A Public Service Announcement For Country Music Singers: Wear A Cowboy Hat
It’s the right thing to do
The Country Music world is being torn apart by a piece of clothing that used to serve as its official symbol: the cowboy hat.
I’m am old-school country singer, so I believe in visual iconography like I believe in singin’ about things I regret. I wear a big ol’, floppy ten-gallon cowboy hat so you know I’m a country singer. It’s not for me, it’s for you.
Heck, any one of us might be a country singer. Country music lives in all of us like a deadly, uncontrollable and unpredictable virus. Country music doesn’t care whether you live in the west or the Midwest or the Southwest. Country music doesn’t care if you’re a man or an older man. If it were up to me, we’d all wear a big ol’ Stetson whenever we’re in a situation where people around us might want us to sing about things we wish we hadn’t-a done.
Wearin’ a cowboy hat is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of leadership, a sign that you lead an entire group of musicians who are all committed to making country music.
I’m saddened that the cowboy hat is becoming a political lightning rod: people think that if you’re a country music singer who wears a cowboy hat, you’re a Republican, and if you’re a country music singer who doesn’t wear a cowboy…
