50 Best Country Songs About Villains

Best Country Songs on Villains

There’s a certain pull in songs that lean into the darker figures. Not the noble outlaws with romantic backstories, but the messy characters that walk into a verse and tilt the whole room sideways. Villains in country music feel less like characters on a page and more like the person you recognize a little too well at the edge of the bar. They can be cartoonish, they can be tragic, sometimes they’re both at once. A few of these tracks aren’t literally pinned to a villain in the traditional sense, but the energy sticks.

Country doesn’t treat villains like the world of pop, rock, country, and R&B songs where a flashy bad guy struts in for drama. Here, it’s dirt roads, whiskey breath, and sharp edges you can’t clean up with clever hooks. The music lingers on flawed people and the wreckage they leave behind, sometimes with a laugh, sometimes with a warning. There’s grit in the storytelling, a reminder that even the worst figures don’t come out of nowhere. They carry history, regret, and the occasional swagger that keeps them unforgettable.

The soundtracks of these characters stretch from campfire ballads to arena-shaking anthems, each one digging into that magnetic space villains hold in country storytelling. Some make you grin at the audacity, others sting harder than you expect. Either way, these songs pull the thread on the kind of figures you can’t look away from, and here are the best country villain songs.

1. 'Gunpowder & Lead' by Miranda Lambert

2. 'Goodbye Earl' by The Chicks

3. 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' by The Charlie Daniels Band

4. 'Folsom Prison Blues' by Johnny Cash

5. 'Pancho and Lefty' by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard

6. 'I'm the Only Hell (My Mama Ever Raised)' by Johnny Paycheck

7. 'The Ballad of Henry Starr' by Shotgun John Collins

8. 'Down the River' by Chris Knight

9. 'Copperhead Road' by Steve Earle

10. 'Highwayman' by The Highwaymen

11. 'Mama's Broken Heart' by Miranda Lambert

12. 'Whiskey River' by Willie Nelson

13. 'Good Die Young' by Struggle Jennings

14. 'Wanted' by Hunter Hayes

15. 'Long Black Veil' by Lefty Frizzell

16. 'Psycho' by Eddie Noack

17. 'The Ride' by David Allan Coe

18. 'Delia's Gone' by Johnny Cash

19. 'Mental Revenge' by Waylon Jennings

20. 'Sin City' by The Flying Burrito Brothers

21. 'Big Iron' by Marty Robbins

22. 'Villain' by Lily Rose

23. 'The Legend of Wooley Swamp' by The Charlie Daniels Band

24. 'Cocaine Blues' by Johnny Cash

25. 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' by Johnny Cash

26. 'The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie' by Colter Wall

27. 'The Hard Way' by Mike and the Moonpies

28. 'A Boy Named Sue' by Johnny Cash

29. 'I Can't Go Home Like This' by Ray Price

30. 'Kate McCannon' by Colter Wall

31. 'Wicked Game' by Chris Isaak

32. 'Creepin'' by Eric Church

33. 'Where the Bluegrass Grows' by The Dead South

34. 'The Last Man on Earth' by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

35. 'The Lonesome Road' by The Lonesome Heroes

36. 'The Devil's Right Hand' by Steve Earle

37. 'Bikeriders' by Lucero

38. 'Ain't No Grave' by Johnny Cash

39. 'Before the Devil Knows Your Dead' by Turnpike Troubadours

40. 'Bad Company' by Struggle Jennings

41. 'Black Sheep' by John Moreland

42. 'Living for the Night' by George Strait

43. 'The Ballad of Black Jack Kettle' by Tylor and the Train Robbers

44. 'Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand' by Waylon Jennings

45. 'The Bad Guy' by Jamey Johnson

46. 'Bad Guy' by Kyle Schuesler

47. 'Poor Poor Pitiful Me' by Linda Ronstadt

48. 'The House That Built Me' by Miranda Lambert

49. 'Two Headed Dog' by Roky Erickson

50. 'Mental Revenge' by Waylon Jennings