Looks like the American Honky Tonk Bar Association will soon have a new meeting place.
During a virtual “press conference” yesterday that was mostly focused on Garth’s announcement that he wouldn’t accept CMA Entertainer of the Year nominations any more, g let it slip that a Garth Brooks “dive bar” is coming to Nashville.
When asked if he would be joining the likes of Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley and Blake Shelton in opening his own bar on lower Broadway, Garth said:
“Things you probably shouldn’t say, I’m going to say if you’re betting… kinda bet toward it happening because it’s just something that’s coming. It’s coming in the future but it’s going to be done the way we do it. So it’ll be its own place, very much like Blake’s is his own place and everything. So we’re going to do it our own way. And so it’s coming, I would say probably in the next two years, three years. Because, come on man, when you talk about Broadway that is ‘friends in low places’ right there. It’s the perfect place.”
Oh boy.
Now, first of all, the idea of Garth opening a “dive bar” on Broadway is ridiculous.
There are only a handful of bars on Broadway that could even possibly be called “dive bars,” and none of them are owned by these big artists. If you’ve been to Luke’s 32 Bridge or Jason Aldean’s, you know that they’re the furthest thing from dive bars. Blake’s Ole Red, which g pointed to as an example, is a massive four-story bar with a gift shop right by the entrance and a rooftop bar overlooking the city. Hardly the “dive bar” that Blake sang about with Garth (in that song you’ve probably never heard because it’s only available on Amazon Music).
But the bigger question is, what could Garth possibly bring to Broadway that’s different from what we already have? Pretty much every artist that’s come in and opened a bar promised something different, and for the most part, they’re basically all the same. Now, if Garth wants to open up an ACTUAL dive bar on Broadway, the kind with dim lights and sticky bar tops and a bartender who’s recently recovered from a meth addiction and doesn’t have time for your bullshit, THAT would get my attention.
But I have a feeling that’s not what he’s talking about when he says he’s doing it his own way…
The food options are one thing that could actually be different at Garth’s “dive bar” though, if he lets Ms. Yearwood run the kitchen.
I’ve drooled over Trisha’s cooking on the Food Network for years, so if I had the chance to try it after a night of drinking on Broadway, that’s one surefire way to at least get me in the door. I’m sure it would be a hell of a lot better than the frozen chicken tenders and overpriced tasteless burgers that the other bars are selling. Here’s your chance to actually stand out Garth, don’t mess this part up.
Either way, it looks like we’ll have to wait a few years to see what g has in mind – and what kind of “cool stuff, slick stuff, neat stuff” he’ll have on his menu.
