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Shaboozey Explains Why He Side-Eyed Megan Moroney’s “Carter Family Invented Country Music” Comment During AMA Presentation
Last night at the American Music Awards at Fontainebleau Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fan-voted music awards show highlighted all genres, similar to the Grammy Awards, and a few faces of country music were present last night. Lainey Wilson performed her new single “Somewhere Over Laredo” and blew the roof off the arena.
Megan Moroney and Shaboozey were also in the building and were tasked with announcing the winner of Favorite Country Duo or Group. As the two presented the award, part of the script the AMAs provided to the rising country artists led to an awkward viral moment.
“Country music has been an important part of AMA history. The very first year of this show, the award for favorite male country artist went to the great Charlie Pride.”
Shaboozey read off the teleprompter. Megan Moroney then read her lines of the script, speaking about a few other notable winners in the category.
“That same year, favorite female artist went to Lynn Anderson, and this award went to the Carter Family, who basically invented country music.”
After Moroney made the statement about the Carter Family, which consisted of P. Carter, Sara Carter, and Maybelle Carter, Shaboozey gave Moroney a major side-eye. Shaboozey then laughed awkwardly before continuing with the script, announcing the nominees for the category.
Shaboozey giving Megan Moroney a side eye after the script said "The Carter family basically invented country music" #AMAs #AMAs2025 pic.twitter.com/3PbNg38pYr
— Successible Life (@SuccessibleLife) May 27, 2025
The moment took off on social media due to its awkwardness, but many fans also began to speculate if this was a mistake in the script. Of course, Moroney is being prompted with what to say with a script that she didn’t write, but Shaboozey’s reaction gave the impression that her statement wasn’t true, or that she went off script. Since Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album, the narrative that “African Americans invented country music” has gained a lot of traction, and many on social media thought that is what prompted the reaction from Shaboozey.
When you look at the United States’ history with the genre, the Country Music Hall of Fame names Jimmie Rodgers as “The Father of Country Music,” and he was included in the first class of inductees into the Hall of Fame. The museum also notes that the Carter Family was nicknamed “The First Family of Country Music.” The trio also became one of the first groups to record commercially produced country music. However, just because the Carter Family was the first commercially successful country group, it does not mean that there wasn’t any influence from other artists like the lesser well-known Lesley Riddle. Riddle, an African American musician, grew in popularity from traveling around Appalachia with A.P. Carter to collect songs, and the Carter Family recorded a few of those melodies. The Carter Family also drew inspiration from the first black American to play the Grand Ole Opry, DeFord Bailey.
But many other areas of influence worked together to “invent” the genre. There was certainly some African influence in country music, the banjo being an instrument that emerged from West Africa. There is also a lot of blues and Gospel influence in early country music. Steel guitar has Hawaiian origins. But there was also a lot of European origins to country music, particularly fiddle-playing folk musicians from England, Scotland and Ireland who settled in Appalachia. These people were the primary drivers of what went on to become modern day country music.
The Heritage Herald states that:
“The origins of country music can be traced to the 17th century, when European and African immigrants to North America brought their folktales, folk songs, favorite instruments, and musical traditions.”
John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band explains the melting pot genesis of what went on to become country music like this:
“Country music wasn’t called that yet, but it was music of the country. It was a combination of the Irish; the recently freed slaves, bringing the banjo into the world; the Spanish effects of the vaqueros down in Texas; the Germans bringing over the “oom-pah” of polka music, all converging”
There’s no doubt that country music has a diverse history and every aspect of that should be celebrated. But to claim country music was invented by any one person is not an accurate representation of the history. And while there was certainly some African American influence, to claim it was invented by African Americans, which like I said, has become a popular narrative lately, is simply untrue.
I digress from the history lesson… back to the viral moment.
Shaboozey took to X this morning to perhaps clarify what he meant, referring to a number of early black artists in addition to the Carter Family, saying:
“The real history of country music is about people coming together despite their differences, and embracing and celebrating the things that make us alike.”
Google: Lesley Riddle , Steve Tartar, Harry Gay, Defoe Bailey, and The Carter Family…
— Shaboozey (@ShaboozeysJeans) May 27, 2025
When you uncover the true history of country music, you find a story so powerful that it cannot be erased…
— Shaboozey (@ShaboozeysJeans) May 27, 2025
The real history of country music is about people coming together despite their differences, and embracing and celebrating the things that make us alike.
— Shaboozey (@ShaboozeysJeans) May 27, 2025
The post Shaboozey Explains Why He Side-Eyed Megan Moroney’s “Carter Family Invented Country Music” Comment During AMA Presentation first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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