“You don’t think I sold out because I wouldn’t sign that girl’s boob, do you?” Ryan Adams asked me last May after his show at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville.
“Of course not,” I replied. “She looked pretty skanky anyways.”
Now, nearly a year later, I am asking myself the same question: has Ryan Adams sold out?
While at my local indie-record store when my friend Josh was switching CDs a (kind of) familiar sound from the speakers filled the room. A radio station was actually playing “When the Stars Go Blue” by Adams, but something was amiss.
Gone were the warm live guitar tracks and the somber sound of the Rhodes piano.
In their place was the polished “twangy” sound of a radio country hit from Nashville, complete with drab steel guitar and cheesy backing vocals. What the f— was I listening to? Then he started singing – the baldheaded, cowboy hat wearing, redneck Tim McGraw.
As I did my best to control my gag reflex, I continued to listen as this talent-less baldy ruined one of the best tracks off of Adams’ sophomore record Gold.
After listening to the entire song, I left the record store with a bad taste in my mouth. Had the former Whiskeytown front man that stirs up more s— in the press than the majority of present day rock stars cashed in and destroyed any credibility he had?
Had Ryan Adams sold out?
I did not mind when Starbucks whores The Corrs covered “When the Stars Go Blue” with Bono because Bono has some semblance of credibility left among music fans.
I did not even grumble over the fact that “When the Stars Go Blue” was covered by Tyler Hilton and Bethany Joy Lenz on the One Tree Hill Soundtrack because at least when Lenz played it on an episode of One Tree Hill she let everyone know it was an Adams song.
But I cannot seem to get over the fact that McGraw has taken the song and made it his own.
It seems to be a bonafied hit among the hillbilly populace here in Tennessee and those dumb bastards think that McGraw actually wrote it.
Even though it is frustrating to watch a song be ruined by a shitty artist, I cannot blame Adams for making a few dollars off of a song that he could have made a hit out of himself . had he chosen to put a cowboy hat on and let Nashville rape him of his dignity as it has done to so many before him.
In this day and age, where credible musicians are left to toil away in obscurity while those with less talent excel in the mainstream, an artist has to make a buck where he can. Adams sold out about as much as Bob Dylan did when he let The Byrds take credit for “Mr. Tambourine Man,” but that will not stop me from b—-slapping the first redneck that tells me he loves the new Tim McGraw song.
Maybe things will turn out as well for Adams in the long run as they have for Dylan.

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