Day 6

How the raunchy gay cowboy song Ram Ranch became an anti-convoy protest anthem

Grant MacDonald is “honoured” that his erotic heavy-metal song was chosen as an anthem for against protesters calling for an end to pandemic restrictions and mandates.

Writer Grant MacDonald says the explicit tune has always been a protest song

The so-called Ram Ranch Resistance has used an explicit song written by Grant MacDonald to disrupt communications between protesters in Ottawa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Grant MacDonald is "honoured" that his erotic heavy-metal song was chosen as an anthem against protesters calling for an end to pandemic restrictions and mandates.

In recent weeks, counter protesters have used Ram Ranch — a song whose explicit lyrics tell the story of "18 naked cowboys" — to troll anti-mandate demonstrators in Windsor, Ont., and Ottawa.

When MacDonald, a Toronto-based songwriter who penned the tune a decade ago, first heard his song was tied to the protests, he worried the convoy protesters had taken it on themselves.

"I thought, 'OK, I've had my booster shot. I stand up for the doctors and nurses and frontline workers,'" he told CBC Radio's Day 6.

But it was a friend who works in health care that told him his song was defending her colleagues. "I was just absolutely elated," said MacDonald.

Grant MacDonald says he wrote Ram Ranch as a creative outlet. (Submitted by Grant MacDonald)

Initially, Teagan McLean infiltrated the Zello chats of protesters blocking the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., eventually working his way up to the owner of the group, according to a report by Buzzfeed News. Zello is a walkie-talkie and text messaging app.

He eventually became a moderator of the Zello group and McLean blasted the song — and its suggestive words — over the channel. Counter protesters soon joined, rendering one of the protest's main information channels useless. 

"People were shocked and confused. A lot of people were pissed, the true supporters," McLean told Buzzfeed.

The blockade in Windsor came to an end last weekend. People have since used the song to target protesters in Ottawa, and the #RamRanchResistance was born.

"To have my song played in Ottawa against these radicals…. I'm just thrilled and honoured," said MacDonald.

Hundreds of versions of Ram Ranch

Ram Ranch was always a protest song, MacDonald says. It was written as a rebuke of Nashville's music industry, which he described as homophobic for rejecting same-sex themed country songs he had written.

Teenage boys, he added, have blasted the song's erotic message over PA systems in schools and department stores. 

"Ram Ranch gave me an outlet to stand up for my creativity, for my gay brothers, for our freedom and dignity and love," he told Day 6

Ram Ranch was first used to troll protesters blocking the Ambassador Bridge — a key trade route between Canada and the U.S. — earlier this month. (Darrin Di Carlo/CBC)

MacDonald's electric guitar-driven number isn't the only song that's been used to drive away protesters. 

In New Zealand, where copycat protests took hold in front of the country's parliament earlier this week, authorities blasted Barry Manilow tunes in hopes demonstrators would disperse.

Protesters countered with their own selections, including Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It, the BBC reported.

"Barry Manilow … just puts them all to sleep," said MacDonald, laughing. 

Since Ram Ranch became a song of resistance in Ottawa, MacDonald has recorded a new rendition — one of over 540 riffs on the original — specifically about protesters in the nation's capital.

It is just as explicit as the original.


Written by Jason Vermes. Interview produced by Laurie Allan.

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