Culture

In his song “That Ain’t Country,” queer artist Adam Mac proudly declared to his detractors that, if they tried that in his small town, they would be met with a community that supports him unconditionally. “The people in the town where I was raised/ They love me/ And they got my back,” he defiantly proclaimed.
Yet over the past week, Mac watched as his theory was tested in real time. “I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed that I would preach this love and acceptance that my hometown has had for me, and then immediately feel a little betrayed in the moment,” Mac tells Billboard over a Zoom call. Dressed in a wide-brimmed hat and a lavender pointelle polo, the singer sighs. “This has been the most insane emotional whiplash that I have ever experienced in my life.”

Last Thursday (Sept. 21), Mac announced in an emotional video posted across his social media channels that he would be canceling his scheduled appearance as the headliner of the Logan County Tobacco and Heritage Festival’s Grand Finale concert. The reason behind the cancellation, Mac told his fans, was that there were concerns he would be “promoting homosexuality or sexuality in a family friendly environment” with his performance. “I’m really sad about it,” he said in the clip, fighting back tears. “I really, really wanted to be there.”

But just one week later, the situation has dramatically shifted for the rising country singer. In a post to her Instagram Stories on Thursday (Sept. 28), country superstar Maren Morris announced that Mac would be joining RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Shea Couleé as an opener for her exclusive, fans-only sold-out show in Chicago next week. “Like I said,” Mac says, laughing. “Emotional whiplash.”

As he reflects on the chaotic week he’s experienced, Mac briefly looks as though the information is just setting in for the first time. “It started as something so disappointing and embarrassing and sad, and very quickly turned into the most insane amount of love I have ever been flooded with in my life,” he says, giddy with excitement. “It’s led to one of the coolest things I am ever going to do.”

Mac originally hails from Russellville, Kentucky, which he describes as a town small enough that “we pretty much all know each other.” Leaving home at 22 to chase his dream as a singer-songwriter in Nashville, Mac spent years writing and self-releasing music to try and make a name in an industry that wasn’t necessarily open to the idea of an openly gay country star.

But eventually, people began to take notice. In September 2022, Mac’s music video for “Disco Cowboy” premiered on CMT, where it remained the station’s No. 1 video of their 12-Pack Countdown for four weeks. In March, Mac posted a clip to TikTok of an emotional ballad dedicated to his mother called “Boy Like Me”; the video has since been viewed over 300,000 times. In April, he was highlighted alongside Shelly Fairchild, Sonia Leigh and Angie K at the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Country Proud showcase.

With a performance at CMA Fest in June, and bookings around Nashville and Los Angeles throughout the rest of the summer, 2023 officially felt like it was Mac’s year — especially with the release of his album Disco Cowboy in May. “What we created is something that feels so much like me. I felt like I finally found my home, where I don’t have to sacrifice being ‘too gay’ or loving this sound,” he says. “It just felt like the perfect marriage to be able to tell my story and do it in a way that that felt good to me.”

When the Logan County Chamber of Commerce reached out to ask Mac to headline their annual Tobacco and Heritage festival, he says it felt like a full-circle moment. “The initial process was just so warm and welcoming,” he recalls. “It felt like this big ‘welcome back home’ after a crazy year of successes.”

That’s when the shift started. Two days after the festival announced Mac as the headliner for their Grand Finale Concert and Fireworks in a since-deleted Facebook post, the singer received a call from the person who booked him for the show, a woman Mac says he’s “known my whole life.” She said that the board members at the Chamber of Commerce had some concerns.

“Some board members wanted her to call in ensure that I would not be ‘promoting homosexuality in a family friendly environment, and they wanted to make sure that I knew that this was not a Pride festival,” he recalls. “It just felt like they were telling me, ‘We know you’re gay, just please don’t be too gay. This is a family event,’ as if being gay is inherently sexual.”

The call was prompted not only by board members concerned about queerness represented on their stage — a number of townsfolk, both online and in person at the Chamber of Commerce, made it clear that they intended to protest Mac’s performance while it was happening. “I wanted it to be this homecoming — that vision did not include protesters with signs and pitchforks behind me,” he recalls. “And so I just told her, ‘I just think it’s best for us to pull out of the show.’”

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Having “never cancelled a show,” Mac felt it was only fair to explain why he wouldn’t be performing at the festival in his own video. Sporting a Maren Morris “lunatic country music person” t-shirt, the singer filmed himself explained the entire situation to his fans, and posted it across all of his social media accounts. “I just wanted people to see me and see that I was genuinely hurt to do this.”

The message stuck. Immediately, the video went viral, with fans, both from and outside of Russellville sharing their disappointment that Mac would be treated this way and offering him their support. The feedback also reached the Logan County Chamber of Commerce — Mac received a call from the Chamber after his video went live, saying that there were “10 times the [number of] people that were originally saying that they would protest the show, now saying they can’t believe that we would cancel your show.”

It was a validating moment for Mac, especially when those fans continued to share his the message, which eventually reached country stars like Morris, Kelsea Ballerini, Lindsay Ell and Brandy Clark . “You are loved. I’m sorry this happened but glad you’re sharing it here,” Morris commented on his Instagram post.

“It was all these divas who I have f–king looked up to, and who have been allies to our community, and who have been there for us when no one else was,” he says. “Not only did my community show up for me, but this music community, this country community also showed up for me.”

But the fun was not yet over. Just a few days after his video went viral, Mac received a call from a number he didn’t recognize — which he knew meant “either they want some money, or they’re about to give me a hell of a lot of money.” When he answered, a representative from CAA was on the other end, saying that his name had come up in a meeting discussing openers for Morris’ show at Joe’s on Weed Street in Chicago, and wondering if he would be interested in performing. “I literally collapsed,” Mac says, still stunned. “I’m still pinching myself.”

Between massive artists like Morris showing him support, and organizations like CMT inviting him to perform at their Equal Access showcase, Mac says he’s never felt more supported by the country music industry. But he also recognizes that country music is also currently fractured; progressive country acts — led largely by women, queer folks and people of color — are advocating for change, while more conservative stars are actively appealing to a right-wing fanbase. Morris herself has expressed her intent to essentially leave the genre after years of fighting against its general failures of inclusivity.

“That is the climate that has been created in our nation, and so it gets very clearly reflected in country music,” he says. But Mac remains hopeful that country music, as a whole, can change for the better. “It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon of hating someone or something because it’s different,” he says. “But I have seen, even just in this situation, that there is so much more love and that there is so much more to audiences than we give them credit for.”

It’s fitting, then, that Mac’s song “That Ain’t Country” also serves as an anti-gatekeeping anthem for the country industry. Lyrics like “Ain’t who you take to bed/ Ain’t in that small town draw/ Yeah it’s in what you’re saying/ Not the way you talk” make his assertion clear; bigotry and hatred don’t buy longevity, and those standing in the way of progress won’t ultimately succeed. Lucky for him, the gates are now opening wide — and Mac is ready to step through.