Roots rock group the Band were the first country act to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone, in 1968; most recently, Eric Church earned the cover spot in August of 2018.
Many of our favorite country stars have been in the public eye for multiple decades, which means that some of them have changed a lot since when they first hit the stage.
The country music community's response to Church's comments about gun ownership and the NRA was more nuanced than you might think -- a testament to the changing demographics of the country music fandom, and to the social climate in which we live.