If you’ve been scrolling TikTok and Instagram, chances are you’ve come across videos by Bryan Andrews, a big-framed country music singer who goes on breathless, F-bomb-heavy rants against the current administration, its policies, and the MAGA voters who put them in power. He’s especially critical of Trump followers who identify as Christians.
Just this week, Andrews went off on the U.S.’s military operation in Venezuela, pointedly asking Americans if they’re in for the long haul of supporting the Venezuelan people. “You’re on your fucking knees saying, ‘Oh, thank you, President Trump… Trump liberated those people,’” Andrews shouts into his phone. “When him and his billionaire buddies drain that country for all its worth and then leave them to fight amongst themselves, are you going to care about them then?”
But Andrews says he’s not just trying to gain cheap publicity. The Carrollton, Missouri native is as steadfast in his beliefs as in the country songs he writes, records, and releases via Disruptor Records/Sony. “Liquor and Pills” is a brooding ballad about vices and heartbreak that grabbed a foothold with listeners: It has more than 15 million Spotify streams. Last fall, he dropped “The Older I Get,” a more topically pointed song about politicians lining their pockets with an allusion to the Epstein files (“Trying to cover up names on a list/lie and say that it doesn’t exist”).
“I’ve always been kind of like a brash guy on social media,” Andrews tells Rolling Stone during an interview on the Nashville Now podcast. “But when I decided I wanted to start speaking about these things is when they became too loud to ignore. For me, it was watching the L.A. ICE raids happen, and then watching some of the other injustices that we’ve seen, like rolling back policies that help marginalized communities. That’s when I was like, this is too loud for me to ignore, especially being someone who can directly talk to the people who support it.”
At first glance, Andrews appears to meet the stereotypical definition of a rural country music fan. He’s a gun owner and deer hunter, carries a dip can in his pocket (his latest single is titled “Grizzly Can”), and prefers to wear camo. He considers that his secret weapon in his ability to make a connection, especially culturally, with country fans.
“I look like these people, and I talk like these people, and if they’re going to listen to anybody, it’s going to be somebody that looks like me. I come from where they come from,” he says. Still, Andrews adds, “I’m not trying to be the Toby Keith of the left.”
While it’s unclear if Andrews is changing minds, he’s definitely capturing attention. After taping his interview with Nashville Now, Andrews stopped by the East Nashville club the East Room to catch a lineup of local indie bands. Fans approached him throughout the night to say hi and take selfies, arguably more so for his online fame than for his music. Andrews, who admits he’s considering politics down the road, doesn’t bristle at being labeled a content creator.
“Sometimes I feel that I’m being viewed more as a creator than I am an artist, which I think can be problematic in some ways, but I also view it as the new era of social media and media and music that we’re in, you have to be both,” he says. “Artists who say, ‘I never signed up to be a creator. I just want to make art and make music,’ I agree and I see your point. But if you don’t believe in your art well enough to find creative ways to sell it, then is it that good?”
“The Older I Get” underscores his point. It’s a weighty country song that marries hints of traditional country with a modern-day vocal delivery (think Morgan Wallen). It’d fit in nicely on country radio.
But Andrews know the mainstream probably won’t play a guy who dares to call out ICE, hold up a mirror to hypocrites, and criticize a MAGA movement that has won over Music Row during Trump’s second administration.
“I was never going to make it in their version of country music,” Andrews says. “So I’m just trying to make my own.”
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Kings of Leon, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Ink, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, and Clever.