Hank Williams Jr. Said He ‘Wouldn’t Be Caught Dead’ with Garth Brooks on Stage?

A rumor circulating online in early October 2024 claimed that American singer-songwriter Hank Williams Jr. once said, “I wouldn’t be caught dead on stage with Garth Brooks.”

For example, on Oct. 3, X user @Chicago1Ray posted a photo of Williams (archived), adding, “Hank Williams Jr. was asked why he bowed out of last years Country legends show..?? ‘I wouldn’t be caught dead on stage with Garth Brooks.'” The post has since received over 37,000 likes and 873,000 views.

Other users on Facebook and X also posted the same rumor.

However, there was no truth to the rumor that claimed Williams said he “wouldn’t be caught dead” on a stage with Brooks.

The quote originated as satire in a Nov. 27, 2023, article published on The Dunning-Kruger Times website. The Times exists as one of several Facebook pages and websites making up what’s known as America’s Last Line of Defense — a network of content described by the website’s owner as containing “parody, satire and tomfoolery.”

Any users who continued to read the article to the end would have found that its author had dropped plenty of hints that it was not a genuine news story. For example, one part of the article mentioned the imaginary monetary figure of “eleventy billion dollars.”

The Facebook post that promoted the article and fake quote — also published on Nov. 27 — received over 45,000 likes. The America’s Last Line of Defense-owned Facebook page America – Love It Or Leave It hosted the post.

Brooks’ Rape Allegations

The fictional story about the Williams quote spread again in October 2024 after news broke that a woman who said she worked as a hair-and-makeup stylist for Brooks and his wife, country star Trisha Yearwood, accused Brooks of raping her in 2019.

The Associated Press reported that Brooks filed a preemptive lawsuit in federal court in Mississippi in September, in which both he and the woman were anonymous. The court filings said the plaintiff, displayed with the name John Doe, said the allegations were “wholly untrue.”

Brooks’ Bud Light Controversy

The original basis for the creation of the satirical Williams quote about Brooks was remarks that Brooks had made earlier in 2023.

On June 7 of that year, Billboard.com published an interview with Brooks where he had talked about plans for his Nashville bar, which has since opened. During the interview, Brooks appeared to reference a controversy about Bud Light’s previous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Brooks said it was his intention to serve “every brand of beer” and mentioned a vulgar term about customers who might disagree:

“I know this sounds corny,” [Brooks] continued, “I want it to be the Chick-fil-A of honky-tonks … I want it to be a place you feel safe in, I want it to be a place where you feel like there are manners and people like one another. And yes, we’re going to serve every brand of beer. We just are. It’s not our decision to make. Our thing is this, if you [are let] into this house, love one another. If you’re an a–hole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.” A number of artist-owned bars on Lower Broadway, including John Rich’s Redneck Riviera and Kid Rock’s bar, quit serving Bud Light after the brand partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney earlier this year.

In the months following the publishing of the interview, some users who aligned themselves with right-wing politics continued to chide Brooks for his remarks reported by Billboard.

More about the timeline of events regarding the controversy with Brooks and Bud Light can be found in our previous reporting.

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.

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