Shaboozey: AMAs-ийн Carter гэр бүлийн эгнээнд хажуугийн харц өгсөн шалтгаан

Shaboozey wasn’t “tipsy” but, rather, appeared to have reached some kind of tipping point in reaction to the patter that he and fellow country star Megan Moroney read as presenters at the American Music Awards Monday night. Viewers couldn’t help noticing the singer’s suddenly puzzled facial expression, followed by an abrupt chuckle, in response to his co-presenter reading a line off the prompter stating that the Carter Family “basically invented country music.”

On Monday, he spoke up to address what those non-verbal reactions were about.

“Google: Lesley Riddle, Steve Tarter, Harry Gay, DeFord Bailey, and The Carter Family,” Shaboozey tweeted in the morning, naming some of the pioneering Black figures in country music alongside the Carters. Riddle is a blues musician oft cited by historians for closely collaborating with A.P. and Maybelle Carter in the late 1920s and helping them develop the sound of what first become knowh as “hillbilly” music, before it was country.

He deleted that tweet, but he did post two subsequent tweets, still up, that further spoke to his thinking: “When you uncover the true history of country music, you find a story so powerful that it cannot be erased,” he wrote on X. And, on a note of togetherness: “The real history of country music is about people coming together despite their differences, and embracing and celebrating the things that make us alike.”

On Monday night, he posted a comment on Moroney’s Instagram page, making sure fans understood that he was not blaming for his co-presenter for the script. “Just want to clear something up: my reaction at the AMAs had nothing to do with Megan Moroney!” he wrote. “She’s an incredibly talented, hard-working artist who’s doing amazing things for country music and I’ve got nothing but respect for her.
I’ve seen some hateful comments directed at her today, and that’s not what this moment was about. Let’s not twist the message — she is amazing and someone who represents the country community in the highest light!”

Even before he tweeted, observers of the telecast didn’t have a hard time guessing what might have rubbed Shaboozey the wrong way. Beyond the difficult-to-defend idea that any single artist could invent an artform, there has been a very public discussion in the past couple of years about the Black roots of country, led by Rhiannon Giddens creating awareness of the banjo as an instrument that was introduced to America by slaves, and greatly amplified by Beyoncé further bringing up the issue of the genre’s origins with her “Cowboy Carter” album, which featured Shaboozey on two tracks. The dialogue was undoubtedly meant as light-hearted hyperbole, but given how much the racial roots of country have been part of that national discourse recently, it was understandably seen by many viewers as a failure to read the larger room.

Shaboozey and Moroney were on hand at the AMAs to present the award for favorite country duo or group, which, apart from those few curious seconds, went smoothly. The remark about the Carter Family “basically inventing” country music — which resulted in that “Huh?” expression from Shaboozey — shortly followed one that paid homage to Charley Pride, one of the few Black superstars in country music history prior to Shaboozey. Pride and the Carter Family were being memorialized as the winners of the country categories at the very first AMAs in 1974.

It was not just Shaboozey who had a quizzical response. Wrote Rissi Palmer, one of the foremost Black women in country, on her Instagram account, as she posted a video clip of the presentation: “Tell me you know nothing about the actual roots of Country music without telling me you don’t know the roots… like, who wrote this script? What in the Project 2025 hell is this? I see I’m going to have to do another video about Lesley ‘Esley’ Riddle, the Black preacher who acted as a song scout for the Carter Family and more than inspired and created what we know as ‘The Carter Scratch’ guitar playing style. Behind every founding father and mother of Country music stands a Black musician playing Black roots music, strategically hidden in the mix…”

Continued Palmer, “Make no mistake, the Carter family is foundational to Country music as the first commercially successful artists under the newly formed genre ‘Hillbilly Music.’ But they did not invent Country music. European immigrants, enslaved Africans, indigenous, Polynesian and Mexican people brought their folk music to this country, mixed them together, and created the artform that we all now know as Country music.”

Wrote another Nashville-based Black singer, Roberta Lea, beneath Palmer’s post: “This is why having Black people around is hard for them. Even without speaking, our faces will call out some bullsh*t.”

Shaboozey has been a powerful emblem of continued Black presence in country, with a massive 2024 song, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” that topped the country airplay charts as well as the Billboard Hot 100 for weeks. His star has not faded — he is currently on the cover of People magazine, fronting its “Hot Guy Summer” issue — making his response potentially more impactful than some of the academics and roots musicians who typically bring these issues to the fore.

Representatives for Shaboozey did not have any immediate further comment from the star but suggested that he may have more to say on the matter. Reps for the AMAs declined to comment, and Moroney reps did not respond to a request for comment.