Things nearly turned physical between country stars Zach Bryan and Gavin Adcock over the weekend at the Born & Raised Festival in Pryor, Oklahoma — and the tense backstage showdown has fans buzzing.
Bryan, who was a surprise guest performer at the festival, popped up on Saturday to join Gabriella Rose during her afternoon set. But before he even hit the stage, drama erupted behind the scenes when Bryan spotted Adcock, a Georgia-based singer who’s been openly critical of him in recent months.
According to multiple videos circulating on social media, the two were seen shouting at each other from opposite sides of a roughly ten-foot barbed wire fence backstage. Bryan then climbed the fence and lunged in Adcock’s direction before several security guards stepped in to hold him back.
“If they open up this f***ing gate, I’ll fing kill you,” Bryan appears to yell in one of the clips. Adcock, seemingly unfazed, shot back, “I got a show to play, you clown son of a b****,” implying the heated encounter happened just before his performance.
This confrontation didn’t come out of nowhere. Their feud dates back to July, when Adcock criticized Bryan for his response to a teenage fan who said they had waited in vain for an autograph after Bryan’s concert at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. At the time, Bryan replied on social media, “You’re not entitled after someone plays two and a half hours to a picture or a hello,” which rubbed some fans the wrong way — and gave Adcock an opening to call him out.
Adcock later doubled down during an appearance on Rolling Stone’s “Nashville Now” podcast, accusing Bryan of being inauthentic. “I think that Zach Bryan puts on a big mask in his day-to-day life and sometimes he can’t help but rip it off and show his true colors,” Adcock said. “I don’t know if Zach Bryan’s really that great of a person.”
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Adcock has been stirring up plenty of drama lately outside of his issues with Bryan, too. He’s currently in a public back-and-forth with Charley Crockett and recently joined Morgan Wallen onstage while holding up a T-shirt with Crockett’s photo — which Wallen flipped off with both middle fingers in a viral clip.
Bryan, for his part, isn’t new to feuds either. He’s exchanged public jabs with ex Brianna LaPaglia and clashed with fellow Oklahoma singer-songwriter John Moreland. After Moreland subtly criticized Bryan’s reported $350 million publishing deal, Bryan removed their collaborative song “Memphis; the Blues” from streaming platforms. Sharing a screenshot of Moreland’s post, Bryan wrote, “Yooo just saw this from an artist I’ve always respected and supported. Not trying to be dramatic, but refuse to have anyone with a problem with me on my records.”
