Garth Brooks, 61, recently revealed that his soon-to-be opened bar, Friends in Low Places, “will serve every kind of beer,” including Bud Light, despite the backlash the brand has faced due to its recent transgender spokesperson, Dylan Mulvaney. The country singer participated in a panel discussion at Billboard Country Live this week, and said he wants the new honky-tonk space, which will open in Nashville, TN, this summer, to be a safe place for everyone.
“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 explained during the panel discussion. “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 asshole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.”
Garth’s comments about his bar come around two months after Bud Light revealed Dylan, who is a transgender, trans rights activist, and social media influencer, was its new spokesperson. The decision caused some people to boycott the beer brand, which led to a number of bars deciding to stop serving it at their locations. During an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, Dylan explained how she felt about the trans bullying she faced everyday.
“There’s so much hatred directed at the trans community right now,” Dylan, who can be seen in an ad video for Bud Light below. told host Drew Barrymore. “It’s everywhere. And I think the greatest weapon I can contribute is trans joy and comedy and talking about hard subjects and really intricate moments of a transition, and try to let everybody in to see that I’m not a monster. I’m not somebody that is trying to do anything but trying to be myself and be happy.”
Garth’s decision to serve Bud Light at his bar despite the controversy over Dylan is not too surprising considering he’s a known ally for the LGBTQ+ community. In 1992, he released “We Shall Be Free,” which is a song condemning homophobia and racism.
“‘We Shall Be Free’ is definitely and easily the most controversial song I have ever done. A song of love, a song of tolerance from someone who claims not to be a prophet but just an ordinary man,” Garth reportedly wrote in The Chase CD booklet. “I never thought there would be any problems with this song. Sometimes the roads we take do not turn out to be the roads we envisioned them to be. All I can say about ‘We Shall Be Free” is that I will stand by every line of this song as long as I live. I am very proud of it.”