Ronnie Dunn Backs Blake Shelton in ‘Minimum Wage’ Controversy
Critics call Shelton's new song 'tone deaf,' but the Brooks & Dunn star's having none of it.
With 2021 barely underway, Blake Shelton has already stirred up some accidental controversy, drawing criticism for his new song, “Minimum Wage,” and his personal wealth. But one of his “millionaire” buddies has his back.
Celebrating love that makes a paycheck-to-paycheck average Joe feel like a million bucks, “Minimum Wage” was released on New Years Day and was intended as another lighthearted romantic romp from the hitmaker. But with a vocal group of commenters blasting Shelton’s song as tone deaf, some listeners pointed out that Shelton himself is part of the nation’s “wealthy elite,” and have accused him of appropriating the plight of those suffering during a pandemic. Millions are without work and millions more are scraping by on an actual minimum wage, they say, which hasn’t increased in years.
But Brooks & Dunn’s Ronnie Dunn has apparently had enough of cancel culture. Calling the argument “misguided” and a “cultural scam,” he’s calling on Shelton’s detractors to keep their thoughts to themselves, and says he can’t sit back and watch the country be divided any further.
“Now, they want to attack country singers for being successful,” Dunn wrote on social media. “I slept on a mattress on the floor in a musician friend’s spare bedroom and played BEER JOINTS / DIVE BARS for years before I ever made a $100. Most country singers pay dues and go through things to become successful that no sane human being would. I grew up poor. My father was a truck driver, avid country music fan and oilfield worker all his life. My mother worked a ’minimum wage’ job as a small town bank teller to help support a family with four kids.
“The entire world wants to hitch a free ride on the American Dream,” he went on. “Those that don’t want to diminish or destroy it. Read the full lyrics to Blake’s song. Hell, I wish I’d written it. Signed, [an] American Made, Country Music singin’, song writin’ millionaire sumbitch!”
For his part, Blake Shelton appreciated the support, Tweeting out a thank you shortly after Dunn’s post.
