The devil, or demons, have been referenced in a string of current and recent singles, including Jelly Roll’s “Halfway to Hell” and “I Am Not Okay,” Tyler Braden’s “Devil I Know,” Ashley McBryde’s “The Devil You Know” and Jackson Dean’s “Heavens to Betsy.” Mitchell Tenpenny’s “Demon or Ghost,” recorded with metal band Underoath, was released Aug. 9; Lee DeWyze issued “Devil in the Details” on Aug. 2; Stephen Wilson Jr.’s “The Devil” is the opening track on his debut project, Son of Dad; and Lainey Wilson’s just-released Whirlwind slips in “Devil Don’t Go There.”
A new Jon Pardi single – “Friday Night Heartbreaker,” released today (Sept. 6) – casts a stunning woman as a Medusa-like “hell raiser” and a “devil in disguise.”
It’s not like it’s an entirely new subject — The Louvin Brothers’ “Satan Is Real” ranks among classic country’s deepest discussions of the dark angel and his role in humanity — but the current volume of devil themes, and the weight of the songs they appear in, seems significant.
“We see more people confessing what they’re really feeling and being a little more open and honest,” says songwriter Ashley Gorley, who co-wrote “I Am Not Okay,” which references “the devil on my back and voices in my head.” “I think the devil is real, so I think it’s showing up in people’s writing.”
One obvious source for the topic lies in the pandemic. When COVID-19 forced creatives off the stage and into their houses, they had plenty of time for self-examination, questioning who they were, why they had made certain life choices and the meaning of the world around them.
“It’s very easy to look at the past few years and recall moments of dark, and I think that with the darkness comes the imagery,” DeWyze notes. “As far as the devil being in music now, it’s almost like it represents those things, whether it be the faith and redemption or the existential struggle, or, you know, a physical being literally at your door.”
Historically, the devil has represented temptation in country music. Marty Robbins’ “Devil Woman,” Alan Jackson’s “Between the Devil and Me,” Joe Nichols’ “Brokenheartsville” (in which “the devil drives a Coupe de Ville”) and Terri Gibbs’ “Somebody’s Knockin’ ” (depicting him with “blue eyes and blue jeans”) all place Satan in the equation as its characters grapple with sexual tension and betrayal.
“The devil is always, I hate saying it, but an interesting character to me,” confesses Academy of Country Music songwriter of the year Jessie Jo Dillon, who co-wrote “Halfway to Hell” and “Friday Night Heartbreaker.”
“It’s like this tempter or temptress always.”
The ultimate temptation comes when the devil persuades a victim to sell their soul for a short-term outcome. That’s at work in the movie Damn Yankees when a Washington Senators fan plots to bring down the New York baseball team. It’s at the heart of the legend behind blues icon Robert Johnson. And it’s the storyline in the The Charlie Daniels Band’sLuciferian country tale, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
“It personifies the duality of dark and light, and the feeling of struggling with those demons,” Jelly Roll notes.
“My favorite devil song by far is ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’” Pardi adds, “because the guy won. He won the fight.”
Beyond that song’s surface entertainment, though, is a much deeper concept that hints at the never-changing struggle between right and wrong. Cheaters and criminals, in general, earn their reputations by stealing short-term gain while ignoring potential long-term consequences. It’s a battle that plays out daily in politics, in finance, in barroom pickup lines and even in artistic decisions.
“My favorite songwriter ever, Bobby Braddock, told me, ‘Mitchell, are you writing music for a lunchtime or a lifetime?’ ” Tenpenny recalls. “I think there’s a lot of lunchtime music right now, and we need that lifetime music again. Can we make a quick buck to this? Yes, but it’s going to kill so many souls, and that’s where the devil gets involved, in my opinion, and why we keep using him as a metaphor.”
Musical trends in country have made it easier to chase the devil thematically. HARDY, Jelly Roll and Tenpenny are among the artists who have employed hard rock in varying degrees within country. Acts in that format have often toyed with Satanic imagery in songs, stage wear and graphics, and the infusion of power chords and death screams into country practically requires the devil to tag along.
“As far as the look and aesthetics, the devil and demons have always been in the rock’n’roll scene,” Tenpenny maintains. “T-shirts and metal, skeletons, skulls, that kind of thing has always been a part of it. I think that that definitely has an influence.”
But another musical development that may have paved the way for Satan’s ascent in country might well be Eric Church. Particularly notable is his track “Devil Devil” from The Outsiders, with a spoken-word “Princess of Darkness” prelude that links Music Row to hell: “The devil walks among us, folks, and Nashville is his bride.” Church even employed a 40-foot inflatable devil on his 2015 tour, nicknaming the blow-up doll “Lucy Fur.”
Church’s road guitarist Driver Williams co-wrote Dean’s “Heavens to Betsy,” alluding to demons in the opening verse and expressing surprise in the chorus that St. Peter would “ever let a sinner like me in” to heaven. That latter phrase is a direct homage to Church’s debut album, Sinners Like Me.
“Eric has a theme of good versus evil that kind of goes throughout his writing,” Williams observes. “I just can’t help it if that rubs off on me in the writing room a little bit just because I do look up to him so much as a songwriter.
“You look at all the major superstars right now, from Luke [Combs] to Morgan [Wallen] to Thomas Rhett, their idol is Eric — Jelly Roll, too. So I definitely see Eric’s handiwork rubbing off on all of these major superstars that are having moments right now.”
Satan, it turns out, may contribute to artists’ successes when he appears because he offers so much possibility for the protagonist.
“You immediately become the hero in the story,” DeWyze says, “when the devil is placed in it.”
Ultimately, the devil is having his moment because the world seems so tough. The pandemic may be behind us, but years of political turmoil and cultural negativity that predated COVID-19 still drag down the national conversation. That most certainly plays in the background as the devil takes the spotlight.
“Country music looks at that and it tries to give a positive at the end,” Pardi suggests. “We may be singing about darker times, but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel in country music.”
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