Nashville's Lower Broadway is packed with celebrity-owned bars, but a few have made headlines for all the wrong reasons. From tragic deaths to police raids, these honky-tonks have seen serious drama. Here are the celebrity bars that have actually stirred up controversy.
1. John Rich's Redneck Riviera
John Rich doesn't shy away from taking political stands, which has created some controversy around his bar. The country star has been vocal about various social and political issues over the years.
The real drama came in April 2023 when Rich pulled Bud Light from his shelves during the Dylan Mulvaney controversy. He told Tucker Carlson that customers just stopped ordering it, so he stopped selling it. This put him directly at odds with Garth Brooks, who said his bar would serve every beer.
Rich framed it as a business decision rather than a moral stance: “That's capitalism…if nobody's buying it, we won't sell it.” But it was clearly seen as taking sides in the culture war. The move got significant media coverage and positioned Redneck Riviera as the anti-woke alternative to other Broadway bars.
2. Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk (Garth Brooks)
Garth Brooks caused a stir before his bar even opened. At CMA Fest 2023, he announced Friends in Low Places would serve “every brand of beer,” including Bud Light.
This was during the height of the Bud Light boycott. Conservative fans went nuts online, calling it “Garth's Woke Honky-Tonk” and threatening boycotts. Brooks didn't back down. He said anyone who's “an asshole” could go to other bars on Broadway.
The backlash was fierce on social media. Some accused Brooks of going “woke” for refusing to ban Bud Light. Internet memes dubbed the bar “Garth's Woke Honky-Tonk.” Brooks doubled down, saying “let's try love” should be the bar's motto.
When the bar opened in March 2024, there were no actual protests. Turns out most people just wanted to have fun. The controversy largely stayed online rather than causing problems at the physical location.
3. Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville
This tropical-themed spot usually keeps things chill, but May 2025 brought unexpected drama during Nashville's ICE raids.
When immigration enforcement hit Broadway, Margaritaville's kitchen staff panicked and left mid-shift. The bar had to scale back service that night as employees fled out of fear of being detained.
The situation got messier when a bartender claimed she got fired for posting about the raids on TikTok. In a viral video, she said: “I was working at Margaritaville. ICE decided to raid some bars… I warned others, and now I've been fired for telling the truth.”
The company never commented officially on the firing, but the whole episode put this usually drama-free venue in an uncomfortable spotlight during a tense time for Nashville's hospitality industry.
4. Luke's 32 Bridge Food + Drink (Luke Bryan)
Luke Bryan's massive six-story bar avoided major drama until March 8, 2024. That's when Riley Strain disappeared after being ejected from the bar – and it changed everything.
The 22-year-old college student was cut off and escorted out around 9:38 p.m. because he was too drunk. He got separated from his friends and ended up drowning in the Cumberland River. His blood alcohol was .228 when they found his body four days later.
The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission launched a full investigation into whether the bar overserved Strain. They pulled security footage and sales records. The finding? Luke's staff actually did the right thing by cutting him off after he ordered just one drink and two waters.
But the case raised tough questions. Should bars do more than just put extremely drunk customers on the street? The incident sparked discussions about patron safety that went far beyond just Luke's bar.
5. Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row
Whiskey Row has seen tragedy that changed Lower Broadway forever. On August 16, 2021, 22-year-old Dallas Barrett died after a fight with security on the rooftop patio.
Barrett was involved in an altercation when multiple bouncers and a bystander held him down. He suffocated during the restraint. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide by asphyxiation.
Seven people were charged with reckless homicide and aggravated assault – six security guards and one patron who helped restrain Barrett. It later came out that four of the guards weren't even licensed, violating state requirements.
The case exposed serious problems with Broadway security training and hiring. Trials for those charged have been delayed multiple times and were still pending as of 2025. The incident sparked broader scrutiny of how bars handle unruly patrons.
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Read more →6. Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ‘n' Roll Steakhouse
Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N' Roll Steakhouse has been a lightning rod for controversy since it opened in April 2019, often generating extensive media coverage compared to other celebrity-owned spots on Nashville's Lower Broadway.
The drama started early with disputes over the bar's proposed neon signage, which featured a giant guitar shaped like a woman's buttocks with a donkey motif, drawing criticism from some city officials for being in poor taste before ultimately being approved by the Metro Council in a 27-3 vote. Then came November 2019, when Kid Rock got drunk and went on a profane rant against Oprah Winfrey (among others) on his own stage, with video capturing him shouting obscene remarks and insisting he wasn't racist. Security had to escort him from his own bar that night. (In an unrelated earlier incident in November 2018, Kid Rock was removed as grand marshal of Nashville's Christmas Parade due to backlash over separate controversial comments he made about Joy Behar on Fox & Friends.)
During COVID in 2020, the bar openly defied safety rules, with Metro inspectors citing it for serving patrons directly at the bar counter in violation of Phase 2 restrictions. The Metropolitan Beer Permit Board suspended its beer permit for five days as a result. The owner, Steve Smith, called Nashville's government “unconstitutional, undemocratic, and communist” while disputing the violations.
May 1, 2021 brought one of the weirdest incidents yet, when an intoxicated patron with a colostomy bag refused to leave. When police tried to remove him, he pulled out his full bag and swung it at officers, hitting two cops with bodily waste. The story made international headlines.
Then came May 2025 and the ICE raids, when Kid Rock's kitchen shut down mid-service as managers urged undocumented workers to leave out of fear of detention. The bar halted food service on a busy Saturday night, one of three venues owned by the same hospitality group to close early due to staff fleeing.
7. Jason Aldean's Kitchen + Rooftop Bar
Jason Aldean's Kitchen + Rooftop Bar has faced several controversies since opening in 2019, often amid broader scrutiny of Nashville's Lower Broadway nightlife. In November 2019, a racial profiling allegation went viral when a Black customer's wife posted on Facebook that he was denied entry for wearing a hoodie, while white patrons in similar attire were allowed in after removing theirs or without issue. The allegation sparked significant online outrage and media coverage. Aldean's bar denied discrimination, but the PR damage was done. They committed to retraining staff on unbiased admission policies to address the controversy.
Then came July 2023 – right when Aldean's song “Try That in a Small Town” was causing its own controversy over accusations of promoting vigilantism, leading to it being pulled from CMT rotation. His bar had at least four separate police incidents that month, drawing unwanted attention. Someone threw a cup of ice water at a cop from the rooftop, getting arrested for assault. Another patron punched a bouncer when being escorted out. A third guy destroyed TVs, bottles and glasses in a drunken rampage. The clustering of incidents during Aldean's song controversy made headlines about police being “called to Jason Aldean's bar multiple times.”
The bar has faced ongoing scrutiny for safety amid Nashville's bustling nightlife, contributing to broader industry changes like mandatory de-escalation training under Dallas's Law (enacted in 2023), increased surveillance cameras, and enhanced police collaboration, but the reputation for trouble was already established in media coverage due to these and subsequent incidents.
The Chaos Champions
Nashville's celebrity bars prove that fame doesn't guarantee smooth operations. While some maintain squeaky-clean reputations, others have become magnets for controversy. The worst incidents involve actual tragedy, like the death at Whiskey Row. But even the “lesser” dramas – from political beer controversies to immigration raids – show how quickly these high-profile venues can find themselves in hot water.
Kid Rock's bar stands alone as the undisputed champion of chaos, with incidents ranging from racist rants to colostomy bag assaults. It's turned controversy into a brand – whether intentionally or not.
