Are Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins shading Lil Nas X in “Hell Right,” the song they released last Friday?
On the track, Shelton sings “the girl from the small town took off the ‘Old Town,” put on a little Hank Jr.” and Adkins adds “thank God.”
Some fans interpreted the lyrics as a shot at “Old Town Road,” the country-rap song that has enjoyed a record run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Referring to a track by Lil Nas X (who is black) in the same line as Hank Williams Jr. (a fan of the Confederate flag) is also being called out as racist.
“Hell Right” was written by Thomas Hardy, David Garcia and Brett Tyler.
On the new BlakeShelton single Saying Hell Right to someone taking off Old Town Road and putting on something else is, in this moment, a dick move.. OK, whatever. But taking off Lil' Nas in favor of HankJr will be predictably, understandably read as a racist dick move. WTF Blake?
— David Cantwell (@dlcantwell) August 16, 2019
Ahead of the song’s release, Shelton tweeted: “My apologies ahead of time to a few of the ‘purest’ bloggers of country music because this ones really gonna make you cry. That’s MY apology. Trace doesn’t give a s**t…. Hell Right.”
A spokesman for the country star told Variety the lyrics are not intended as a Lil Nas X diss.
“It’s absolutely not throwing any kind of shade at Lil Nas X at all. Blake says this literally has nothing to do with anything at all except how much the song is played,” the rep said. “It could have been ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ or any other (overplayed) song.”
Shelton apparently spoke to Billy Ray Cyrus, who appears on the “Old Town Road” remix, “and he thought it was funny.”
Listen to "Hell Right" below: