Okay, hear me out… this is actually pretty dang good. Over the weekend, week one of the Coachella Music Festival took place in Indio, California, which included a headlining Sunday evening performance from Post Malone, who performed a ton of his new country music, in addition to turning some of his older hits into country songs. Of course, that drew a ton of criticism from some in the crowd (perhaps more who livestreamed the festival), but I don’t know why it came as a surprise to some of them, because Post has been country, and touring with a country band, for almost a year now… more on that HERE. But he wasn’t the only one who brought the country to Coachella, as rapper and hip hop star T-Pain did a great cover of the classic “Tennessee Whiskey” during his set, which he previously released on a covers album called On Top Of The Covers last year. He has also recently talked about writing country music, and he’s even alleged that he’s ghost-written a number of country songs. Of course, the song was made most popular by the great Chris Stapleton when he included his powerful rendition on his amazing 2015 Traveller album, but “Tennessee Whiskey” was actually originally recorded by David Allan Coe as the title track to his 1981 album. Written by the great Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, it peaked at just #77 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1981, though George Jones’ 1983 cover peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart the year of its release. Like most of us who were young or in college around 2005-2010, I’ll admit that I was a huge fan of T-Pain back in middle and early high school. I had songs like “I’m ‘n Luv (Wit a Stripper),” “Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” on repeat… though his collab with Lil Wayne on “Can’t Believe It” will always be at the top of my list. I can confidently say in the year 2025 that they have stood the test of time, and still hit, but back to the point of this article.. T-Pain actually has a helluva voice, and it’s a shame it was so auto-tuned for so many years because the man can really sing, and he proved it once again here live for the massive California audience. I think it’s so intriguing to see the multi-faceted sides of artists like this when it’s done with respect, and T-Pain’s cover of this song, while he isn’t going to be dethroning Stapleton for the best version anytime soon, is pretty incredible too. Of course, Stapleton brought a lot of soul to his rendition, and T-Pain follows suit, both in arrangement and his vocal delivery. I’m sure there will be plenty of people saying they don’t like this just because he’s not a country artist, but they’re wrong, and I was blown away with this live performance. His vocal ability is actually much better than most country artists on mainstream radio, and even artists from many other genres as well. He stands by the fact that he “never” uses autotune live anymore, and he really never needed it before. He says it was more of an artistic choice. Do yourself a favor and check it out, I think you might be pleasantly surprised, and dare I say, even impressed… I thought it was absolutely amazing. This video comes from the Coachella livestream online, so that’s why it’s so zoomed in: @s880638 Tpain singing Tennessee whiskey ##coachella2025##tpain##coachella##tennesseewhiskeycover ♬ original sound – c His studio cover: The post T-Pain Brought The Country To Coachella With Impressive Cover Of “Tennessee Whiskey” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.