Calling out anybody in particular there Garth?
Last year, Garth Brooks announced that he would be adding his name to the list of artists with their own bar in downtown Nashville.
Located at 411 Broadway, the bar will be called Friends in Low Places (real creative, G) and will occupy the former home of the 3-story, 40,000-square foot Paradise Park.
The bar is still under construction and an opening date hasn’t been announced yet, but Garth has spoken in the past about how he wants his bar to be the “Chick-fil-A” of honky tonks:
“I want the Chick-fil-A of honky tonks. I want a place you go in where you feel good, you feel safe. Everybody’s got good manners.
I’m hoping that there’s right when you walk in it’s a ‘Love Everybody’ stated right there. That’s what it’s about, right? So I want a place that’s just safe. That feels good.”
Tell me that’s not the most Garth thing you’ve ever heard.
Well Garth once again talked about his new bar today during a Q&A as part of Billboard’s Country Live in Conversation – and he appeared to take a shot at some of his fellow bar owners on Broadway.
Of course by now everybody’s familiar with the controversy and backlash surrounding Bud Light’s decision to partner with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney a few months ago. The company has since faced boycotts that have caused billions of dollars in losses, and even threaten the beer’s place at the top of the year-end list of best selling beers.
A couple of Garth’s colleagues with their own Nashville bar have jumped into the controversy, with John Rich announcing that he would be pulling Bud Light from his Broadway bar, Redneck Riviera, and Kid Rock famously taking aim at cases of Bud Light with a rifle in a now-viral video posted to social media.
But Garth revealed today he has no intention of following their lead:
“Yes, we’re going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It’s not our decision to make.
If you come into this house, love one another. If you’re an a**hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.”
Classic Garth.
He continued by reiterating that he hopes his bar helps make Broadway “a country music mall” as opposed to a zoo (although if you’ve been to Broadway lately, you know that it might be too late for that).
“In my existence, one a**hole can turn the whole tide down there. My thing is, let’s create a place that you feel safe in.”
I dunno, it sounds to me like he’s got somebody in mind when he talks about the “a**sholes” on Broadway…
Garth Brooks’ Bar’s Logo Looks Like…A Tiki Bar?
When Garth announced that he would become the latest artist to open their own bar in downtown Nashville, I was cautiously optimistic.
I mean sure, other than Alan Jackson and John Rich, most of the artist owned bars are pretty much the same: Massive multi-story nightclub-type venues that play more classic rock and top 40 pop music than country and are about the furthest thing from a honky tonk that you can imagine.
But as Garth started explaining his idea for his new concept, I was hopeful that we might actually get a real country bar in Nashville – something that’s become pretty unique around here these days.
“I’d love it to be a classic honky tonk. Cause country music to me has been so good to me.
And I want to hear, on lower Broadway in 2022, I want to hear King George coming out of that honky tonk. I want to hear Haggard coming out of that honky tonk.
And I don’t think that’s impossible to ask. But I also think you can play Luke Bryan in there, I think you can play Chesney in there, I think you can play Yearwood, McEntire, Dolly with the new group too, the Ashleys.
What’s coming out of those speakers… undeniably country music. So that’s what I’m hoping, I’m hoping this place is a thumpin’ place that always looks like something is going crazy in there. I like that.
But when you walk in, I hope it’s country music that you hear.”
As Garth would say: I like that.
But after Garth took to social media to unveil the logo for Friends in Low Places, I was just…confused.
So are we getting a honky tonk or a tiki bar?
Not gonna lie, nothing about that logo screams “classic honky tonk.” That looks like a logo for Kenny Chesney’s (inevitable) bar, not somewhere you’d go to hear King George and Merle Haggard.
Then again, Garth is kind of a wild card (that’s the nicest way I could think of to say that he’s a weird-a** dude) so the logo could have nothing to do with the actual concept of the bar. Maybe he was just listening to “Two Pina Coladas” when he came up with it. Who knows.
I guess we’ll find out soon what we’re really going to get from Friends in Low Places. Is it a honky tonk? Is it a tiki bar? Is it something completely different?
Looks like we really are, slipping down to the oasis….
I guess with Garth you never really know what you’re going to get.
