Luke Bryan Sets the Record Straight on His ‘Absurd’ Dustin Lynch Comments at Crash My Playa
After some fans were offended by Luke Bryan's onstage banter during the final night of his Crash My Playa festival on Sunday (Jan. 22), the singer hopped on social media to address their concerns and clear up any misunderstanding.
It all started when Bryan was onstage warming up the crowd before Dustin Lynch took the stage. Lynch and Bryan are longtime friends, and Lynch has played all eight Crash My Playa festivals to date — Bryan has even dubbed him the "mayor" of the annual event. But when he welcomed his friend and fellow country star to the stage, some fans in the crowd felt that his remarks about Lynch were a little out of line.
"The longest standing representative of Crash My Playa," Bryan tells the crowd in the beginning of one video clip, which a festival goer posted to TikTok.
"No one has drank more liquor. No one has vomited more. No one has taken more drugs. No one has taken more IVs," the singer continued. "No one has passed more STD tests than this next gentleman, ladies and gentlemen. He got a clean bill. He does not have diseases. Give it up for Dustin Lynch!"
Some in the crowd appeared to enjoy the joke — plenty of laughter and cheers can be heard in the background, and some came to Bryan's defense on social media — but the user who posted the video described the introduction as "absolutely uncalled for," adding, "Nobody deserves an introduction to stage like Luke did to Dustin."
Several others in the comments section agreed, with one stating that they were "beyond disappointed" and other adding, "I love Luke but he sounded like an idiot with that introduction good grief."
On Wednesday (Jan. 25), Bryan himself jumped on Instagram to clear up any misconceptions about the nature of his comments.
"Greetings from a flooded cornfield. Doing a little duck hunting," he began, briefly panning the camera to show a background of corn stalks.
"Dustin Lynch is one of my dearest friends on the planet," he went on to clarify. "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."
The singer added that he'd spoken to Lynch to make sure that his friend's feelings hadn't been hurt, and assured fans that everything was okay between himself and his fellow artist.
"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."
He concluded by encouraging fans to download Lynch's new single, "Stars Like Confetti," and told Crash My Playa attendees that he'll see them in Mexico next year for the return of the festival.
For his part, Lynch also hopped on social media to assure his fans there's no beef between him and Bryan. In an Instagram Story, the singer shared Bryan's message, writing "Love ya bro. All good. We had a lot of fun down there again with the pirates."