Is this a hot take from Ben Chapman? Or one that a lot of people can agree with and get behind? The “Don’t You Dare” singer joined the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast to discuss his favorite places in Nashville, how it’s been to watch Music City change in his lifetime, and how he and his wife – fellow artist Meg McCree – juggle music and raising their little one. Chapman also touched on the music that helped shape who he is, having Channing Wilson as a mentor, and his latest album, Feet On Fire, being called “funky tonk.” Ben also talked about how he approaches songwriting, trying to have songs that jam but avoiding being a “jam band,” and his concern that no cool music will be made in 20 years. Chapman went on to say a lot of modern artists are making “phone in” records, called out a lot of young artists that don’t know the history of country music, and entertained the thought of country stars from the 60s and 70s living in the modern, social media age of music. And that last point was a really interesting one. Think about names like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Could you imagine them coming up as artists now? And having to juggle their music career with their social media presence? All while avoiding putting anything out there that could get themselves canceled? It’s an intriguing day dream, eh? And it’s something that Chapman didn’t mind giving his two cents on, and first laid the ground work for by talking about how Waylon Jennings could be considered “bro country” of the time: “You say 60s Nashville country and everybody immediately goes to Willie and Waylon and all those guys. But no one knows that Waylon Jennings did like five records with Chet Atkins. He was a Nashville sound. He was a spoke in the Nashville wheel. He was a ‘bro country’ of the time, as crazy as that sounds. Porter Wagoner was the same way.” Chapman went on to say that artists like Waylon and Porter Wagoner may have been alright at the social media thing, but outside of that, the good country music candidates are few and far between… for a number of reasons: “I feel like those guys would have done good at it. Because I think they would have done anything that the label told them to do. They were just dogs for the label. But if you told Merle Haggard to do it, I don’t think he would necessarily do that. I don’t think Willie Nelson would do it. I don’t think he would be that great at it. I just don’t think they cared about it. Obviously they didn’t have to care about it. You see those memes of Johnny Paycheck blown out of his mind and it’s like, ‘Tell this guy to post a TikTok.’ And he’s just wired. I don’t know if those guys would have done it necessarily. I think they’d be like the Sturgills of today.” @whiskeyriff @Ben Chapman #whiskeyriff #whiskeyriffraff ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff Sturgill, A.K.A. Johnny Blue Skies, does have things pretty sweet when it comes to his online presence. The “Out In The Country” singer landed his take by saying that, back in the day, it was probably better that the general public didn’t know much about the artists they were idolizing. In his opinion, a lot of the artists and bands of that day probably would have been canceled if they had something at their fingertips that connected them to the whole world: “I think we had such stardom and celebrity craze in the 60s and 70s is because you didn’t know anything about the artist. Other than what the newspaper told you, or (what you heard) going to see a concert… anybody that we love from the 50s and 60s would have been canceled. 100%.” Chapman might have a point there… maybe it was best that era didn’t have the advent of social media to worry about. You can hear about all of that and more from Ben Chapman by checking out the interview on YouTube or making sure to download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff.” We’re also available on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts. Cheers, y’all. Audio Video The post Ben Chapman Says Some Stars From 60s and 70s Would’ve Been Good At Social Media, Others Not So Much first appeared on Whiskey Riff.