Zach Bryan’s ICE criticism in new song adds to his controversy list

Last Updated: October 7, 2025By

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Country star Zach Bryan’s condemnation of ICE raids is the latest entry in his long list of controversies.

Bryan recently took to Instagram and shared a short clip of an unreleased song titled “Bad News.” The post, which is captioned “the fading of the red, white, and blue,” includes lyrics referencing ICE is “gonna come bust down your door.” 

“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—–s, ain’t they?” 

“And ICE is gonna come bust down your door, try to build a house no one builds no more, but I got a telephone, Kids are all scared and all alone.”

John Rich of Big & Rich

John Rich reacted to Zach Bryan’s anti-ICE song. (Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage/Getty Images)

“The bar stopped bumping, the rock stopped rolling, the middle fingers rising, and it won’t stop showing. Got some bad news. The fading of the red, white, and blue,” the lyrics state.

COUNTRY STAR ZACH BRYAN TEASES NEW SONG ‘BAD NEWS’ CONDEMNING ICE RAIDS, ‘FADING’ OF THE RED, WHITE AND BLUE

Country music star, John Rich, took to social media to share his opinion on Bryan’s latest track. “Nashville is full of guys like this,” Rich posted on X.

Fox News Digital has reached out to a rep for Bryan for comment. 

The country musician’s politically charged lyrics mark his latest firestorm, following an arrest for obstruction of an investigation and emotional abuse allegations. 

Zach Bryan playing

Zach Bryan released a snippet of a new song slamming ICE raids. ( Keith Griner/Getty Images)

2023 arrest

In September 2023, the “I Remember Everything” singer was arrested for obstruction of investigation after he said he had gotten “too lippy” with a police officer. Bryan explained that he had been driving through Oklahoma to Boston to go see a concert with his security guard in another car. 

After his security guard was pulled over by an officer behind him, he said he turned around and pulled over near them, eventually getting out of his car for a smoke after waiting for several minutes.

He said when the officer told him to get back in his car, he said, “I’m not the one who’s getting pulled over.” Bryan was told again to get back in his car and warned that if he did not, he would be taken to jail.

WATCH: Country singer Zach Bryan seen telling cops he’s a ‘famous musician’ in new bodycam footage

“Like a dumba–, I’m like ‘You’re going to take me to f—ing jail? What do you mean?'” he continued.

After calling his behavior “ridiculous and immature” and saying he “felt like a child,” he said, “I just pray everyone knows that I don’t think I’m above the law, I was just being disrespectful and I shouldn’t have been, and it was my mistake.”

“So I’m just getting more angry and angry, which is like the worst thing you can possibly do. So 15 minutes goes by, they finally let me out of the vehicle, and I’m just mouthing off like an idiot, like an actual child. I’m like, ‘Man, someone’s got to get a hold of you guys, why are you using your authority like this, this is so wrong,’ when in reality they were doing their jobs, I was just upset.”

Zach Bryan mug shot

Zach Bryan was arrested for alleged obstruction of an investigation in Craig County, Oklahoma on September 7, 2023. (Craig County Jail)

Bryan continued, “He looks at me and says, ‘Man, look, I’m going to tell you this, and don’t interrupt me,'” and then admitted that he did interrupt him.

“So he said, ‘I’m going to take you to jail,’ and he took me to jail.”

Emotional abuse allegations

Bryan and Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia’s break-up turned messy in 2024 when she accused him of emotional abuse.

In October 2024, hours after Bryan said on his Instagram Story that they had broken up, LaPaglia took to her YouTube page to say she had just woken up to his post and “had no idea” he planned to make their separation public. 

“He didn’t text me, he didn’t call me,” LaPaglia said through tears in the video. “So, I’m like completely blindsided by that.” In November 2024, she took to her “BFFs Podcast” to detail the alleged emotional abuse she received from the country music star.

