Gretchen Wilson Says She’s Sick Of People Thinking That The Word “Redneck” Means “Racist”

The ultimate authority on rednecks has spoken.

Gretchen Wilson released her debut single “Redneck Woman,” which was included on her debut album Here for the Party, in 2004. She co-wrote the song with half of Big & Rich duo John Rich, and it remains her only number-one single on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. It was minor crossover hit, too and reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

“Redneck Woman” earned Gretchen a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards in 2005, and of course, remains her signature song to this day.

But it wasn’t without controversy.

Gretchen spoke during a recent interview about the trouble that she had getting the song played on radio because of their problem with the word “redneck.”

“The fans loved it, and if it hadn’t been for the fans calling local radio stations and demanding it, I’m not sure that it would have gone the way it did. Program directors didn’t really love it that much. I mean, we got phone calls back at at the label that I was hearing about, you know, some some of them saying things like, ‘We’ve been working for 20 years to get this ‘redneck’ word out of our listeners‘ mouth.'”

And during an appearance with Big D & Bubba yesterday, Gretchen expressed her displeasure with the fact that the word “redneck” is used to mean “racist.”

“In the last 10, 20 years everybody has decided that the word ‘redneck’ means something other than what it does… I guess because I’m the redneck woman it kind of falls on me to define this for everyone. Redneck does not mean “racist.” It does not mean some kind of “white supremacist” cult. Redneck has never meant that and I don’t know who in the movie industry or in the whatever has decided, because that’s where I hear it the most in a derogatory world, is in the movies.”

Gretchen says she wants to set the record straight that there’s nothing derogatory about being a “redneck” – and in fact it should be a source of pride:

“Redneck means, it comes from being out in the farm, in the field, all day long, and coming back in with your neck sunburned because you’ve been out on a plow all day long. That’s basically what it comes from. And it has nothing to do with racism, and I’m really sick of it and I wish people would just do their homework on that.”

@bigdandbubba

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♬ original sound – bigdandbubba

Gretchen also recently spoke about what inspired the song in the first place, and why she thinks it became such a big hit, revealing that she didn’t feel like country music at the time spoke to women like her:

“‘Redneck Woman’ was it. I mean, it was the whole, people tell you, there are a lot of really talented people, but it takes the right voice, also the right song and the right time. Those things have to kind of come together for you to have a really monster hit. And that’s what happened with redneck woman. And it was just the perfect time.

Women like me weren’t really being spoken to or sung about, and you know, when I turned on the music channels, all I saw was beautiful women like Faith Hill rolling around on silk sheets, ‘I can feel you breathe.’ And I’m like, who the hell looks like that at 6 o’clock in the morning, you know? Not me, or anybody that I know. So it was just the time, it was time to write a song for women like me that we’re happy to be like me.

That thought that their whole world was fulfilled living in a mobile home, driving a pick up truck, raising kids and dogs and then going to the football game on the weekend. Not everybody wants the same thing in life, and if that’s what your life is, and that’s what you’re happy with, you should be celebrated too.”

Of course the song took on a life of its own, and sort of glamorized the “redneck” lifestyle for women in a way that hadn’t been done before. And naturally there were people who weren’t happy about it, or how it made country music (and country people) look, but it was exactly because of that authenticity that it resonated with so many people – and made women proud to call themselves a “Redneck Woman.”

The post Gretchen Wilson Says She’s Sick Of People Thinking That The Word “Redneck” Means “Racist” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.