John Rich believes a few common denominators bring people together.
Just before his electric CMA Fest performance, the Big & Rich singer exclusively told Fox News Digital that his Redneck Riviera whiskey brand and bar in Nashville stands for something – and he has faith that a growing population does, too.
The “Save a Horse” singer pulled Bud Light from his Nashville bar in April amid controversy with a Budweiser marketing campaign featuring transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney. He said the brew used to be his biggest seller, but with the new ads, Rich couldn’t get customers to buy Bud Light.
“I think people finally had enough of woke culture being right in their face like a bullhorn every time they turn around,” he said. “You know, at the end of a hard-working day, you want to have a cold beer. That’s like your reward for working hard all day. The last thing any man or woman wants is to have culture slammed right up in their face. They just don’t want that.”
“Well, five or six days go by, and my general manager calls me, says, ‘Well, we’ve sold a total of zero Bud Lights,'” Rich recalled. “I said, ‘Well, how much Bud Light are we sitting on down there?’ He said, ‘118 cases and 8 kegs. What do you want me to do with it?’”
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Rich’s manager said the customers wouldn’t “touch” the Bud Light following the failed ad campaign.
He added, “I think most people don’t like what they see going on in the country. That’s backed up by polls that 82% of Americans think we’re in the wrong direction right now. 82% of Americans don’t agree on what kind of ice cream they like, but they agree on they don’t like what’s going on in the country right now.”
The country star wasn’t surprised by Bud Light’s decline in sales, but wondered why the company would market a product that would “make people pick sides.”
“I think one of the coolest things about a good, cold beer is that you can be standing in a bar, and you’re drinking a Bud Light and the guy down the bar from you – who looks nothing like you and you’re pretty sure you would disagree on everything – is also drinking a Bud Light,” he said. “There’s a commonality that happens at the bar.”
“We celebrate what makes our country the greatest country that’s ever existed in the history of the Earth. We’re the only country that ever told its citizens that they had a God given right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Rich listened to his customers, who had no interest in purchasing Bud Light post marketing drama. (Jason Kempin)
Big & Rich are known for their songs “Save a Horse” and “Run Away with You.” (David Becker)
Rich said there was a “fancy word” to define those rights.
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“If Garth is serving Bud Light in his bar, that’s fine. Garth can do that. Garth might find out not many people are going to order it,” he explained. “And at the end of the day, you have to put things in your establishment that people are going to purchase if you’re going to run a successful business. So, he might find that out.”
Brooks is likely focused on wanting to bring a divided country back together, according to Rich.
Garth Brooks recently admitted he would carry every kind of beer at his new Nashville bar. (Suzanne Cordeiro)
“I think he probably sees the pain and division that’s going on in the country and wants to try to help that,” the musician told Fox News Digital. “If I know Garth at all, and I know him a little, that’s probably the impetus behind a statement like that. So, good for him. I wish him the best.”
“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. And yes, we’re going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It’s not our decision to make,” Brooks told Billboard. “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.”
Rich said Garth Brooks is free to sell whichever beer he prefers at his own bar. (Jeffrey Mayer)
Rich wasn’t just in town to talk about whiskey or beer, though. He shared fond memories of CMA Fest from years ago.
“We called it Fanfare since the very beginning because it was all about the fans, and it still is,” he said. “So much country music fans, I think, were the only genre in the world that has a specific event just for the fans of the music – of country music.”
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Fox News Digital’s Lauryn Overhultz contributed to this report.