Garth Brooks said he will serve ‘every brand of beer’ at his new bar, Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk, which is set to open soon in Nashville’s South Broadway District.
While country music star John Rich and Kid Rock have been vocal about boycotting Bud Light over their partnership with transgender social media influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, the superstar, 61, does not want to alienate the LGBTQIA+ community.
‘I know this sounds corny,’ the father-of-three told Billboard. ‘I want it to be the Chick-fil-A of honky-tonks… I want it to be a place you feel safe in, I want it to be a place where you feel like there are manners and people like one another.’
He continued: ‘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.’
He then stated: ‘If you’re an a**hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.’
Inclusive: Garth Brooks said he plans to serve ‘every brand of beer’ at his new bar, Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk, which is set to open soon in Nashville’s famous South Broadway District; seen in 2023
The choice came after Rich, 49, and Kid Rock, 52, both pulled Bud Light from their respective bars, following backlash from customers over the largest brewing company’s disastrous partnership with Mulvaney.
Sales of the beer dropped 23.9 percent for the week ending May 27 compared to the same time last year – though that was a slight improvement from last week when sales were down 25.7 percent.
Bud Light also lost nearly 28 percent in year-on-year volume for the week ending May 27.
The smaller decline in Bud Light sales could be a sign that the ‘bottom has been hit’ for the company and it could see a ‘turn-around in performance,’ according to Bumps Williams Consulting’s monthly industry report.
The beer company saw sales begin to plummet in early April after Mulvaney, 26, appeared on a beer can to celebrate her 365th day of girlhood – a TikTok series she became popularized by.
Mulvaney posted a video on April 1 of herself cracking open a Bud Light on her Instagram page.
She showed off the customized can with her face on it – one of many corporate freebies she gets and promotes to her millions of followers.
Bud Light was accused of driving away their traditional customer base by partnering with Mulvaney, which led many conservatives to boycott the brand.
An ally: While country music star John Rich and Kid Rock have been vocal about boycotting Bud Light over their partnership with transgender social media influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, the superstar, 61, does not want to alienate the LGBTQIA+ community
Controversial: The choice came after Rich, 49, and Kid Rock, 52, both pulled Bud Light from their respective bars, following backlash from customers over the largest brewing company’s disastrous partnership with Mulvaney
Bud Light’s CEO for North America, Brendan Whitworth, said on April 14: ‘We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.’
Whitworth also said he would continue to focus on ‘building and protecting our remarkable history and heritage.’
Bud Light’s parent company said last month it will triple its marketing spending in the US this summer as it tries to boost ailing sales.
Bud Light was accused of alienating their traditional customer base by partnering with Mulvaney, which led many conservatives to boycott the brand
Three days after Mulvaney’s post, Kid Rock posted a video of himself shooting cases of Bud Light, and country music stars John Rich and Travis Tritt publicly denounced the brand.
Within weeks, two marketing executives at Anheuser-Busch took a leave of absence. It’s unclear whether they have returned to work yet.
After Anheuser-Busch tried to distance itself from the Mulvaney promotion, Bud Light also faced backlash from the opposite direction, with pro-LGBTQ groups accusing the company of abandoning the transgender influencer.
Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris has downplayed the impact of the backlash, saying Bud Light’s US sales declines in the first three weeks of April represented only one percent of InBev’s global volumes.
‘We believe we have the experience, the resources and the partners to manage this,’ Doukeris said during a conference call with investors in May.
