How country singer Meghan Patrick turned harassment into an empowering moment

Last weekend, Meghan Patrick got about 30 minutes of sleep between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

The Nashville-based country singer had gone back to her home province of Ontario, Canada, to headline a festival in the small town of Hagersville. She was between songs when a voice in the audience yelled, "Show me your (breasts)!"

Patrick didn’t shrug the comment off. She asked for the stage lights to be turned on the crowd, and the harasser was soon pointed out to her.

"I did not (expletive) work my whole entire life, and be broke and sad to have some dip-(expletive) drunk in the audience tell me to show him (my) t---," Patrick told him. "This isn’t a (expletive) strip club. Get the (expletive) out."

The late-night crowd cheered wildly for Patrick, and security soon came to escort the man out. But in the immediate aftermath, it didn’t feel quite like a victory.

“As confident and as strong as I was on stage, when I got off stage, it really bummed me out,” Patrick tells The Tennessean. “It made me really upset that I was reduced to that while I was trying to do my job and play these songs that I was so proud of. But then I got all of these responses from so many women, and men too, saying, 'I haven't stood up for myself in a situation like that in the past, but watching you do it made me think that I could, and I should do it next time.’ ”

It turned out that a fan had taken video of Patrick’s confrontation and posted it on Twitter. Over the last week, the story has been picked up by country radio stations and websites across the U.S. and Canada. Patrick has gotten hundreds of messages of support from fans, as well as from plenty of people who hadn’t heard of her before — and one woman who said she was the harasser’s ex-girlfriend. 

At this point, Patrick says the response “kind of does make up for” Saturday’s incident.

“When all of this happened, I had no idea it would turn into this. But I'm glad that it did, because it put me in a position where I have a platform to be heard.”

Meghan Patrick's 'Wild As Me' feels 'honest and real'

To be clear, Patrick’s music has been heard for years. She’s the two-time reigning Female Artist of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards, and she’s nominated again at this year’s ceremony. 

Her songs take a stand, too. Her latest single, “Wild As Me,” marks the first time she’s released a love song as a single. This one — about two people whose “rough edges fit together" — just felt “honest and real” to Patrick.

“It felt like I finally found a way to express what a love song is to me in my way. It sounded like me.”

This week she's making headlines at a time when female voices rarely make it to the top of the country charts. She’s written another song (with Nashville songwriter Nicolette Hayford) called “Things I Shouldn’t Say,” inspired in part by a double standard she perceives in the genre.

“We started talking about women and sexuality and music, and especially in country music. … There are plenty of male country artists that sing about that. Eric Church had ‘Like a Wrecking Ball’ and Thomas Rhett had 'T-Shirt’ and Luke Bryan's ‘Strip It Down.’ But somewhere along the line it was not OK for women to talk about it in country music.”

“Things I Shouldn’t Say,” in fact, was the song Patrick and her band played as her harasser was being escorted out. She says she’s gotten only a few negative reactions from the incident due to the strong language she used.

"I don't apologize for (cursing) at all, because you know what? Had I been very quiet and polite about it, I can promise you that the message would not have gotten across in the same way. I used forceful and strong language because the situation required it."

Others have said the harassment was “part of her job,” or chalked the man's behavior up to being drunk. Patrick doesn’t believe a male country artist would face as much pushback.

“Tim McGraw kicked people out of the audience for being aggressive towards women, and across the board, he was a hero. I do think it has to do with the fact that I'm a woman, but it doesn't stop me from continuing to handle things that way.

“It all comes back to accountability,” she adds. “Because probably nobody's ever held him accountable for doing these kinds of things, and he's gonna keep doing them. That was my point. No, I will not ignore it and shrug it off. I'm going to hold this person accountable, or it's not gonna change." 

Fighting back:Country singer Meghan Patrick calls out audience member who yelled 'Show me your ****'