3 Embarrassing Country Songs We Still Enjoy

Country music, at its heart, is known as three chords and the truth. There is something essential about the genre. It’s as much passing down wisdom and stories from the past as it is entertainment. Part lesson and part toe-tapper. But sometimes songwriters and performers can go a bit astray from that principle. Sometimes they can write silly or even outlandish country songs.

Here below, we wanted to dive into a trio of such offerings. Three songs that shock and cause blushing as much as they make heads bob. Indeed, these are three embarrassing country songs that despite all that, we still enjoy from time to time.

[RELATED: 3 “Three Chords and the Truth” Country Songs]

“She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” from Everywhere We Go by Kenny Chesney (1999)

It’s not that women don’t think big machines can be sexy when under the control of an attractive person, it’s just that this song is a little too on the nose. Usually amorous, hard-working songs beat around the proverbial bush a bit more than to just outright say She thinks my tractor’s sexy. Tractors and other vehicles are often fodder for country songs—and that’s terrific—but to build an entire track around the idea that a tractor is sexy is, well, not up to par with what country music can do. On the song Kenny Chesney sings,

Plowin’ these fields in the hot summer sun

Over by the gate lordy here she comes

With a basket full of chicken and a big cold jug of sweet tea

I make a little room and she climbs on up

Open up a throttle and stir a little dust

Just look at her face she ain’t a foolin’ me

She thinks my tractor’s sexy

It really turns her on

She’s always starin’ at me

While I’m chuggin’ along

She likes the way it’s pullin’ while we’re tillin’ up the land

She’s even kind of crazy ’bout my farmer’s tan

She’s the only one who really understands what gets me

She thinks my tractor’s sexy

“Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” from Horse of a Different Color by Big & Rich (2004)

Electric guitars, heavy percussion, and banjos open this track from the country duo. We can only believe this song is written and performed tongue-in-cheek. Even the video is over-the-top, overly rich with pomp and circumstance. Nevertheless, despite the jokey (we think?) track, it got lots of airplay on ESPN and even made the ABC television show Boston Legal, among others. But still, the track’s overt lyrics are just goofy, in the end. On it, the duo of Big & Rich sing,

Well, I walk into the room

Passing out hundred dollar bills

And it kills and it thrills like the horns on my Silverado grill

And I buy the bar a double round of crown

And everybody’s getting down

An’ this town ain’t never gonna be the same.

Cause I saddle up my horse

and I ride into the city

I make a lot of noise

Cause the girls

They are so pretty

Riding up and down Broadway

on my old stud Leroy

And the girls say

Save a horse, ride a cowboy.

Everybody says

Save a horse, Ride a cowboy

“Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” from Songs About Me by Trace Adkins (2005)

We saved the best for last. What do you get when you add city slang to a country song? You get this Gold-certified single. Inspired by a dancer in a club, the song was composed in a matter of minutes once its writers landed the term “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.” It would seem that when you strike pay dirt, the tune really just writes itself. Of course, no one is supposed to take this track too seriously. Still, it’s one we can’t help but grin and shake our head at. On the popular track, Adkins sings,

Hustlers shootin’ eight ball

Throwin’ darts at the wall

Feelin’ damn near ten feet tall

Here she comes, Lord help us all

Ol’ T.W.’s girlfriend done slapped him out his chair

Poor ole boy, it ain’t his fault

It’s so hard not to stare

At that honky tonk badonkadonk

Keepin’ perfect rhythm, make ya wanna swing along

Got it goin’ on like Donkey Kong

And whoo-wee, shut my mouth, slap your grandma

There oughta be a law, get the Sheriff on the phone

Lord have mercy, how’d she even get them britches on

That honky tonk badonkadonk

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images