The ensuing South African tour was a disaster, with the band finding themselves having to play to segregated audiences—something that they had been assured by promoters they would not have to do. The under-rehearsed band gave ramshackle performances to audiences that were largely unimpressed with their lack of professionalism and their antagonistic, anti-apartheid stance. The Byrds left South Africa amid a storm of bad publicity and death threats, while the liberal press in the U.S. and the UK attacked the band for undertaking the tour and questioned their political integrity. McGuinn attempted to counter this criticism by asserting that the tour of South Africa had, in some small way, been an attempt to challenge the country's political status quo and protest against apartheid.
After returning to California, the Byrds' released the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album on August 30, 1968, almost eight weeks after Parsons had left the band. It comprised a mixture of country music standards and contemporary country material, along with a country reworking of William Bell's soul hit "You Don't Miss Your Water". The album also included the Parsons originals "Hickory Wind" and "One Hundred Years from Now", along with the Bob Dylan-penned songs "Nothing Was Delivered" and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", the latter of which had been a moderately successful single. Although it was not the first country rock album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo was the first album widely labeled as country rock to be released by an internationally successful rock act, pre-dating Dylan's Nashville Skyline by over six months. The first bona fide country rock album overall is often cited as being Parsons' earlier Safe at Home, which he recorded with his group the International Submarine Band.
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