Welcome to Music Crimes, where the editorial staff of Music Times examines questionable musical decisions over the years in the form of songs, albums, videos, and general bad behavior. Disclaimer: Opinions are our own, and we firmly stand by any and all guilty pleasures.
Zac Brown is having a time of it with his personal life at the moment, to say the least: The country hitmaker recently slapped a temporary restraining order on his estranged wife of less than a year, Kelly Yazdi, citing a need to protect his family from public scrutiny and online harassment as they navigate divorce proceedings.
Yazdi, for her part -- who has publicly suggested that Brown subjected her to "narcissistic abuse" and gaslighting -- has fired back at Brown, saying that she refuses to be silenced by the likes of "money, power, celebrity, and lawyers."
Sound more than a little ugly? Sure. However, if there's one thing to be said for all this, the Zac Brown Band leader can at least comfort himself with the knowledge the split probably wasn't triggered by a little-known and wildly out-of-pocket song he put out a few years ago. Not to be flippant, but this tune definitely had fans feeling a bit gaslit.
"Swayze," a single off of a surprise solo project, The Conversation, that Brown landed without warning in 2019, is such a confusing leap out of kin for the mutliplatinum-selling artist that Rolling Stone dubbed it "the worst song of the year" in no uncertain terms.
The Conversation itself was meant as an experimental exercise for Brown, who called the album "an outlet" for his interest in other genres besides country. He collaborated with the likes of Skrillex, Jason 'Poo Bear' Boyd, Shroom, Benny Blanco and Max Martin on it, to give an idea of the range. That said, this composition -- which he put together with producer Sasha Sirota -- confounded nearly everyone who came across it.
Singing/rapping over a bouncy (and, alas, wildly catchy) pop beat, Brown informs the listener that "I can't be your Tom Cruise, bitch. I'm Patrick Swayze," then makes a cringingly long foray into making puns on said actors' blockbusters (Top Gun, Mission Impossible, Dirty Dancing ... and yes, the immortal Ghost are all mentioned.)
But that's not all. The video for the song takes the absurdity even further. Brown spares himself from actually appearing in the clip; instead giving the honors to TV's Jake Nodar, known for Discovery Channel's Naked and Afraid among many other shows.
In it, Nodar dons a blond wig and dances enthusiastically about in '80s fitness gear, Richard Simmons-style; falls off a horse while trying to charm a hot chick; makes fun of the famous romantic pottery scene from Swayze's Ghost; and generally keeps viewers laughing/absolutely gobsmacked for the duration of the video.
As Rolling Stone lamented at the time, "Patrick died of cancer -- can't we leave him out of this?" But a carefree Brown didn't seem to mind the criticism, stating that "I'm super proud of it and I'm super excited for people to get it and hopefully people can connect with it."
Sorry, Zac, but....they didn't. Well, maybe a bit. Okay, we'll just admit it: Everyone in the Music Times office has been begrudgingly humming "'Bout to ghost on you..." since this little gem resurfaced to memory in the wake of Brown's recent headlines.
To be fair, Brown has always been a musical maverick with an eagerness to color outside of genre lines, and apparently without much concern for what anyone thinks. Prior to The Controversy, he dropped another interesting project on fans in 2016: Dance-pop trio Sir Rosevelt, which he noted was inspired by the likes of electronic experimenters Diplo and Skrillex.
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