6 songs that were shunned by country radio and rejected by Nashville — but still became hits

Beyoncé delighted fans by surprise-releasing "Texas Hold 'Em" during the 2024 Super Bowl. The boot-stomping honky-tonk song was promoted as the lead single off her forthcoming album, "Cowboy Carter."

However, some country radio stations did not share the Beyhive's excitement for new Beyoncé music — including one in Oklahoma, which rejected a fan's request to play "Texas Hold 'Em."

"We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station," the response read.

Still, "Texas Hold 'Em" debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, making Beyoncé the first Black woman in history to achieve the feat. It also reached No. 1 on the Hot 100, where it remained for two weeks.

Lil Nas X caused a stir in 2019 when he harnessed his social-media savvy to transform "Old Town Road" — a country-rap novelty full of Nashville tropes like bull rides, cowboy hats, and Wrangler jeans — into a viral hit.

While the song launched trends on TikTok and racked up views on YouTube, the music industry scrambled to categorize its success. Billboard abruptly pulled the song from its country charts, saying it "does not currently merit inclusion" due to a lack of unspecified "elements."

The decision sparked widespread backlash among fans and music critics, many of whom accused the magazine of holding Black country artists to a different standard (Billboard denied that race played a factor).

Shortly after, Lil Nas X released an "Old Town Road" remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (of "Achy Breaky Heart" fame to some and "Hannah Montana" fame to others). The song shot to No. 1 on the Hot 100 and reigned atop the chart for 19 weeks, setting a record that remains unbroken. (The feat has since been matched by another country hit by a genre-blending Black musician, Shaboozey.)

"Old Town Road" also became the fastest song in history to be certified diamond and won two Grammy Awards.

When Beyoncé announced "Cowboy Carter" in 2024, she said the album was inspired by a time when she "did not feel welcomed" by the entrenched Nashville establishment.

"Because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive," Beyoncé explained on Instagram. "The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me."

Many fans speculate the pivotal event was the 2016 CMA Awards, where The Chicks joined Beyoncé for a duet of "Daddy Lessons," a standout country song from her then-new album, "Lemonade."

During their performance, cutaways to the audience seemed to betray a sense of discomfort. Some people reportedly walked out.

The Chicks later confirmed they felt a frosty reception from the room: "They treated us very weird backstage," Natalie Maines told The New York Times in 2020. "For them to disrespect her that way was disgusting."

Reactions on social media were similarly harsh, often turning outright racist. As Vox reported at the time, the CMA Awards fanned the flames by removing a promotional video that featured Beyoncé from its social media accounts.

Later that year, AP News reported that Beyoncé's team had submitted "Daddy Lessons" to country categories at the Grammys, but the Recording Academy's country committee had rejected it.

In public, however, country musicians defended the song, including Blake Shelton, Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town, and Dierks Bentley, who told AP News, "There is just something intangible about it that it feels like a country song."

More recently, Beyoncé kicked off her Cowboy Carter Tour, which features "Daddy Lessons" on the set list — much to the delight of the Beyhive. "DADDY LESSONS!! THE REASON WE ARE ALL HERE," one fan wrote on X.

During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kacey Musgraves said she faced pushback about releasing her 2013 single, "Follow Your Arrow."

In the twangy guitar ballad, Musgraves skewers double standards for women, salutes same-sex love, and advocates for smoking weed, "if that's something you're into." She wrote the song with Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, who are both gay. McAnally said he remembers the label telling Musgraves the song would be "suicide at radio."

Indeed, upon the song's release, several country radio programmers told Billboard they wouldn't be able to play the song, especially in Southern areas that tend to lean more conservative.

When Musgraves performed "Follow Your Arrow" at the 2013 CMA Awards, the lyrics were repeatedly censored, including the line "roll up a joint."

Nevertheless, that same night, she took home the award for best new artist. At the 2014 ceremony, "Follow Your Arrow" won song of the year.

Today, "Follow Your Arrow" is known as one of Musgraves' signature anthems and is credited with helping to usher in a more inclusive era for country music.

"Oh my gosh, it was so controversial," Musgraves told THR. "It ended up tanking — it was banned by country radio. But I would never trade that for the love and the people it brought to my world. I'm not going to present a watered-down version of myself to be accepted. I'll fucking shovel shit for a living at a horse barn, and I'll be really happy. Or I'll just be a songwriter. Anyway, it ended up working out."

The three women of The Chicks (formerly known as the Dixie Chicks) are no strangers to conservative backlash. In 2003, the Texas musicians became country music's most famous outcasts after they said they were "ashamed" to be from the same state as President George W. Bush.

"I saw how one comment ended such a powerful reign, and it terrified me," Taylor Swift told Variety in 2020. "These days, with social media, people can be so mad about something one day and then forget what they were mad about a couple weeks later. That's fake outrage. But what happened to the Dixie Chicks was real outrage. I registered it — that you're always one comment away from being done being able to make music."

The Chicks had gotten their first glimpse of exile three years prior, when they released their now-beloved single "Goodbye Earl."

The song, written by Dennis Linde and initially recorded by Sons of the Desert, tells the story of two women who plot to poison one of their abusive husbands. After The Chicks released their version, some critics worried the band was inadvertently advocating for premeditated murder.

However, in spite of initial resistance from country radio programmers, "Goodbye Earl" continued to climb the Billboard charts, eventually becoming a top-20 hit on the Hot 100 and reaching No. 13 on Hot Country Songs.

"It's one of the things where some of the gatekeepers take it more seriously than the audience does," Lon Helton, country music editor for Radio & Records, told the Tampa Bay Times in 2000.

"Programmers were nervous at first about offending parts of their audience, but I think they've gotten the message," Helton added. "The single is going up our (country airplay) charts as fast as any single the Chicks have put out."

Throughout the '70s, Loretta Lynn made a name as a feather-ruffler with her frank songwriting, which often tackled sexist stigmas and women's issues.

Many of Lynn's songs were shunned by country radio, including "Fist City" and "Rated X," but none were quite so well-known or provocative as "The Pill," a 1975 single about birth control and reproductive freedom.

The industry's rejection of "The Pill" is well-documented. According to the Daily Beast, it was "banned by radio stations spanning Atlanta to Detroit," which subsequently caused it to stall at No. 5 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs.

When Lynn died in October 2022, nearly five decades after the song's release, Time reported that country radio still hadn't come around: Luminate data showed the song had only been played once on country radio for that entire year.

Somehow, "The Pill" still managed to find an audience and resonate with listeners. It became the biggest crossover hit of Lynn's solo career, peaking at No. 70 on the Hot 100.

"I just write what I feel, what is going on with me and my life. It just happened that a lot of other women felt the same," Lynn told Parade in 2021. "I would never set out to write something just for it to shock someone; I am not that clever. It's always been about truth and if that means radio wants to ban it, well that's their problem. Most of my records they banned became No. 1 anyway."