A case of two Jason Owens: US conservatives demand boycott of young Australian country singer

At the weekend, young NSW-based country music singer songwriter Jason Owen woke startled to find some strange and certainly hateful and homophobic posts on his Facebook and Twitter feed.

“Satan has your soul. Sad. I stand with the Lord.”

“The Almighty God of Moses judges you.”

In all this, a Boycott Jason Owen campaign also begin – inexplicable since the Australian is hardly known Stateside – while there were also some grumpy posts from the National Rifle Association.

Mystified, Owen contacted his co-manager Nardia Drayton who did some checking and discovered it was a case of mistaken identity.

Their real target was Jason Owen, the American veteran manager whose Sandbox Management looks after Little Big Town, Faith Hill, Midland and Kacey Musgrave.

Owen, named as one of “40 Under 40: Music’s Top Young Power Players” by Billboard, also co-president Monument Records, a Sony Music label.

Last week, the Country Music Association announced former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on its board.

There was an immediate backlash from some members, expressing their disapproval of Huckabee’s appointment given his rightwing, neo-conservative Christian and anti-gay views in office.

The harshest public condemnation came from the openly gay Owen, who called Huckabee’s appointment “grossly offensive” and “a detrimentally poor choice by CMA and its leaders, and threatened to boycott the association.

Within 24 hours, Huckabee stepped down, hence the nasty posts.

Some demanded to know why an Aussie should presume to tell the CMA what to do.

Few paused to wonder why an American artist manager and label executive should have out an album of John Denver songs.

Drayton told TMN, “Jason’s wanted to keep out of this whole political situation because he doesn’t like all this hate coming his way.

“We put up a message to tell the message posters they got the wrong person.’

“Some immediately apologised, others went on to check his Denver record online and came back to say they really liked it!”

The 24-year-old Australian, who grew up near Dubbo, and a keen clay pigeon shooter received national attention when he was runner-up to Samantha Jade in The X Factor in 2012.

It scored him a record deal with Sony Music, through which he released his debut album Life Is A Highway (April 2013) which debuted at #5 on the ARIA chart.

He’s now signed with Social Family Records. His most recent album, Jason Owen Sings John Denver stayed in the ARIA Country Charts for seven weeks.

On its release six months ago, it  received the blessings from the family of the late US folk singer who died in a plane crash in 1997.

There are currently discussions for the Australian performer to go to America and play at the annual John Denver memorial festival.

Meantime the Dubbo Jason Owen (not the US manager, or the similarly named US country performer Jake Owen) hits the road through NSW and a one-night stop in the ACT.

Fri 8 Jun | Macksville Ex Services

Sat 9 Jun | Grafton Ex Services

Sun 10 Jun | Laurieton United Services

Fri 15 Jun | Centro CBD, Wollongong

Sat 16 Jun | Harmonie German Club, ACT

Sat 30 Jun | Art House, Wyong

Sat 14 Jul | Orange Ex Services

Sat 21 Jul | C.Ex, Coffs Harbour

Sat 11 Aug | Dubbo RSL

Sat 18 Aug | Lizottes, Newcastle