Brooks & Dunn’s Ronnie Dunn is speaking out on social media in response to the fan backlash surrounding Blake Shelton’s new single “Minimum Wage” to defend the country superstar and call out those further dividing our country.
Shelton first debuted the aforementioned new song with an accompanied music video during NBC’s New Year’s Eve special on December 31 and it received quite the fan backlash. With fans commenting that he is “tone deaf” and he shouldn’t be singing about minimum wage without having experienced it first hand.
One fan tweeting, “Blake Shelton singing “your love could make a man feel rich on minimum wage” just cements the fact that rich people have absolutely no f**king clue” and another fan saying “does anyone else find Blake Shelton’s “Minimum Wage” song to be incredibly tone deaf to our country’s current state?”
The backlash prompted Dunn to share his “two cents” on the situation on Monday (Jan. 4) via social media.
“The ‘beef’ is yet another of those misguided social issue (cultural scams) that are concocted to further divide this country. I’m putting my money on the common sense of the common man to call bullshit on the forces at work to keep this country divided,” Dunn said. “Now, they want to attack country singers for being successful.”
Dunn explained that he “slept on a mattress on the floor in a musician friend’s spare bedroom and played BEER JOINTS / DIVE BARS for year before” he ever made even a “$100.” He continued to explain that “most country singers pay dues and go through things to become successful that no sane human being would.”
Continuing to say that he “grew up poor,” with a father who was an avid country music fan, truck driver and oilfield worker and a mother who work a “minimum wage” job as a small town bank teller to help support her family.
The singer requests that fans read the full lyrics to Shelton’s song before making comments, then saying “hell, I wish I’d written it.”
He then signed the post as “American Made, Country Music singin’, song writin’ millionaire sumb*tch!”
Read his full “two cents” below.
My two cents… #RonnieDunn #BlakeShelton #MinimumWage #HardWorkinMan #CostOfLivin #WorkingManBlues @blakeshelton pic.twitter.com/nOFVlYP9pI
— RONNIE DUNN (@RonnieDunn) January 4, 2021
Neither Shelton nor his representatives have made any comments on the song and it hasn’t yet been officially released, other than during the NBC special on New Year’s Eve.
“Minimum Wage” follows his latest singles “Happy Anywhere” and “Nobody But You.”
