Redneck Woman under attack by Tennessee politician
Downstate Pundit has the scoop on the Tennessee Attorney General’s threat to prosecute Gretchen if she doesn’t stop mentioning “Skoal rings” when she performs her hit song, “Redneck Woman.”
Seriously.
For those who don’t know, a “Skoal ring” is the faced circle that can appear on well-worn blue jeans when the wearer has a habit of keeping a tin of smokeless tobacco in his back pocket. There’s a line in the song about men who have Skoal rings, and when she performs in concerts, she’e been known to wave around a tin of the stuff.
So what’s the big deal? The deal is that Attorney General Paul Summers said says Gretchen is violating the 1998 settlement between states and tobacco companies forbidding tobacco ads targeting young people.
Which is nonsense. Skoal’s parent company signed that agreement, not Gretchen.
Downstate Pundit adds:
The only problem is Gretchen’s freedom of speech, which would seem to allow her to express herself as an artist. Only in America can artists sing about suicide (which is illegal and obviously harmful) or using LSD and not get much harassment, but if you say the words “Skoal Ring”, then the law is coming after ‘ya. Not that this is political posturing by the Tennessee AG…no, it couldn’t be a shameless politician looking to promote himself by criticizing a small-town country girl from Madison County. Wilson doesn’t even have any contracts with Skoal, as reported by the Associated Press.
The word is that Gretchen decided to stop waving aroudn the Skoal, saying her intent wasn’t to promote tobacco. Frankly, were I her, I simply wouldn’t perform in Tennessee until that idiot of a politician apologized.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Not perform in Tenessee? The home of country music is Tenessee. That would be a dumb career move.
The point is to make attacking a country musician a bad career move for a certain politician.