Sturgill Simpson Calls Out Academy Of Country Music Over Merle Haggard Award

Sturgill Simpson has posted a stern message calling out the Academy Of Country Music. The singer-songwriter is upset with the newly created ACM Merle Haggard Spirit Award, taking Music Row to task over what he calls “unjust treatment of a bonafide American music legend.”

The angry post on Simpson’s official Facebook page goes on at length in defense of Haggard, whom he got to know prior to the passing of the Outlaw Country icon earlier this year. Simpson cites a magazine’s decision to run a different cover rather than one featuring he and Haggard together and explains:

Im writing this because I want to go on record and say I find it utterly disgusting the way everybody on Music Row is coming up with any reason they can to hitch their wagon to his name while knowing full and damn well what he thought about them. If the ACM wants to actually celebrate the legacy and music of Merle Haggard, they should drop all the formulaic cannon fodder bullshit they’ve been pumping down rural America’s throat for the last 30 years along with all the high school pageantry, meat parade award show bullshit and start dedicating their programs to more actual Country Music.

Simpson later closes the missive by stating, “Some days, this town and this industry have a way of making we wish I could just go sit on Mars and build glass clocks.” The entire statement can be read here or below.

https://www.facebook.com/sturgillsimpsonmusic/photos/a.470074119692228.111133.439317472767893/1294328383933460/?type=3&theater