Gretchen Wilson Slams Modern Male Country Artists’ Realness Ahead of New TV Show

Gretchen Wilson emphasized the importance of authenticity in the genre while promoting her TV project, The Road, which premiered on CBS on Oct. 19. Wilson, serving as the road manager for the competition series, warns that today's artists must live their truth or risk losing credibility.

“It just seems like more men are timid nowadays than the women are. It's just where we are at in our world,” Wilson shared. “It does seem like women are more boisterous than they used to be,” she added. “They're unafraid and ready to kick the doors down.” Wilson digs her nails in deep here with this next statement. “Men seem to be standing around, asking for permission.

“Some of these kids just got mommy and daddy's money and they put together a little story that they wish were true,” she points out. The problem with presenting yourself as someone you're really not? “Country music is not dumb,” Wilson says, and the fans will eventually figure it out. “Everybody has always wanted to be a cowboy,” she continued. “I mean, come on, that doesn't mean you get to be one. You have to know how to saddle up a horse.”

Wilson critiques newcomers who attempt to fabricate narratives instead of drawing on real experience and hard work. She stresses that genuine life on tour, road miles, and a real connection to cowboy tradition matter in country music. On The Road, contestants travel across mid-sized venues through the southern U.S., opening for stars like Keith Urban, under Wilson's mentorship alongside executive producers such as Blake Shelton and creator Taylor Sheridan.

Wilson says the shift in the genre's male presence alarms her: with men becoming more tentative and less assertive, she believes the male demographic has been “squashed” and worries for a generation of young men. She urges them to ­— as she frames it — speak up, be confident, and flirt; to embrace traditional masculine traits so the genre retains the grit and storytelling that built it. The road-hardened veteran insists that authenticity isn't optional: fans will always see through personas that aren't backed by honest work.