Zach Bryan smiling with Brianna

Zach Bryan and Brianna LaPaglia broke up in Oct. 2024. (Zach Bryan/Instagram)

“The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life dealing with the abuse from this dude. I’m still scared right now because I’m scared of him,” she continued. “My brain’s rewired and I’m scared to make him mad and last week, I didn’t want to talk about it ’cause I was scared,” LaPaglia said. 

Addressing the alleged abuse, she said it was a cycle that would “build you up, beat you down, apologize over and over.”

“There was always another excuse as to why he was treating me so poorly and why I’m crying myself to sleep every night.”

“Why he’s screaming at me and then you wake up, it’s the apology, it’s the ‘I’m going to be better like I need you in my life,’ but if you’ve been through this — I don’t expect people to understand emotional abuse if you haven’t been through it. I hope you never have to go through it but if you’ve been there you know what I’m talking about,” she said. 

Brianna LaPaglia smiles in a dress with lace sleeves at the Grammys with boyfriend Zach Bryan sitting at a table

Brianna LaPaglia accused Zach Bryan of emotional abuse. (John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

LaPaglia claimed she was offered $12 million and a New York City apartment to “not talk about the relationship.”

“It came down to the point of I’m not the people before, and I was someone before you, and you made the women before me believe that they had no other choice than to take money from you, sign their experiences away, sign what they went through away,” she said at the time.

The influencer continued, “You get to go skip off and sing your little f—– songs on stage like you’re a good dude. You get to treat people around you like s—. Sorry, I’m not them. I don’t want your money; I don’t want in two years to buy a f——house and think, ‘Oh, this is the money from the dude that literally f—– destroyed me and broke me for a year.'”

Hot water with Swifties

In September 2024, Bryan was in hot water after he compared Taylor Swift to Kanye West in a now-deleted social media post. 

At the time, Bryan posted on X, “eagles > chiefs, Kanye > Taylor, who’s with me,” according to Variety. 

In the social media post, Bryan appeared to target a few elements in Swift’s life — including her fiancé, Travis Kelce, who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. 

Zach Bryan Taylor Swift post

Zach Bryan apologized for offending Taylor Swift’s fans. (Zach Bryan/Instagram)

Swift additionally has a tense history with West, especially after he interrupted her at the 2009 MTV VMAs, and she’s been the subject of several of his diss tracks. 

Following the incident, the country star deactivated his X account and apologized to Swift fans for his tweet. 

“For the record guys I wasn’t coming for Taylor the other night,” Bryan wrote on top of a screengrab of Swift’s song with Post Malone, “Fortnight,” on Instagram. “I was drunkenly comparing two records and it came out wrong.”

The “Heading South” singer acknowledged the longtime feud between Swift and West, as he continued to explain, “I know there’s a lot of stuff that clouds around Ye and I was speaking purely musically. I love Taylor’s music and pray you guys know I’m human and tweet stupid things often.”

Taylor Swift looked to the audience in her black "Reputation Era" jumpsuit, following her announcement the Eras Tour will end in December 2024.

Swifties were offended on Taylor’s behalf after Zach Bryan’s tweet last year. (Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)

Bryan added that he hopes one day to explain to Swift about his controversial social media post. He additionally apologized to Swifties and detailed why he deactivated his X account.

“Twitter gets me in trouble too much and I’d say it’s best I stay off it,” he penned. “I’m sorry to any Taylor fans I p—ed off or let down. Love you guys and I’m trying my best!”

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He acknowledged the social media post may have come off “as rude and desensitized to Taylor.”

“I respect her so much as a musician that the last thing I want is people thinking I don’t appreciate and love what she has done for music,” Bryan praised Swift.

Gavin Adcock feud 

Last month, Gavin Adcock shared a video of Bryan yelling at him from behind a chain-link fence at the Born & Raised Festival, where both musicians were slated to perform along with Parker McCollum and Cody Jinks. 

“You want to fight like a man? Open the gate,” Bryan said before slamming his hands against the fence separating the country music stars. The “Pink Skies” singer climbed over the fence and into the venue before being held back by security personnel in another video shared online. 

