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Brad Paisley’s “I’m Still A Guy” Would Have Gotten Him Canceled In 2025
Can’t imagine this one would have been approved by the label in 2025.
Brad Paisley had a lot of heaters in his catalog back in the early 2000s. In fact, not that long ago he was one of the biggest names in country music.
He was pretty much the soundtrack to my high school and early college years. I saw him in concert multiple times and had all of his CDs (this was back when digital music was just becoming a thing). I can’t think of an artist I listened to more during that time than Brad (and it didn’t hurt that he was a West Virginia native like me).
One of the albums that I had on repeat was 5th Gear, Brad’s sixth studio album released in 2008. The album included singles like “Ticks,” “Letter To Me,” and “Online,” his satirical look at the then-new phenomenon of social media.
The fourth single from that album, though, is one that wouldn’t stand a chance at being released today.
Co-written by Brad along with Kelley Lovelace and Lee Thomas Miller, “I’m Still A Guy” was released as a single on March 3, 2008, and at the time it reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The song features Brad explaining to his female partner that despite her efforts to “feminize” him, at the end of the day, he’s “still a guy.”
“I can hear you now talkin’ to your friends
Saying, “Yeah, girls, he’s come a long way”
From draggin’ his knuckles and carryin’ a club
And buildin’ a fire in a cave
But when you say a back rub means only a back rub
Then you swat my hand when I try
Well, now, what can I say at the end of the day?
Honey, I’m still a guy”
And honestly, most of the song is fine. But it’s the last verse that I think would be considered the most “problematic” today:
“These days, there’s dudes gettin’ facials
Manicured, waxed, and botoxed
With deep spray-on tans and creamy, lotion-y hands
You can’t grip a tackle box
Yeah, with all of these men linin’ up to get neutered
It’s hip now to be feminized
But I don’t highlight my hair, I’ve still got a pair
Yeah, honey, I’m still a guy”
Of course times have changed a lot since the song was released. This was back before “toxic masculinity” became a trendy buzzword, before men were changing their gender and competing in women’s sports…I mean hell, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were both opposed to gay marriage at the time this song was released.
Things have gotten a lot more “woke” over the past nearly two decades. Encouraging men to act like men is seen as transphobic or at the very least insensitive, and making fun of men who get their nails manicured is “homophobic” and will likely result in a bunch of people trying to get you canceled. (Just look at the responses to any tweet making fun of Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams and his painted fingernails).
Whether you think it’s a good thing or not, things have gotten a lot more progressive since Brad released his song – although we may be seeing things shift back in the other direction after the 2024 election, when Democrats bashed straight men so much and went so far with their woke nonsense that they lost the presidency.
Honestly, there’s not really even anything offensive in Brad’s song. As he said at the time, he meant for it to “capture this struggle a little bit between men and women in a playful way.” And even back in 2008, Paisley admitted that he wasn’t sure how it would play with female audiences until it got the approval of his (then-pregnant) wife.
As skeptical as he may have been about the song in 2008, there’s zero chance “I’m Still A Guy” would be released today. (And based on his political views I’m not sure that Brad would even want to release it today). Despite the fact that nothing he says should really be controversial – I’m not sure why being proud of being masculine is considered offensive these days – there’s no doubt the pitchforks would be out from people trying to cancel Brad if he dropped a song like that today.
Yet another sign of how times have changed.The post Brad Paisley’s “I’m Still A Guy” Would Have Gotten Him Canceled In 2025 first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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