Garth Brooks stood up for decency and welcomed all people into his new bar.
That should not be a news story. Roughly 60 years after the end of segregation, opening a bar that does not discriminate based on someone's sexual partner choices or gender identification should not be a novel thing.
That's not reality, however, as we live in a world where Kid Rock decided to shoot up cases of Bud Light because it chose to have a small partnership with a transgender social media influencer. The Anheuser-Busch InBev BUD brand didn't put Dylan Mulvaney in a Super Bowl ad or declare itself "the light beer of the transgender community."
Related: Bud Light has a new plan as boycotts continue after huge scandal
It merely tried to make its audience a little bigger by using Mulvaney to introduce the brand to her social media followers. The company put a toe into welcoming the LGBTQ+ community into its tent, and well, Kid Rock blew that toe off with an automatic weapon because he was offended that a thing he liked might also be liked by people he viewed as different than him.
Rock's actions, as you well know, led to a massive boycott of Bud Light that was embraced by some big names in country music. People including Travis Tritt and John Rich, of the famed Big & Rich duo, were eager to show that they too did not want to drink a beer that was also marketed to the LGBTQ+ community by a transgender woman.
It all seems pretty silly, but it led to Bud Light losing about 26% of its sales and people losing their jobs who had absolutely nothing to do with the decision to work with Mulvaney.
Most country music stars either sided with Rock, or simply stayed quiet. Garth Brooks, however, took a very different stand. Many thought that would lead to a massive backlash from the country music community, but that hasn't happened and Brooks has emerged from the scandal bigger than ever.
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Garth Brooks welcomes everyone
Brooks made it clear that his new Nashville bar, Friends in Low Places Bar and Honkey Tonk would welcome nearly everyone.
“I think diversity is the answer to the problems that are here and the answer to the problems that are coming. So I love diversity. All-inclusive, so all are welcome. I understand that might not be other people’s opinions, but that’s OK, man,” he said at a Billboard event earlier this year.
Brooks also made it clear that his bar would be serving Bud Light.
"And yes, we're going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It's not our decision to make. Our thing is this, if you [are let] into this house, love one another. If you're an a**hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway," he said.
It was a bold stand for an artist whose core genre draws more right-wing than left-wing fans. But, Brooks has always crossed party lines performing at inaugurations for both Republican and Democrat presidents.
Instead of being canceled for his stance on Bud Light, Brooks has a huge new gig.
Brooks shared on Nov. 2 that he will be the featured artist for Amazon’s live music performance alongside the NFL’s Black Friday football broadcast that night, Penn Live reported.
To make it even more of a slap in the face to the anti-woke crowd, Brooks will perform that night from his Nashville bar which will be celebrating its grand opening. The singer will be playing some of his classic hits as well as songs from his new album, "Time Traveller," which will only be available (at least at first) as part of a 7-album box set which will be sold exclusively at Bass Pro Shops.
