High School Bans 'Rocky Top' Song At Football Games Due To 'Moonshine' Reference

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Students at an Indiana high school are not pleased that one of their traditions has come to an end.

Plymouth High School had played the Osborne Brothers song “Rocky Top” at school football games for years. But the district's superintendent, Dan Tyree, says the song's lyrics are inappropriate, reports local outlet WNDU-TV.

Tyree specifically objects to a line in the song that talks about finding moonshine, a type of whiskey that has historically been produced illegally.

The school plays the song at games every time its football team, the Plymouth Rockies, scores a touchdown. However, after learning more about the song’s lyrics, Tyree decided to end the tradition, reports Fox local affiliate WSJV-TV.

"Somebody brought it up to me a couple of weeks ago and said, 'You guys celebrate to 'Rocky Top' after every touchdown, and the song talks about going into the hills and living the good life and drinking moonshine,'" Tyree told WSJV, adding later, "I think schools need to take a stand against the use of alcohol, and playing a song like that and celebrating to it after every touchdown -- and our school scores a lot of touchdowns. It just doesn't make sense.”

Despite the ban, students at a football game last Friday decided to sing the tune a cappella after every touchdown, according to WNDU.

“It just says ‘once two strangers climbed old Rocky Top looking for a moonshine still,’ so, you know, I don't know what they were doing, maybe they were trying to find a moonshine still and destroy it, they never specify in the song so maybe they’re trying to do good out there,” student Dan Mercer told the outlet.

A number of conservative blogs have also slammed Tyree for the ban.

”The kids have a petition to try to get the song -- and the tradition –- reinstated,” wrote Chicks on the Right blogger Daisy. “I hope they win, because they're obviously the only humans with any sense at that school. Hell, most of the kids at the school didn't even know that there even was a reference to moonshine until the song was banned. Go figure.”