“I Hate That Mediocrity Is Worshipped As A God, As Long As It’s Wearing A Ball Cap”: Ashley McBryde Calls Out Country Music’s Double Standards

Ashley McBryde isn’t interested in playing nice with country music’s double standards—and her new album Wild proves it.

Ashley McBryde says the quiet part out loud - and honestly? We’re living for it.

McBryde has never exactly been known for sugarcoating things, but her recent appearance on the Girls In Low Places podcast might be one of her most brutally honest conversations yet.

While chatting about the exhausting double standards women still face in country music, McBryde dropped the kind of line that instantly makes you pause whatever you’re doing and rewind the clip.

“I hate that mediocrity is worshipped as a god as long, as it's wearing a ball cap, if we're being specific.”

And honestly? She didn’t stutter.

McBryde spoke candidly about the reality of “working twice as hard for twice as long for half the credit,” while also unpacking the impossible beauty standards women in the industry are expected to somehow magically balance. Be thin, but not too thin. Age gracefully, but don’t look old. Have wrinkles, but don’t you dare try to fix them. It’s the kind of mental gymnastics female artists have been navigating forever and McBryde was more than happy to call it exactly what it is.

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That same fearless energy runs straight through her upcoming album Wild, arriving this Friday, May 8. Produced by John Osborne of Brothers Osborne and recorded alongside her live band Deadhorse, the record digs deep into McBryde’s life - sobriety, family trauma, religion, survival, and everything messy in between.

It’s raw, loud, vulnerable, and refreshingly unconcerned with being polished for approval.

“When people hear this record, I hope it wakes up the part of them that I’m singing about in ‘Wild’ - the part that still believes in those unrealized dreams and untaken risks,” says McBryde. “I believe that wild little kid is still alive inside of all of us, and that’s the version of everyone that I want to sing to.”

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Producer Osborne adds: “Ashley McBryde is a rare gem. There are people out there with natural ability and there are people that dedicate every waking hour to honing their craft. Ashley is both. Never settling. Always reaching. The perfect combination of vulnerable and fearless.”