music, Combs said, “Even though there’s plenty of artists who are very political, who I’m a fan of, musically speaking, but once it’s coming through my speakers, I’m over it, dude. You can talk all you want on your Twitter or your Instagram, or whatever. That’s something I choose to look at, but … once it’s coming through my speakers, and I feel like I’m being told how to think, or told what to do…”
Asked if he tends to be against protest music in general, Combs noted he’s less offended by music from the past that has a message on a political matter that he wasn’t around for, adding, “I’m glad that people have the ability to go and sing about whatever they want about, but I feel like we’re so inundated with it in today’s culture, in today’s society.”
Combs then offered, “Music is my place to escape all this.”
Watch Luke Combs discuss his political views on the Feb. 24 episode of Popcast, here:
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