Ninety minutes or so into a recent conversation, Aaron Lewis had worked himself into enough of a lather on the topic of Anthony Fauci that he had to stop for a second, as though suddenly he could envision his words in print.
"Listen, there's got to be some separation between the interview and us just talking," the country singer said over the phone from his home in Massachusetts. Once known to rock fans as the frontman of the nu-metal band Staind, Lewis, 49, scored a No. 1 country hit last year with "Am I the Only One," an anguished ballad sung by a guy who can't believe nobody else sees the damage that woke-ism is doing to America. And last month, his latest album, "Frayed at Both Ends," entered Billboard's country chart as the genre's top-selling new release.
Still, Lewis worries that his music is often overshadowed by his conservative political views, which went viral on social media this week after he questioned American support for Ukraine — and said "maybe we should listen to what Vladimir Putin is saying" — in onstage comments recorded by a concertgoer in Ohio.
