Gary Allan Slams Record Labels & Says Searching For Artists On TikTok Is “Embarassing”

Gary Allan shared his thoughts on the current state of the music industry, and he admits that it is “embarrassing” that A&R teams are searching TikTok for new talent.

During a recent interview with Rolling Stone and after receiving minimal radio support on his latest single, “Waste Of A Whiskey Drink,” which debuted and then fall off the Billboard charts at No. 60, Allan, 54, admitted “I don’t think radio is coming back to me. Shit, I’m wondering if I even need a record label right now. Let’s just go make the records that we want to do.”

“Waste Of A Whiskey Drink” appears on Allan’s latest project, Ruthless, which marked his first new album in nearly eight years.

He continued to say that over the course of the next few weeks, he will be “having hard talks” with his management team about the possibility of becoming an independent artist as Allan says “there’s so many other avenues, and I’ve never got to make a record without radio in the back of my head. To make a record without even considering them would be so much fun.”

Allan shared that current day producers will not go against the grain as they are going for a certain radio-ready sound and admitted that “artists would rather have someone that will just do what they’re told.” And he says with that mentality, “it’s going to be really hard for us to have another Guns N’ Roses or people with attitude who don’t like the labels and want to buck the system.”

According to the country hitmaker, everything recorded during the early sessions for Ruthless were rejected by his record label, as they “didn’t hear a single” for radio. 

“And they told me in hindsight, ‘Look, during the bro-country thing, we just didn’t think that you were going to fit in,” Allan added. “So we’re kind of dragging our feet until we get through this.’”

The “Ruthless” singer thinks that in the near future record labels will stop having radio promo teams and use the money spent on radio promo elsewhere as he noticed the new trend is searching for rising talent on TikTok.

“They’re not going to service [songs to] radio. They do not believe that it’s important. You’re going to start to see the A&R departments culling TikTok [for talent]. It’s embarrassing, but I think that’s where we’re headed,” Allan said. And sadly for those that depend on Country Radio, it seems Allan is not wrong. Over the last year or so, several artists, including Priscilla Block, Kidd G, and more have scored record deals from their success on the social media platform, TikTok, which serves as a great tool for budding artists to reach new fans.

Listen to Allan’s latest single “Ruthless” below.

The news comes months after the release of his album, Ruthless, and just weeks after Allan got down on one knee to ask his longtime girlfriend to marry him on Tuesday (Dec. 7). 

The country superstar proposed to his girlfriend Molly Martin at Cheekwood Estate & Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee. He documented the special moment with a series of photos on Instagram, which he captioned, “She said yes!!!”

The series of photos included the special moment, a celebratory champagne photo surrounded by string lights, and even a close-up shot of the custom pear-shaped diamond ring, designed by the Allan himself.

Molly will be Allan’s fourth wife, following marriages to Tracy Taylor in 1987, Danette Day between 1998 and 1999 and Angela Herzberg in 2001 (died of suicide in 2004).

Additionally, Allan recently released a holiday project, Please Come Home For Christmas, which features a compilation of Christmas songs recorded over the years and put together in the same collection for the first-time ever.