Rich, who started off in Nashville at Opryland USA right out of high school decades ago, reached the pinnacle of success when he joined Big Kenny in 2002 to form the country music duo Big & Rich<\/p>\n
According to reporter John Solomon, if the earth shook beneath Nashville, \u201cit probably had something to do with maverick country star John Rich.\u201d Being \u201cunabashedly conservative and weary of woke record labels and group station owners,\u201d Rich \u201cdecided to bypass the traditional industry machinery\u201d and release his song Progress via \u201ctwo fledgling free-speech social media platforms, Truth Social owned by former President Donald Trump, and the Rumble video community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within hours of Rich\u2019s release, Progress soared to No. 1 on the Apple iTunes song chart, beating out heavy hitter new releases from Billie Eilish and Lizzo, as well as Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush. \u201cHello Patriots,\u201d Rich wrote on Truth Social introducing his new song available for download. \u201cThis is my message to the tyrants running our country into the ground, to \u2018Stick your Progress\u2019 where the sun don\u2019t shine!\u201d
\nAccording to the Washington Examiner, the song\u2019s lyrics include several direct messages challenging the views of liberals. \u201cThey say building back better will make America great,\u201d Rich sings. \u201cIf that\u2019s the wave of the future, all I\u2019ve got to say is, stick your progress where the sun don\u2019t shine. Keep your big mess away from me and mine. If you leave us alone, well, we\u2019d all be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Just the News, Rich said that while most country fans and artists have remained true to the roots of country music and its values, the marketing and distribution machines have increasingly become woke. So, he suspected that traditional radio station groups, record labels, and social media platforms like Twitter would shun or shadowban his new song and its conservative-friendly theme.
\n\u201cHere I am with no record label, no publisher, no marketing deal,\u201d Rich said. \u201cIt is bypassing this machine that they\u2019ve built, going right around the machine, going right to the people.\u201d The country musician also explained that the way he rolled out his new album came down to trusting his own beliefs, and that meant staying away from the \u201cwoke\u201d platforms. That\u2019s when the idea of trying Truth Social and Rumble as an experiment was born.<\/p>\n
Country musician John Rich singing \u201cProgress\u201d (Credit: YouTube)
\nRich described his thought process in releasing his new work. \u201cWhen I\u2019m talking about them shutting down our voices, I\u2019m talking about Twitter and YouTube and Facebook,\u201d Rich said. \u201cAnd I thought, you know what, I\u2019m gonna reach out to Truth Social and reach out to Rumble because they still allow free speech over there,\u201d he added. \u201cWhy would I launch this song on the platforms that I\u2019m railing against in the lyrics?\u201d
\nThe maverick singer hopes this inspires other artists like himself, showing them that there is a way to be successful and stay true to your own principles. \u201cI think without a doubt, it is a path forward,\u201d Rich said. \u201cIt is bypassing this machine that they\u2019ve built, going right around the machine, going right to the people. It means that if you bring the right content, and you have people like Truth and Rumble that will get that message to your core audience, you can beat the machine that\u2019s been put in place to keep people like me shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rich explained that the inspiration for the song came to him after spending months watching the country going into what he described as an utter decline. \u201cI\u2019m watching what I consider to be the dismantling of our country at a lot of different levels,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when you sit back and look at it, the vast majority of it\u2019s being perpetrated on us under the banner of \u2018progress.\u2019 Like in the name of progress we\u2019re going to send gasoline through the roof so you have to buy an electric car.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Big & Rich star also had an uphill battle with country radio stations to persuade them to play his work. \u201cHere\u2019s the problem with country radio,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not your DJs at the radio station. It\u2019s the people way up the food chain that run the conglomerates that have bought up 90% of all of our radio stations. There\u2019s a big [contingent] of them that do not like anybody bucking their woke system.\u201d It appears part of John Rich\u2019s recipe for success involves staying true to his own beliefs and principles, and whether you agree or disagree with him, no one can say he will sell his soul to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rich, who started off in Nashville at Opryland USA right out of high school decades ago, reached the pinnacle of success when he joined Big Kenny in 2002 to form the country music duo Big & Rich According to reporter John Solomon, if the earth shook beneath Nashville, \u201cit probably had something to do with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5521,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions\/5521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}