Country superstar John Rich produced the single
Nashville TV station WSMV has allegedly refused to allow country duo Dugger Band to perform their patriotic song, “True Colors,” on its airwaves. Brothers Jordan and Seth Dugger, who wrote the track and teamed with country superstar John Rich to produce, were scheduled to perform it on Today in Nashville on Wednesday (Mar 12th). However, they received an email on Tuesday (Mar 11th) by station management stating that the lyrics were deemed too “politically biased” and recanted their offer for that song.
The brothers read the email on camera which states, “So sorry that I didn’t raise this flag before, but we’re just now really looking into the lyrics of the song. The song does cross a political line that we as a station cannot cross. We as a show and the station do not allow any politically biased songs on either side of the line. We’re going to have to ask the band to perform a different song on Wednesday. We could still mention that they recently released it, but we will still need to explore a different song to perform. Please let us know if you have any questions or how we can help make this change.”
The song was released independently to all digital outlets in late January.
“We wrote this song because we’re proud to be Americans and we’re tired of people putting the USA down,” the Duggers state. “I’ll quote the lyrics from the course of our song ‘True Colors.’ ‘I ain’t leaving here / I’m an eighth generation God fearing blue collar with the flag waving / I don’t wait for the Fourth of July / It’s year-round lifelong American pride / Right here right now / I’m drawing the line / If this country ain’t something you can stand behind / Then that’s the difference between between me and you / Because my true colors are red, white, and blue.’ We decided not to perform a different song on WSMV because our freedom of speech is worth more than their publicity.”
They continue, “‘True Colors’ is available on all platforms and if the people want to make their voices heard, please share this post.”
Rich also shared his thoughts on social media, explaining that the duo were initially welcomed by the station to perform the song live on air.
“A few months ago, I went in the studio with them and I produced a song on them that they wrote called ‘True Colors.’ The line is, ‘My true colors are red, white and blue,’ so this is pro-America patriot song,” Rich says in a video posted to X. “And they decided they’re ready to put the song out. They started reaching out to some media outlets. One of them was WSMV in Nashville, which is one of our big news stations, and the station says, ‘Yeah, guys. Come on in. We’d love for you to play the song.’ They’re so excited they get to go play ‘True Colors’ in the Nashville area so a lot of music industry people are gonna see that. But then they get an email from WSMV basically telling them, ‘Guys, we didn’t realize what the lyrics were in the song. We find these lyrics to be too politically biased’ — Too politically biased from a news station? — ‘So we’re not gonna let you play that song, but you can come in and play another song if you want to.’ And so the guys called me and they said, ‘Can you even believe this? What should we do?’ I said, ‘Well under no circumstances do you kiss the ring of some liberal commie-acting news organization like WSMV telling you that your freedom of speech doesn’t mean anything to them that they’re gonna dictate what you get to sing. Under no circumstances do you go in and play anything else. So they didn’t. So I told them I would tell their story and get the word out to you.”
In the four plus minute video, Rich says media outlets can reach out to request an interview with him and the brothers for more of the story. “I don’t care what I’m doing. This is important,” he says as he suggests fans send the song to the top of the digital charts.
“Can you even believe this is still going on? This is still happening,” he adds. “You write a pro America song and they’re trying to cancel you. They’re trying to censor you and shut you down. A hundred percent. How do we respond to that country music fans? All the people that follow me and all the rest of the conservative folks on X? How do we respond to that? I know one way. Download their song.”
The Music Universe has reached out to WSMV for comment, but did not hear back as of press time. We also requested an interview with John Rich and the Dugger Band.
You won’t BELIEVE this! @WSMV in Nashville has censored my friends @Dugger_Band and their new Pro-America song “True Colors.” I produced this record and love these guys, so this is personal to me. Watch the vid for the full story & pls repost! 🇺🇸BLOW THIS STORY… pic.twitter.com/WBqIu5GUJG
— John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) March 11, 2025
