The 25 most shocking country music moments from the 2010s

As rains drenched Nashville in May 2010 and the Cumberland River exploded over its banks, the Grand Ole Opry House was flooded with more than 10 feet of water, causing significant damage to the genre’s most iconic venue. The Grand Ole Opry was relocated to other Nashville venues as the damage was repaired, and the Opry House reopened that September with a massive celebration. 

In 2010, ‘90s country star Chely Wright became the first openly gay performer in country music history when she came out in an interview on "The Today Show." In 2014 artists Ty Herndon and Billy Gilman followed in Wright’s footsteps, and in 2019, “Old Town Road” mastermind, Lil Nas X, also announced that he was LGBT. 

In 2011, before Sugarland was set to perform at the Indiana State Fair, high winds from a storm caused a portion of the venue’s stage to collapse, killing seven people and injuring dozens more. Shortly after the incident, Sugarland went on hiatus so that members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush could focus on their families and solo projects. In 2017 the duo reunited and released a brand new album. 

Never one to shy away from the political fray, Hank Williams Jr. found himself booted from his decades-long run as the musical host of "Monday Night Football" after a 2011 interview in which he compared President Barack Obama to German dictator Adolf Hitler. Hank Jr. eventually sort of apologized for the comments, but ESPN still decided to part ways with Williams and stopped using his “All My Rowdy Friends” song as the "Monday Night Football" theme. 

In 2011 Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert got married, forming one of country music’s most prominent power couples. Less than five years later, the two announced that they were getting divorced, and rumors of infidelity on both Lambert's and Shelton’s parts circulated around the gossip blogs. The two have since found new relationships — Shelton’s dating No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani, and Lambert married police officer Brendan McLoughlin in 2019. 

Shortly after “Rhinestone Cowboy” singer Glen Campbell announced that he was headed out on his final tour in 2011, the singer announced that he was living with Alzheimer’s disease. He continued his final tour, which was documented by the 2014 film "I’ll Be Me" and eventually died in 2017 at the age of 81 after a lengthy battle with the disease. 

In August 2012, police arrested Randy Travis after he was found lying naked in the middle of a road not too far away from his home in North Texas. Travis was charged with driving while intoxicated and making threats against a police officer and ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges. The following year, Travis suffered a major stroke that continues to impact his ability to sing and perform. 

After decades on the road, George Strait announced his retirement in 2012 with plans for one final tour. Dubbed The Cowboy Rides Away, Strait’s farewell tour included 48 shows over the course of 2013 and 2014, and his final stop at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, set a record for the biggest indoor concert in history with 104,793 fans in attendance. Fortunately, the retirement announcement hasn’t meant that Strait has stopped performing altogether — his successful Strait to Vegas residency in Las Vegas is set to continue through 2020. 

One of the biggest changes of the decade came when Billboard, the publication that publishes weekly music charts, announced that it would include digital downloads and online streams of songs in its chart calculations in 2012. The move was somewhat controversial, and the plan took years to finalize, but it’s been a boon for independent and up-and-coming artists who haven’t had much success getting their songs played on the radio. 

In a collaboration with LL Cool J, Brad Paisley stirred controversy in 2013 with his song “Accidental Racist,” an attempt at bridging the racial divides in America that just fell flat. The song was parodied relentlessly and criticized for minimizing the country’s brutal history of racism. 

The country music world was shocked when Linda Ronstadt, an iconic voice known for hits like “Blue Bayou” and “You’re No Good,” announced that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013. The disease effectively ended Ronstadt’s ability to perform live or record music. 

In 2013, Billy Currington was indicted on charges of elder abuse and making terroristic threats in relation to an incident involving a boat tour operator who was allegedly “harassing” Currington at his home. Currington pleaded no contest to the charges and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and complete five years of probation. 

Toward the end of his life, George Jones persevered despite poor health. In 2012 he announced plans for a 60-date farewell tour but died in April 2013 just days after performing a show in Knoxville, Tennessee. His death rocked the world of country music, and Jones was honored with the country music equivalent of a state funeral that featured performances from Alan Jackson, Wynonna Judd, Randy Travis and Vince Gill. 

