One of the greatest things about my job is that for all the routine involved in it, I still find myself constantly surprised. And this week has proven to be a whopper in that department as I ended up in a Twitter feud with country superstar Luke Bryan that got national press coverage.
How did I get to this place? Let me explain.
Ross Raihala
Saturday night, I headed to Xcel Energy Center to review Bryan’s show. I’ve covered him since the start of his career back in 2007, when I wrote about his potential stardom in these very pages: “His amiable debut single ‘All My Friends Say’ is now out, with a full album due in June. His endearing down-home vibe lends credibility to lyrics such as: ‘I can grow my own groceries and salt-cure a ham/Hey baby, I’m a country man.’ ”
In the years that followed, I caught him several times as an opening act and was on hand in 2014 when he made his debut as a local arena headliner at the X. In my review, I called him out for his lack of originality, ridiculous lyrics and silly, party down demeanor. But at the same time, I could clearly see he was invested in what he was doing and the audience adored him. I praised his “approachability and charm” and made a bold prediction: “If Bryan can keep this up, he’ll be in the running with Jason Aldean and Zac Brown to become country’s next stadium-sized superstar.”
Turns out, I was spot on. In 2015, Bryan headlined the former TCF Bank Stadium and the following year he was the first musical act to play the then-new U.S. Bank Stadium. In 2018, Bryan moved to Target Field and became the first act to headline all three stadiums in the metro, a record he holds to this day.
So when I heard his next show was going to be back at the X, I was, well, surprised. He drew a total of just under 125,000 people to his trio of stadium concerts and here he was back at a hockey arena with a much lower capacity. What happened?
As I noted in my review of Saturday’s show, Bryan has enjoyed a remarkable run on country radio, with 28 straight Top 10 singles. But his three most recent efforts — “Up,” “Country On” and “But I Got a Beer in My Hand” — landed with a thud in comparison.
I don’t think it’s the actual songs that were the problem, as they fell in line with his previous smashes. The issue, I suspect, is Bryan’s age of 47. Country radio is notoriously brutal when it comes to playing artists once they hit a certain age (and it’s far worse for women).
Still, I was fully expecting Bryan to put on the same high-energy, upbeat show he always has. He did not and, as I do when I review live concerts, I wrote what I saw before me. The headline set the tone: “A distracted, slow-moving Luke Bryan phoned it in at the X.”
From there, I added that it was his smallest local crowd in nearly a decade and that “Bryan was far less animated and physical than previous shows … (and) came across as distracted — listless, even.” I also noted his strange audience interaction, which included making fun of the “car dealership owners” in the front row and complaining that it was already winter here in Minnesota when it was 49 degrees outside.
As often happens when I write a negative review, my social media blew up with people yelling at me. As someone who has spent the past 28 years, 19 of which have been at the Pioneer Press, getting paid to share my opinion, I realize that feedback comes with the territory.
I also don’t take any of it personally. It often comes from people who weren’t actually at the concert and most likely didn’t read beyond the headline. The level of nastiness varies from artist to artist, but for whatever reason there are people out there who are blindly devoted to a musical act and willing to attempt to shout down anyone who dares to question them.
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Yes, it often gets personal. I want to thank everyone who has called me bald, fat and old. I had no idea. But, really, how can I take this stuff seriously? It’s often people who have no idea who I am and are reacting based on a single review they probably didn’t read.
My feeds were filled with angry fans on Sunday and it spilled over into Monday. Multiple people accused me of hating country music and never giving good reviews, while some guy from Crystal summed it up as: “Ross hates music.” This sort of thing has happened countless times in my career and, generally speaking, I find it hilarious. Indeed, I’m known for sharing the meanest and most ridiculous feedback on Facebook and Twitter. (Yes, I know the owner of Twitter calls it something else.)
Usually, the furor dies down after a few days. But Tuesday morning, I woke up, looked at my phone and saw that Luke Bryan himself had retweeted my review of Saturday’s show. I immediately did a double take, thinking it was just some random account and surely not a superstar with more than nine million followers.
But it was Bryan. And this is what he tweeted, at 5:36 a.m.: “Wow. I’ve never received one positive review from y’all’s publication since I’ve been to the twin cities area in my whole career. The trend continues. The sold out crowd had a great time.”
I couldn’t believe it. I’ve heard from musicians in the past who were angry about what I had written, but it’s pretty rare. Given Bryan’s reputation in the industry as a nice guy, I never would have guessed I’d see this. I immediately took a screenshot, assuming he’d delete the tweet once he came to his senses.
A few hours later, I retweeted that screenshot along with links to my previous, more positive, Bryan reviews. WCCO Radio anchor Jason DeRusha retweeted Bryan and added: “When you’re one of the worlds best selling artists and you still keep score with @RossRaihala. Love the pettiness.” Local news outlets Axios and Bring Me the News wrote stories about the whole affair. Trolls kept up the digital screaming.
That afternoon, the blog Saving Country Music wrote up a lengthy piece with the headline “Critic Receives Criticism For Rightly Pointing Out Luke Bryan’s Decline.” The writer called Bryan’s tweet a “rather unprecedented move” and added “if Bryan was smart, he’d heed what this critic was saying.” Other national outlets also picked up on the story, including the Miami Herald, American Songwriter, Taste of Country and Whiskey Riff.
This was all amusing enough, but given this was day four, it sure seemed like time for everyone to move on. And yet, unbelievably, Bryan wasn’t done yet. Here’s the series of tweets he posted Wednesday afternoon, printed verbatim save for the expletives.
“You can kiss my a– too.”
“I have never phoned anything in my life. I’ll keep this s— going as long as y’all want. I sit back watch y’all chirp. Over it. Turn around and watch the crowd.”
“Either way. The phoned in thing got me me mad. Hell. Im 47. Some nights my d— knees hurt. However. Y’all gotta job too do. Got get some followers. Been 10 years since my last twitter war. Peace and I love everyone”
“Another thing. I played from 9:08 til. 11:05. No encore because I ran over the building codes. 10:40 would have been phoning it in. And you right. I did confuse another review from another publication. Check pollstar numbers if you think I’m in decline saving country dude”
To quote Bryan’s initial tweet to me, wow. I can’t wait for my next surprise.
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