A recent fake news article about Garth Brooks got a lot of attention online after Texas Governor Greg Abbott shared it, thinking it was real.
Sunday afternoon (June 25), Abbott shared a link to an article stating that country star Garth Brooks had been booed off the stage during a performance at the 123rd Annual Texas County Jamboree in Hambriston, Texas. The governor tweeted, “Go woke. Go broke.” and “Good job Texas” with the link. But, the story, the jamoboree and the Texas town are completely fictional.
Upon realizing the post was satirical, Abbott removed the tweet, but not before followers grabbed a screenshot.
Garth Brooks has been under fire recently after saying that his new Nashville bar was going to serve “every brand of beer” amid the Bud Light controversy.
RELATED: THE BUD LIGHT BOYCOTT EXPLAINED
In a Q & A session hosted by Billboard as part of CMA Fest, Garth Brooks was asked about the status of his Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk currently under construction in Nashville’s South Broadway District.
“I know this sounds corny. I want it to be the Chick-fil-A of honky-tonks,” Brooks said. “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.”
Without being asked, he answered the unspoken question about whether his establishment will serve Bud Light amid the ongoing controversy.
“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 a–hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.”
The statement drew equal amounts of praise and criticism. Some, including Brooks’ fellow country singer John Rich, defended Garth’s decision, saying that he is just staying true to his character.
“Garth Brooks has always been the guy that that said, ‘everybody come to my show,’” Rich told Fox News. “It’s something that we love about Garth. You know, he makes his music for everybody. And that really is what music is about. You’re making your music for everybody. Beer’s for everybody, too.”
“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 said. “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.”
Others were quick to call for a boycott of Garth Brooks’ music and his new establishment, saying that the singer is “woke.” The claims fueled the false news article, making it almost believable as impassioned Americans continue to boycott Bud Light. Bud Light came under fire in early April after their partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney was made public.
Read more about the events leading up to the Bud Light boycott here.