In 2015 country radio programmer Keith Hill stirred a controversy that infuriated the female artists of country music. Hill compared women in the genre to “tomatoes,” or garnishes on a radio playlist that, according to him, should be mostly male-dominated. A number of artists pushed back against Hill’s comments, and the scandal even ended up with its own nickname: "Tomatogate."

Country fans all over were both shocked and devastated when news broke in April 2016 that iconic country outlaw and pioneer of the Bakersfield sound Merle Haggard was dead at the age of 79. Somewhat eerily, Haggard passed on his 79th birthday. 

After a 10-year hiatus following frontwoman Natalie Maines’ controversial comments about then-President George W. Bush, the Dixie Chicks made a triumphant return to the stage in 2016 with their DCX MMXVI World Tour. The 82-show tour traversed across North America Europe and brought the band to New Zealand for the first time ever. It was an incredible success for the Chicks, impressing critics and selling enough tickets to make it the second-highest grossing tour of the year.  

One half of the husband-and-wife duo Joey + Rory, Joey Feek bravely battled cervical cancer twice. In 2014 she was diagnosed with the illness and underwent surgery that left her cancer-free. The next year, though, doctors found that the cancer had returned and metastasized. After the diagnosis, Feek and her husband, Rory, continued to record and chronicled their experiences on a blog that still inspires cancer patients and their families. Feek died in 2016, weeks after Joey + Rory received their first-ever Grammy nomination. 

The CMA Awards are always full of epic performances, but none will ever be able to top the jaw-dropping collaboration between R&B superstar Beyonce and the Dixie Chicks at the CMA Awards in 2016. Teaming up to perform Beyonce’s “Daddy Lessons” and the Chicks’ “Long Time Gone,” the collaboration may not have been popular among hardcore country music traditionalists, but most fans loved it. 

In what may have been the biggest tragedy in country music history — and the deadliest mass shooting in American history — a gunman named Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival from his Las Vegas hotel room. By the end of the night, 58 people were dead and hundreds were injured, and Paddock was found dead in his room with few details to provide insight into his motive for the killings. 

Just hours before his band, Montgomery Gentry, was scheduled to perform in New Jersey, Troy Gentry was killed in a tragic helicopter crash, in September 2017. The following year Gentry’s widow sued the helicopter manufacturer, alleging that its product had “dangerous defects” that caused the crash. 

Years after she topped the charts with “Redneck Woman,” Gretchen Wilson made headlines in 2018 when she was arrested at a Connecticut airport. Wilson was apparently “belligerent” with airline staff on a flight en route to the airport and may have been involved in an altercation with another passenger. The charges were eventually dropped after Wilson agreed to pay a $500 fine. 

In 2018, prominent Nashville publicist, Kirt Webster (pictured left) known for representing artists like Dolly Parton, the Oak Ridge Boys and Charlie Daniels, was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a former client. After the allegations went public, most of Webster’s clients, including Parton, Kenny G and Big & Rich, parted ways with him, but he’s been threatening to make a comeback for almost a year and recently showed up backstage at the 2019 CMA Awards. 

No one expected a “country trap” song to explode like “Old Town Road” did, but maybe that’s because we all underestimated the talent of an artist like Lil Nas X. His arrival was not without controversy — plenty of traditionalists objected at such a hip-hop-heavy song being included on the Billboard charts, which led to its temporary removal. After a swift backlash, though, “Old Town Road” was restored to its rightful place at the top of the chart. 

Earlier this month, a feud between Taylor Swift and Big Machine Records executives Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun went public. The drama is complicated, but Swift has accused Borchetta and Braun of preventing her from using her own music, and Borchetta and Braun have claimed that Swift has misrepresented the situation to the public. However it shakes out, the move infuriated Swift fans in a major way and sparked a discussion about how artists and their labels interact. 

Dressed in an ivory pantsuit embellished with a flowing fuchsia cape, Sugarland frontwoman Jennifer Nettles took a direct jab at country radio stations that refuse to give female artists equal airtime, demanding “Equal Play.” The cape was emblazoned with “Play Our F*****g Records, Please and Thank You” and embellished with a drawing of a woman to drive the point home.