DEBUT SINGLE – “Learn From It”
Conner Smith’s debut single at radio is “Learn from It,” but a couple of weeks ago, he decided to throw a song up on social media that he had been given to record called “I Hate Alabama.” Even though the song is ultimately about a guy breaking up with his girlfriend at a football game in U of A’s Bryant-Denny Stadium, being a lifelong fan of the University of Tennessee, Conner knew he was playing with fire when he dared to put out a song claiming to hate the Alabama Crimson Tide. “I love it,” Conner says with a huge smile. “I’ve seen several Twitter threads or whatever, where I am getting roasted and tore up, but I love it. At the end of the day you either love or hate this song but it makes you feel something, and that’s what matters.”
From the ‘what are the chances department,’ the first weekend after Conner released “I Hate Alabama,” their football team was defeated by Texas A&M, marking Bama’s first loss after 100 straight victories over unranked opponents, which caused the song to blow up even more. Ironically, the second line of the song says, “Ever since ’06, they get us (meaning Tennessee) every season,” and Conner says, “A lot of Bama fans being like, ‘You hate us cause you ain’t us.’ I’m like, absolutely. That’s exactly what the song is. It’s literally a complement to Alabama, which is the beauty of it.”
It just so happens that Conner’s Tennessee Vols are taking on the Alabama Crimson Tide this Saturday in Alabama (6pm CT on ESPN), and we’d be willing to put money on the chances that every UT tailgate at the game will be blasting “I Hate Alabama” while they pre-game.
Conner Smith – I Hate Alabama :27
“I love it. I’ve seen several Twitter threads or whatever, where I am getting roasted and tore up, but I love it. At the end of the day you either love or hate this song but it makes you feel something, and that’s what matters. It’s funny, l, I mean, a lot of Bama fans being like, ‘You hate us cause you ain’t us.’ I’m like, absolutely. That’s exactly what the song is. It’s literally a complement to Alabama, which is the beauty of it. But it’s been really fun to watch other SEC schools react, and they’re all kinda claiming it as their own.”