Zach Bryan recently sparked controversy after sharing a clip with new music that mentions U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
The singer-songwriter made headlines over the weekend after sharing the clip on his official Instagram account Friday. The lyrics in the audio clip reference ICE raids, as well as the police.
“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,” Bryan sings in the clip. “My friends are all degenerates, but they’re all I got/ The generational story of dropping the plot/ I heard the cops came/ cocky motherf******, ain’t they.”
He continues, “ICE is gonna come bust down your door/ Try and build a house no one builds no more/ But I got a telephone/ Kids are all scared and all alone.”
The clip concludes, “The bars stopped bumpin’/ The rock stopped rolling/ The middle finger rising, and it won’t stop showing/ Got some bad news/ The fading of the red, white and blue.”
Echoing the final lyrics, Bryan captioned the post, “The fading of the red white and blue.”
The clip was posted as President Donald Trump‘s administration continues its immigration crackdown across the country, with ICE carrying out a series of immigration raids in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Bryan’s lyrics have split the internet, with some celebrating them, and others criticizing the Grammy winner and U.S. Navy veteran.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, reacted to Bryan’s new audio clip on X, writing, “Stick to Pink Skies, dude,” a reference to Bryan’s hit song “Pink Skies,” from his 2024 album, The Great American Bar Scene.
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