17 biggest scandals in country music

Randy Travis landed behind bars in 2012 when he drunkenly crashed his car and was later found intoxicated and naked in the grass. 

The Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines told a London crowd in 2003 of President George W. Bush, “We’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.” The backlash, well, it was brutal. 

On Sept. 26, 2012, Jason Aldean was caught cheating on his high-school-sweetheart-turned-wife with Brittany Kerr. And, recently, Aldean married his “mistress.” 

The world was shocked when Kenny Chesney married Renée Zellweger, but even more so when she filed for divorce on account of fraud only four months later. 

In 2000, a young LeAnn Rimes courted controversy at age 17 by filing a lawsuit against her own father claiming he owed her more than $7 million.

Back in the day, Billy Ray Cyrus began dating Kristin Luckey and Miley’s mom, Tish. At the same time… and the two women gave birth to Cyrus’ offpsring only seven months apart. 

In 2006, wily ol’ Willie Nelson was arrested when his tour bus was pulled over and police found 1.5 pounds of marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms. 

In the ’90s, Garth Brooks made waves for admitting he cheated on his then-wife, Sandy Mahl, with Trisha Yearwood — whom he ultimately married. 

The moment Kanye West hijacked Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Awards will long live in infamy in Nashville circles. 

After finding out in 2008 her husband was cheating with her best friend, Shania Twain flipped the script by later marrying her former bestie’s hunky husband, Frederic.

While Wynonna Judd’s then-husband D.R. Roach was in rehab, he was convicted on 13 counts of sexual battery of a minor younger than 13. 

LeAnn Rimes went from country music darling to “homewrecker” in a heartbeat when she took up with married actor Eddie Cibrian. The two are now hitched.

In 2011, when Hank Williams Jr. made a joke comparing Obama to Hitler on Fox & Friends, it got his theme song pulled from Monday Night Football. 

Breaking ground in the typically straitlaced world of country music, the “Single White Female” singer (also Brad Paisley’s ex) came out as gay in 2010.

After struggling with addiction and mental illness, the ’90s country star and mother of two died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2013.

Although rumors have long plagued Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, when one broke that Urban had an affair with lingerie model Amanda Wyatt, he apologized publicly to Kidman. 

Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert dropped a bomb on fans by announcing they were divorcing… the day it was finalized! And no one expected their fairy-tale romance to turn so bitter. 

Originally published June 2015. Updated Aug. 2016.