The country music megastar’s lyric about immigration raids sparked controversy nationwide. In Oologah, Oklahoma, opinions are just as divided.
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Oct. 31, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Tyler KingkadeOOLOGAH, Okla. — Musician Zach Bryan broke a record for the largest ticketed concert in the U.S. when he drew more than 112,000 fans to Michigan Stadium in September. But here in his hometown of well under 2,000 people, opinions on the country star are divided — particularly after he posted a snippet of a new song this month that seemed to denounce immigration agents busting down someone’s door.In this tiny northeastern Oklahoma town 30 miles north of Tulsa, which voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump last fall, talk of border control usually comes with nods of agreement, even though more than a dozen people who spoke with NBC News said they had never seen an immigration officer in their midst. The highways stretch out flat, winding around small cattle farms and churches. Many here see themselves as defenders of law and order, and some already soured on Bryan after he criticized police during a 2023 arrest. Others have celebrated him for his giveaways to locals.Now, Bryan’s latest song has stirred debate over how far immigration enforcement should go and who gets caught in its reach, and whether their hometown country star crossed a line by wading into politics.The lyrics on Bryan’s new track, which has not been released in its entirety, include the line, “ICE is gonna come bust down your door / Try to build a house, no one builds no more.” He captioned it on Instagram, “the fading of the red, white and blue.”At the Iron Horse Saloon — a roadhouse on Highway 169 in Oologah that hosted some of Bryan’s first live performances — bar owner Connie Keck said she is reserving judgment until the full song is released, and believes that he’s “using vivid, confrontational imagery” to describe how divided America is right now.“Zach’s just telling a story, and folks around here get that,” Keck said.