Twitter can be weird, right? Or at least it seemed like it was when it first launched in 2006 with a tweet from Jack Dorsey, one of the company’s developers. At the time, people didn’t know quite what to make of it. But two years later, in May 2008, Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean and Dierks Bentley were some of the first country stars to sign up, sign on and start tweeting.
But it wasn’t until later that year when country artists realized they could use the microblogging brand to promote their music, their shows, their merch, their side hustles and more (We’re looking at you, Lady Antebellum and Luke Bryan.).
And it took even longer for the stars to find their Twitter voices. Some seemed uncertain with what to tweet. For instance, Jake Owen’s first tweet was a picture of his tour bus rug. The caption? “Rug.” There were tweets about food, too. So much food. Everything from chocolate cake to meatloaf.
Then Kenny Chesney logged on. And he was one of the first artists to inject some humor in his tweets. Kelsea Ballerini did, too, but she was only in high school when she tweeted for the first time. And when Carrie Underwood finally joined in 2012 with a simple “Hello Twitter world,” her fans responded with 987 retweets.
Garth Brooks was one of the last country stars to tweet for the first time in 2014. By then, hashtags were a thing, so his tweet was #GarthSelfie and his sign off was, “love, g.”
Since it’s been ten years since country first embraced Twitter, we put together a timeline of all those first tweets. And it goes like this:
Welcome to the official Faith Hill Twitter page! We're glad you are here!
— Faith Hill (@FaithHill) May 15, 2008
Welcome to Keith Urban's official Twitter page!
— Keith Urban (@KeithUrban) May 15, 2008
Welcome to the official Jason Aldean Twitter page!
— Jason Aldean (@Jason_Aldean) May 15, 2008
Welcome to the official Twitter page for Dierks Bentley!
— Dierks Bentley (@DierksBentley) May 15, 2008
Our new single is "Lookin' For A Good Time." Make sure you call up your local radio station and request it!
— Lady A (@ladya) July 29, 2008
luke is participating in the paper doll project – auction starts on nov 28th at http://pages.ebay.com/paperdoll.
— Luke Bryan (@LukeBryanOnline) November 14, 2008
Welcome to the official Brad Paisley twitter page. Watch for official tweets coming soon.
— Brad Paisley (@BradPaisley) May 20, 2009
Rug http://twitpic.com/2gdzi
— Jake Owen (@jakeowen) March 26, 2009
Not sure what's better though her strawberry pie or chocolate cake?
— Little Big Town (@littlebigtown) April 18, 2009
Hello Twitter world!
— Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) February 24, 2012
tweeting for the first time
— Miranda Lambert (@mirandalambert) May 1, 2009
If i write another song today there is a good chance my fingers will physically detach themselves from my hand.
— Kelsea Ballerini (@KelseaBallerini) June 5, 2009
Craig Morgan said he's taking me waterboarding tomorrow… Sounds like fun!
— Blake Shelton (@blakeshelton) June 9, 2009
http://twitpic.com/c5vqp – Testing… 1-2-3. Is this thing on?
— Kenny Chesney (@kennychesney) July 30, 2009
Get me some meatloaf!
— Thomas Rhett (@ThomasRhett) September 19, 2009
I posted 36 photos on Facebook in the album "Summer 2010" http://fb.me/EaLqGJhy
— Florida Georgia Line (@FLAGALine) July 29, 2010
#GarthSelfie -love, g pic.twitter.com/tEQ0N02EKt
— Garth Brooks (@garthbrooks) November 11, 2014