South Texas alt-country artist Charley Crockett can’t seem to keep his mouth shut.
First, he sparked controversy by dropping Satanic doo-wop duo Twin Temple as opener from a series of his shows. Now, he’s going after celebrities who rail against data centers — including some of the biggest names in country music.
In one of his signature meandering social media posts shared on July 27, the self-styled $10 cowboy criticized celebrities for speaking out against data centers while simultaneously using social media, which requires the centers to operate.
“It’s difficult for me to take a celebrity serious railing against data centers when they’re posting enough selfie videos to house one themselves,” Crockett said in the post roughly a week after deleting all photos from his Instagram in the wake of the Twin Temple fallout.
The post also railed against Nashville’s Music Row, which Crockett said repackaged Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson as a “marketing gimmick.” Beyond that, it leveled criticism at “outlaw country,” also calling it the product of music-industry hype.
“The Outlaw brand in the music business was a marketing gimmick created by new blood record executives in Nashville to repackage Waylon & Willie,” Crockett said, countering the long-accepted narrative that spurned Texas country artists had to forge their own path outside the mainstream.
In an interesting coincidence of timing, Willie Nelson spoke out against data centers the next day — including one being developed in his hometown. “The strength of rural America has never come from big industrial footprints,” the Texas music legend said.
It’s unclear which celebrities in particular Crockett was referring to with this jab about data centers. However, as of the date that he posted it, Brad Paisley had already come out against a data center threatening the Nashville Zoo in a selfie video. (Hmm). Since then, Tanya Tucker has also joined the chorus about the danger the big computing centers pose to rural Texas.
“This isn’t the way we do things in Texas,” Tucker told lawmakers, saying proposed 765-kV transmission lines would cut through her Burnet County ranch to power data centers. “You don’t rush in and turn someone’s life upside down.”
Tucker’s efforts seem to be paying off, as Texas Republican lawmakers are now calling for a pause on the project, Politico’s E&E News reports.
Is a rift forming in the country music scene over data centers?
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