Split photo of Gavin Adcock, Zach Bryan

Gavin Adcock and Zach Bryan were both on the same festival bill. (Amy E. Price/Getty Images; Lorne Thomson/Redferns/Getty Images)

Adcock addressed the incident in an Instagram video captioned “Rotten fruit falls on its own,” shared in September with his nearly 1 million followers. 

“Well, like I already said, I don’t think Zach Bryan’s a very good person. He wasn’t locked out of the festival,” Adcock said in the clip. “He had been there all day with his multiple security guards.”

“He saw me standing between my buses when he got out here, and saw me walk on my bus when I went to watch the Georgia game, proceeded to go to other artists and ask them, ‘Where is Gavin, where’s Gavin,’ and their guests, and treat them like dog s—, flipping them birds and saying, just d—-ebag stuff.”

Adock said Bryan “had plenty of opportunity through the whole day to do whatever he wanted to do, but decided he was going to wait like an hour before my set while I was standing out there.”

He continued, “No artist that cares about their fans is going to fight right before their set, missing going on and disappointing fans that spent way too much money to be there.”

The “Deep End” musician said he didn’t have “a single reason to fight,” and admitted that after Bryan started giving out “threats,” he decided “to stir him up to the point where he jumped over the fence.”

“I don’t think anyone’s scared of Zach Bryan,” Adcock continued. “I’m just an adult, and fighting him would have only meant going to jail, missing my set, and falling into a Zach Bryan lawsuit – and we all know he likes to manipulate people with money.”

Gavin Adcock performing at 2025 Country Thunder Wisconsin in July.

Gavin Adcock shared a video of Zach Bryan trying to fight him at a music festival. (Joshua Applegate/Getty Images)

“He knew where I was all day, he knew my set time, he knew where I’d be standing, and he created this whole ‘I’m bad a–‘ jump over the fence narrative, just to try to make himself look bigger, tougher even though he could have just walked in the gate – he had been in there all day.” 

He added, “And at the end of the day, I know my decision I made was right. I didn’t take the Zach Bryan bait, and I’ll be praying for him to get better because he sure needs it.”

Vowed to never again play in Kansas City 

In August, Bryan – who is a known Philadelphia Eagles fan — took to social media to stir up some drama with fellow NFL fans

After the Kansas City Chiefs failed to become the first NFL team to win three consecutive Super Bowls due to their loss to the Eagles earlier this year, Bryan took to X and in a since-deleted post wrote, “Where are all the three peat people from last year:/.”

Zach Bryan in a black cutoff shirt strums the guitar on stage

Zach Bryan vowed to never perform in Kansas City again. (Scott Legato/Getty Images)

Shortly after one fan pointed out that the singer had “singled out one fanbase” which “sells out his shows,” the country star made a shocking remark. 

“Please understand I will never play in Kansas City,” the musician wrote in a since-deleted post.

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People were quick to point out that Bryan had already played in Kansas City in the past. The country star had performances there in 2021, 2023 and 2024.

Bryan followed up on his previous comment, “I’ll be about to finish my show and then get a taunting call if I play at that stadium.” This post has also been deleted. 

Scolds crowd for throwing objects

During a show in Washington last November, Bryan stopped his show after a fan threw an object on stage.

As seen in a video shared on Instagram, the country star can be seen walking promptly toward a microphone to seemingly address what had happened before turning around and retrieving the object, now lying on the ground.

WATCH: Zach Bryan scolds fan for throwing object on stage during concert

Bryan walked across the stage to another standing mic, pointing out to the crowd looking for the culprit. “Who threw this?” he asked. “Who was it? Does anybody know?” the 28-year-old continued. “Who we pointing at?”

“Don’t throw s— at concerts, huh?” he said, scanning the venue before walking off to join his bandmate at center stage. However, Bryan then changed his mind, realizing he had one more thing to add. 

“And if you guys do know who threw it, we can get ’em out of here,” he said. “If we ever find out who did.”

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