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- The Department of Homeland Security used a Zach Bryan song in a social media video on Tuesday.
- The video was posted shortly after Bryan shared a snippet of a song that criticized ICE.
- Bryan said that the track “is about how much I love this country.”
The Department of Homeland Security is taking aim at Zach Bryan.
Less than 24 hours after the country singer shared a snippet of his unreleased song “Bad News,” which criticizes the department’s ICE raidsthe DHS posted a video on Wednesday soundtracked by the musician’s 2020 hit “Revival.”
The footage shows ICE and Border Patrol agents in a tense conflict with protesters, including a shot of an officer shooting something into a crowd of demonstrators and mass arrests as a result of the standoff.
Taylor Hill/Getty
The DHS captioned its video “We’re Having An All Night Revival” — a reference to the song’s lyrics that play over the footage.
Representatives for Bryan did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.
In the uncharacteristically political tune “Bad News,” Bryan sings, “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more / But I got a telephone.” He continues, “The middle fingers rising and it won’t stop showing / I got some bad news / The fading of the red, white, and blue.”
Bryan’s song attracted attention from right-wing outlets like Fox News, and even prompted a statement from the White House that posited that “a majority of Americans disagree with him and support President Trump’s great American Revival.”
The musician weighed in on the song’s controversy in a pair of posts on his Instagram Stories on Tuesday.
“I wrote this song months ago. I posted this song three months ago as a snippet,” Bryan wrote. “This shows you how divisive a narrative can be when shoved down our throats through social media. This song is about how much I love this country and everyone in it more than anything.”
Bryan went on to claim that the song “hits on both sides of the aisle” and opined that the controversy proves “how devastatingly divided we all are” today.
Gus Stewart/Redferns
“To see how much s— it stirred up makes me not only embarrassed but kind of scared,” he wrote. “Left wing or right wing we’re all one bird and American.”
Bryan also clarified that he’s “on neither of these radical sides,” adding, “To all those disappointed in me on either side of whatever you believe in just know I’m trying my best too and we all say things that are misconstrued sometimes.”
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Bryan said he has “been scrutinized by more people than I ever thought possible” over the past several months. “I feel like l’ve tried my hardest in so many ways and it’s so hard to see where my bearings even are anymore,” he said. “Been falling off a cliff while trying to grow wings at the same time.”
The singer, who served in the U.S. Navy for eight years, remained steadfast in his patriotism. “I am SO proud to have served in a country where we can all speak freely and converse amongst each other without getting doxxed or accosted on the internet or worse; the violence and heartbreak we’ve faced in the last few months!” he wrote.
