On Tuesday (Jan. 9), Zach Bryan's online praise of Tyler Childers' songwriting led to a diss aimed at country radio, complete with a not-so-veiled Walker Hayes reference.
It all started when Bryan quote-tweeted Whiskey Riff's post about "In Your Love" becoming the first Childers song to chart on mainstream country radio. Bryan wrote that Childers' prior absence from the airwaves was "insane" because the Kentucky-bred talent is "one of the best songwriters to ever do it."
Bryan then piled on country radio with a joking reference to "Fancy Like."
"Imagine being radio (whoever the hell that is), hearing 'Shake the Frost' and being like 'no, no, let's go with the Applebees song'," Bryan wrote.
At least one follower took exception with Bryan's "Applebees song" dismissal.
"You're not wrong, but don't do Walker dirty like that. Another great songwriter," the Twitter user wrote.
"Not insulting anyone! Meant it with humor not malice, different strokes different folks was just bent about the first ever on mainstream radio thing my bad," Bryan responded.
About six hours after Bryan's series of tweets, Hayes chimed in.
"Big shout to radio for playing dat Applebees song," Hayes wrote. "Zach and Tyler praying y'alls continued success."
Bryan's all but bypassed country radio exposure by building enough of an online following to become a crossover star. As a result, his Kacey Musgraves duet "I Remember Everything" debuted last year at No. 1 on the pop chart and picked up two Grammy award nominations. Ironically, Hayes went from barely being a blip on the mainstream radar to an unlikely hitmaker with "Fancy Like" because of TikTok, not country radio. The surface-level differences between Bryan (or Childers) and Hayes show the variety of acts that've broken through this decade based more on grassroots support than music industry gatekeeping.
