Singer John Rich readies new album celebrating America from a 'country guy' perspective

Music star John Rich is getting ready later this month to release a new independent album entitled "The Country Truth" that he says evaluates America from the perspective of a “country guy.”

"This is the country truth, meaning these are true statements," Rich said on the Monday edition of the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "These songs are true observations told from the perspective of a country guy like myself, and I thought it was pretty good. So I put it together — a 10-song record. It's the first full length album I've put out in quite a while."

The album comes out Aug. 18 and includes songs titled "I'm Offended" and "Shut Up about Politics."

"It just seems like to me everybody's offended all the time, no matter what," Rich said. "So I wrote a song kind of talking to the funny end of what that whole thing is."

He said that Americans used to watch shows with very edgy humor such as "All in the Family" and "Married with Children" that had characters such as Archie Bunker and Al Bundy and everyone could have a laugh without being offended.

Rich added that the album has humorous songs, as well as some serious lyrics.

"It's anything from funny songs to serious songs, songs about my family and songs about our country," he said. "I think country music throughout history has always been that genre that kind of put its finger on the pulse of what was happening in the country at the time."

"A lot of my heroes did that," Rich continued. "Merle Haggard was very famous for doing that. So this is kind of my take on what's going on....I think a lot of people are going to relate to the songs."

Rich released his hit song "Progress" last summer, which debuted on TRUTH Social and topped the Apple charts when it was released. 

"That song actually sat at number one on the download chart, not just in country, but all genres," Rich said. "I think number two was Lizzo and at three was like Beyonce or somebody. It sat there not just for a day or two. It was there for two weeks."

Rich explained that the reason why he has gone independent and doesn't have a record label: he didn't like how the music industry infringed on freedom of speech. 

"I stepped away from the industry several years ago, because they would not allow me to say what I wanted to say with my music or even in an interview like this," he said. 

"I just got tired of it," Rich added. "My freedom of speech is more important to me than the approval of the music industry. So I stepped away. So when people step up and they purchase my music and download the songs, and you see a name like me, who's totally independent now at the top of the charts for a couple of weeks, that makes quite a statement. It gives a lot of confidence to other artists to do it as well."