T-Pain may be an R&B legend, but his influence in country music isn’t as well known — on purpose.
In his new Billboard cover story, the 39-year-old superstar shared the backlash he has received from country music fans over the years. When he took on Chris Stapleton’s version of “Tennessee Whiskey” for his 2023 On Top of the Covers album, he recalled, “A country music page on Instagram posted my version, and there was only one comment: ‘Nope.’” He added that he received similar hostility after a red-carpet interview in 2008. “They asked me who I wanted to work with, and I said Carrie Underwood,” he says. “The country fans were like, ‘She don’t work with j—oos. She has too much class for somebody like you. Why would she ever…’ And I was giving her props!”
He revealed, “I actually lived in Nashville for a while, ghostwriting for country artists from 2014 to ’16. Everybody kept trying to figure out why Luke Bryan was saying ‘T-Pain’ in all his songs for a second.”
T-Pain listed Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, Toby Keith and Florida Georgia Line as some of the artists he’s worked with, but after seeing hate comments, he decided to keep his contributions private, likening his experience to Beyoncé following the release of Cowboy Carter. “Beyoncé is strong enough to keep it going. It’s easier for her to stay in it than me,” he admitted “I’m not up at that level, so I can’t punch through that kind of stuff. So I kept doing it, but I just stopped taking credit.”
Read T-Pain’s full cover profile here.
Speaking of Bey, back in March, while unveiling the Cowboy Carter cover artwork, the singer wrote that the Renaissance sequel was “born out of an experience” she’d had years prior where she “did not feel welcomed,” adding, “it was very clear that I wasn’t.”
Fans assumed that her comment was in reference to her “Daddy Lessons” performance with The Chicks at the 2016 CMA Awards, which sparked calls for a CMAs boycott on social media, with some people blasting the awards show for including the superstar. After the performance, there was no mention of her appearance on the CMAs website.
