Gavin Adcock Goes After Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter. We're Calling Bullshit on His Claim

Country up-and-comer Gavin Adcock has become a lightning rod in country music, selling out big venues and playing festivals. At a recent show, he made it clear that Beyoncé doesn't fit his particular brand of country.

Adcock took shots at Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album, which remains in the country charts and took home the Grammy for Best Country Album at the 2025 Grammys, making her the first Black woman to win the award. She's currently in the midst of the Cowboy Carter Tour, which hit Texas last weekend.

In a video of footage from one of Adcock's shows, he gave harsh opinions about Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter being higher than his album on Apple Music's country music charts.

“And one of them is Beyoncé. You can tell her we're coming for her fucking ass,” Adcock says from the stage. “That shit ain't country music. It ain’t ever been country music and it ain’t gonna be country music.”

Country artist Gavin Adcock slams Beyoncé after his album currently ranks below ‘COWBOY CARTER’ on the Apple Music Country chart:

“That s*** ain’t country music and it ain’t ever been country music, and it ain’t gonna be country music.” pic.twitter.com/rKwaqymt5t

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) June 30, 2025

The comments drew cheers from the crowd as Adcock began his set ahead of his upcoming album, Own Worst Enemy, which is set to be released in August. His debut album, Actin' Up Again, hit streaming last August.

On June 30, Adcock posted a video to X that was initially complimentary of Beyoncé’s work, but doubled down on the take that Cowboy Carter shouldn’t be labeled as country music.

“It doesn’t sound country, it doesn’t feel country," he said. "I don't think that people who have dedicated their whole lives to this genre and this lifestyle should have to compete or watch that album stay at the top just because she’s Beyoncé.”

It ain’t country pic.twitter.com/kSpqWCe5yA

— Gavin Adcock Music (@GavinAdcock) June 30, 2025

This outlines the problem with Adcock's stance. Could you argue that Cowboy Carter doesn't sound like traditional country music? Sure. But Beyoncé’s “Ameriican Requiem" slammed haters and what she thought of them when trying to dabble in country music throughout her career.

“Looka there, looka in my hand / The grandbaby of a moonshine man / Gadsden, Alabama / Got folk down in Galveston, rooted in Louisiana / Used to say I spoke, ‘Too country’ / And the rejection came, said ‘I wasn’t country ‘nough,” she sings in the second verse. “Said I wouldn’t saddle up, but / If that ain’t country, tell me what is? / Plant my bare feet on solid ground for years / They don’t, don’t know how hard I had to fight for this / When I sang my song.”
It's also the way that he attacked her that's rubbing us the wrong way.

What is "this lifestyle?" Do you need to be in smoky rooms with low ceilings to play jazz? Of course not. Does a rock star need to party all night and trash their hotel room on the way out? Of course not. Why are we putting cultural barriers on country music? Sorry, Queen Bey, you didn't grow up raising cattle, so you're not allowed to have any twang in your music.

There's certainly a point to be made about the recent trend of traditionally non-country artists attempting to cross over into the genre. But let’s face it, you’re not going to hear Adcock going after someone like Post Malone or mgk, who just like Beyoncé, are stars who recently made a pivot to country. Wonder why? Maybe they're part of the "lifestyle."

At any rate, this exclusionary energy that surrounds country music is gross and far too common. Like it or not, Cowboy Carter is country music, and no amount of comments from the stage is going to change that.