Luke Bryan admitted he thought his American Idol gig was on the line after he went on a rant about country star Dustin Lynch last year.
“We’re looking at all these articles pop up like, ‘Oh, crap,'” Lynch, 38, said on the “God’s Country” podcast, referring to when Bryan, 47, roasted him on stage at the 2023 Crash My Playa music festival in Mexico.
“And so [Bryan] has to apologize, you know, especially with, now he’s worrying [about], obviously, American Idol. Who cares about the country music thing? It’s American Idol. He gets to where he can’t sleep at night ’cause he’s worried," Lynch continued.
“He starts going down this road of just bashing me and to the point where I’m looking at his manager like, ‘Dang.’ We hit the stage and anyway; it catches fire,” Lynch recalled of the backlash.
Lynch then added that Bryan felt so bad over the situation that he even asked for his parents' email addresses so he could send them a note.
“[That] just shows you what kind of guy Luke is,” he added.
As OK! previously reported, Bryan received backlash after he told the crowd, “No one has drank more liquor, no one has vomited more, no one has taken more drugs, no one has taken more IVs, no one has passed more STD tests than this next gentleman.”
Many people blasted Bryan for his remarks.
"What Luke Bryan said about Dustin Lynch is absolutely uncalled for! Nobody deserves an introduction to stage like Luke did to Dustin," the caption read.
"That was wrong," one person said, while another added, "Drunk or not have more respect when introducing someone."
After the blowback, Bryan made sure to apologize to his buddy. “Dustin Lynch is one of my dearest friends on the planet,” Bryan told fans in a video in June 2023. “No one respects him more than I do … My introduction of him was complete sarcasm. Those words that I used were so absurd, I figured everybody would take it as sarcasm. Obviously, some people didn’t.”
“I spoke to Dustin. I love him. He and I are all good, and I apologize to anybody that doesn’t understand my humor and sarcasm. It’s been going on like that down there for years," the country singer continued.
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Lynch appeared to take everything in stride, writing on social media: “Thx for the call, love ya bro. All good. We had a lot of fun down there with the pirates.”
