CNN
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Garth Brooks is looking forward to creating an inviting atmosphere at his new bar, and that apparently includes serving Bud Light.
The country legend spoke with Billboard this week about Friends In Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk, his new bar and entertainment space set to open soon in Nashville’s South Broadway District.
“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,” Brooks said of the establishment.
“And yes, we’re going to serve every brand of beer. We just are,” he added, seemingly in reference to the recent major backlash against Bud Light, one of the top selling beers in the US.
“It’s not our decision to make,” the country crooner continued. “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.”
Bud Light’s social media sponsorship of Instagram posts from trans activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney set off a firestorm of backlash earlier this year, with parent company Anheuser-Busch receiving threats and becoming a target in conservative media.
Unlike Brooks, fellow music artist Kid Rock landed firmly on the opposite side of the controversy, when he was seen in a social media video shooting a gun at Bud Light cans before launching expletives at both the beer and Anheuser-Busch.
The company, meanwhile, has alienated some pro-trans activists as well with its response to the controversy. At first, Anheuser-Busch shared a straightforward explanation of its relationship with Mulvaney, but the company later released a vague statement from its CEO that failed to offer support for Mulvaney or the trans community.
Bud Light sales dropped in the ensuing weeks, and the company last month lost a top LGBTQ+ equality rating from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
