Top 5 Country Music Feuds
Country music singers, Hank Williams Jr. once sang, are a real close family. And like most families, sometimes they don't get along.
The great mullet smackdown of 1992, starring Travis Tritt and Billy Ray Cyrus
But unlike rap or British rock, where there are so many feuds it can be hard to keep track of them all, country musicians do a pretty good job of playing nice with each other - at least in public. Last weekend on his satellite radio show, Steve Earle made a couple of comments that led Rocks Off to believe that he and fellow "Class of 1986" alum Dwight Yoakam (both of whom will be here early next month) haven't always seen eye to eye. We hit the Internet hoping to turn up the source of this alleged friction, and couldn't find a thing.
But once in a while, even Nashville's carefully maintained negative-PR-restraining dam springs a leak, with suitably entertaining results. We figure you already know about Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks, so call that one No. 6.
5. LeAnn Rimes vs. Her Dad
Metroplex-raised Rimes debuted at age 13 with a bang, selling millions upon millions of her 1996 album Blue thanks to the eponymous single author and DJ Bill Mack originally penned for Patsy Cline. The singer and her manager/father Wilbur were soon at loggerheads over what to do with all that money, he claiming she spent too much of it shopping, she countering that he squirreled away more than his fair share (including in a safe on her tour bus).
After years of bruising lawsuits, the two reconciled shortly before Rimes' 2005 wedding to former dancer Dean Sheremet, but her appetite for feudin' was not satisfied. The Twitter-loving Rimes has also gone head-to-head with current husband Eddie Cibirian's ex-wife Brandi Glanville, talk-show host Wendy Williams and... well, keep reading.
4. Hank Williams Jr. vs. David Allan Coe
This "feud" between the two grizzled outlaws is more like Neil Young's supposed beef with late Lynyrd Skynyrd front man Ronnie Van Zandt - more a mutual admiration society than a feud. Nevertheless, some people think Coe was taking a backhanded shot at Bocephus in his song about an encounter with the ghost of Hank's daddy, 1983's "The Ride." This argument is not helped by the fact that Hank Jr. has also recorded the song, nor by Coe's complimentary "Hank Williams Junior-Junior," which appears on 1985's 17 Greatest Hits.
On the other hand, the two collaborated on 1981's "Were You Born an Asshole?", and Junior challenges Coe's assertion that "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" is the perfect country and western song in 1999's "I'd Love To Knock the Hell Out of You." Told you we had a hard time coming up with five.
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