The nearly year-long relationship between the powerful radio host, Bobby Bones, and emerging country artist, Lindsay Ell, has come to an end, according to Bones.
In a candid segment on his show, Bones went into great detail about how the success of his show — as well as jealously of that success within the industry — became a regular point of contention between he and Ell.
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“I guess I’ll go ahead and say it — Lindsay and I broke up,” Bones said. “I only told [show co-host] Amy a couple days ago. So yeah, it sucks. And here’s why: I’ve been dating Lindsay for over a year. We’ve known each other a few years. We started dating and I was like, ‘We probably should think about this before we date because it could hurt your career. Other radio stations, Spotify, they’re going to hold it against you that you’re dating me. I don’t even know these people but they’re going to hold it against you.’ And they did.
“Her whole life she’s tried to make it as an artist. She finally puts out a record and the record goes No. 1 and then radio stations all over the country won’t play it because she’s dating me. It was weird stress that amplified everything else.”
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The record that Ell put out, The Project, was released in August 2017 and moved to the top spot on the Neilsen Soundscan US Current Country Albums chart, as well as the US Indie Record chart. It was No. 4 overall on the Billboard Country chart and No. 40 overall in the Billboard 100.
Her single, “Waiting on You” peaked at No. 42 on the US Country Airplay ranking and moved to No. 4 in her native Canada — where she was also nominated for the Female Artist of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association.
Earlier this year, a radio station in California canceled Ell’s scheduled appearance, and said that her relationship status with Bones — who hosted his show one of their competitors — was the reason for the cancellation.
Bones spoke about that situation at length on his show, but Ell told the Washington Post that she felt like she was being unfairly singled out because she is a woman.
“It felt like, all of a sudden, you can’t be a powerful female with goals and dreams and date another powerful person,” Ell told the paper. “It’s frustrating to me because I feel like it shouldn’t matter what a guy or a girl [does] in their free time — that shouldn’t affect their business.”
Bones said that the incident in California was one of many that pushed the relationship to the breaking point.
“There were many, many instances of this happening over and over again,” he said. “It started to put a stress in our relationship to me where I felt it was my fault because she wasn’t able to get anything going.”
The pair broke up last week, before the record dropped, but Bones did not share the news publicly until Monday.
Ell said that the release was what she was dreaming of since she got into music.
“The Project is the record I’ve wanted to release since I was a little girl, but as an artist, sometimes it takes time to figure out what you want to say and how you want to say it,” she said. “I’m so grateful to my entire team for standing by my side throughout the whole process.”
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