Last month, Zach Bryan and his onetime collaborator John Moreland -- two Americana stars hailing from Tulsa -- got into a bit of a beef after Moreland expressed some frustration over the news that Bryan was selling his publishing rights to a new company called the Merrit Group and inking a healthy record deal with Warner for a grand total of $350 million. "$350 M is a lot to pay for the fuckin off-brand version of me," Moreland wrote on his Instagram story, to which Bryan responded on his own: "[I] refuse to have anyone with a problem with me on my records." Bryan promised that he'd be "replacing" the song "Memphis; The Blues," his collaboration with Moreland, and the Great American Bar Scene track was indeed removed from streaming services for a while.
As of today, "Memphis; The Blues" is back on streaming services, but Moreland's feature has been replaced with J.R. Carroll. Carroll plays keys in Bryan's band and released his debut solo album last December. And it doesn't seem like Moreland is taking much offense to the whole ordeal; he added in a video message that he didn't know Bryan very well when he initially recorded his part to "Memphis; The Blues." "I don’t like this motherfucker," he said. "I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who is a dickhead to my wife and my friends right in front of me every time I see him. I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who I’ve heard tell borderline racist jokes more than once. I don’t want to be on an album with a dude who brings a 19-year-old girl in the bar, and then when they tell him she can’t be in there, looks at me like I’m supposed to have his fucking back. I don’t like that person."
Well then! You can listen to the new version of "Memphis; The Blues" below.
