Zach Bryan teases song condemning ICE raids, sings 'ICE is gonna come bust down your door'
Zach Bryan is going viral for his newly teased song "Bad News," which condemns the recent ICE raids around the country.
The country music star posted a snippet of the song on social media on Oct. 3, and for the first time, the 29-year-old singer is musically wading into politics as he mourns the loss of the American dream.
"Didn't wake up dead or in jail / Some out of town boys been giving us hell / I got some bad news / I woke up missing you," he sings.
"My friends are all degenerates but they're all I got / The generational story of dropping the plot / I heard the cops came / Cocky mother******s ain't they?"
Bryan's lyrics could refer to his 2023 arrest in Oklahoma, his home state, on a misdemeanor charge for obstruction of an investigation at a traffic stop.
In the second verse, Bryan sings: "And ICE is gonna come, bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more / But I got a telephone / Kids are all scared and all alone."
Bryan's nod to the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which are a part of President Donald Trump's mass deportation program, which affected Nashville starting in May.
Over several days, nearly 200 immigrants were detained in Nashville a joint operation between the Tennessee Highway Patrol and ICE. As of June, the Nashville ICE operations lead to 544 arrests of migrants in the area.
More: Lack of records in Nashville ICE raids criticized, available reports reveal new details
In the last teased part of the song, Bryan sings, "The Boss stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling," referring to Bruce Springsteen, who is nicknamed The Boss and is one of Byran's musical heroes.
"The middle fingers rising and it won't stop showing / I got some bad news / The fading of the red, white and blue."
Already, "Bad News" and its lyrics are dividing the music community.
John Rich, a conservative country singer of duo Big & Rich , posted on X saying, "Nashville is full of guys like this."
In another post , he said, "Who's ready for the Zach Bryan-Dixie Chicks tour? Prob a huge Bud Light sponsorship for this one."
More: What Zach Bryan said about Taylor Swift, prompting an apology: 'Twitter gets me in trouble too much'
Rich points to how country group The Chicks changed their original band name to drop a Confederate term and how Bud Light partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023, which led to conservatives boycotting the brand.
After the Bud Light ad campaign ran and online controversy began, Bryan posted on X condemning transphobia.
"I just think insulting transgender people is completely wrong because we live in a country where we can all just be who we want to be," he said.
Bryan's song teaser arrives only days after he broke the record for the highest-attended ticketed concert in U.S. history.
Bryan, who gathered 112,408 fans at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, broke George Strait's record of bringing together around 111,000 fans in 2024.
As "Bad News" continues to go viral, all eyes are on Bryan.
But from arrests to breaking records , messy breakups and high-profile feuds , Bryan's no stranger to virality.
More: Country singer Gavin Adcock calls out Zach Bryan, who scaled fence to fight him
To learn more about Zach Bryan, visit zachbryan.com .
Audrey Gibbs is a music journalist at The Tennessean. You can reach her at agibbs@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Zach Bryan teases song 'Bad News' that condemns ICE raids
