Why You Don't Want to Mess With Country Star Luke Bryan on Twitter

Specs Age 39 Claim to fame Platinum-selling country singer/songwriter; co-host of the 51st Academy of Country Music Awards (Sunday, April 3, 8 p.m. EST on CBS) Base Georgia Twitter @LukeBryanOnline Adweek: What's the first information you consume in the morning? Luke Bryan: I just go to my computer and I hit all of the newsfeeds. I don't want to follow just one news service because I like to get the conservative news, the liberal news. I check sports news, Georgia Bulldogs recruiting, album sales and stuff like that. Then on my phone, I check Twitter and [my own personal] app. You have a huge social following. I wouldn't say that I've been the biggest innovator with social media for country music. Nobody's done it better than Taylor [Swift] in starting a career, but I've done well with it. My main two channels are Twitter and my app, and then I work in conjunction with some people on my Instagram and Snapchat. I watch my nieces and nephews, and they're constantly jockeying back and forth between all of those, and I just don't have that kind of time. You know what I'm saying; you see how kids do it [laughs]. You joined Twitter in 2008, so you were a pretty early adopter. Oh, yeah, I was on the bandwagon early. I've learned my lessons about it, too. I've learned that drinking and tweeting is not necessarily a positive thing. Is there anything you've ever tweeted that you ended up regretting? Well, I've tweeted some stuff over the years. When you have somebody badmouth you on your Twitter page, calling you this and that, you learn to get a little immune to it, but sometimes you've had enough and you'll pop off at them. Next thing you know, all my fans are absolutely crushing them, and I feel bad that I should have just let it be. It's funny, I guess it's my Christian heart, but I do sympathize for the people after my 6-and-a-half-million followers unleash an attack on them. It's one thing if you don't like a particular song. I can deal with that. But when you start attacking personal stuff, you're just not a good person. Your personal app launched last year. How did that come together? When it got presented to me to do an app, I was all about it. I'm very involved in it. I check it 20, 30 times a day. I love it because it's my people on there. If somebody is spending money on a subscription, they're really invested in what I've got going on, and that means a lot to me. And I enjoy the fact that I can create neat stuff that the fans typically don't get. If they're paying for it, I want to give them their money's worth. It's the same way I treat making an album or doing a concert. What TV shows do you watch? I would say that ESPN and the Outdoor Channel dominate my TV. My wife and I will do Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory. We've been watching this O.J. thing lately [FX's miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson], and that's been fun. You're about to host the Academy of Country Music Awards for the fourth time. Is it just old hat for you at this point? I wouldn't say you ever get used to walking out on stage and doing that, but you get more comfortable in the role and you know all of the potential little challenges that may come your way. I think it'll be a fun night. This story first appeared in the March 28 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Brand Marketing

Why You Don't Want to Mess With Country Star Luke Bryan on Twitter

ACM Awards host has a major social following

Emma Bazilian

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Emma Bazilian