Blake Shelton & Luke Bryan: Is Their Feud Real?

Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images; Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Country music stars Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan never miss an opportunity to take a dig at one another, but is this a real-life rivalry or just playful bromance banter?

The latest barb from Shelton came during his Back To The Honky Tonk Tour earlier this month. He told a Birmingham, Alabama crowd that he was dealing with throat issues and that his doctor advised doing what most country singers do, getting the audience to sing along so that he could rest his vocal cords.

“I know what he’s talking about… ‘cause I’ve been to Luke Bryan concerts many of times and people are singing every damn word to his songs, but his songs are stupid,” Shelton joked. “So when the words go by, you’re not really thinkin’ about it is what I’m trying to say here, you’re just singing. You’re just like ‘oh yeah, we that rollercoaster.’”

He then followed it up by doing a mocking dance, mimicking Bryan.

@candace1216 #birminghamalabama #blakeshelton ♬ original sound – Candace 🎥📸📷🎞

Last year, Bryan took a jibe at Shelton during his headlining show at Resorts World in Las Vegas when he performed a rendition of Shelton’s song “Home” and struggled to remember the lyrics.

“Well, that’s a Michael Bublè song that Blake stole,” Bryan joked, according to MusicMayhemMagazine.com, before mistakenly singing the wrong lyrics.

“I don’t know Blake’s s***; y’all sing it,” he continued. ‘I don’t know two Blake Shelton songs… Oh, what’s a good Blake Shelton song? There isn’t one!”

The pair also own rival Nashville bars, Bryan’s 32 Bridge and Shelton’s Ole Red, with the latter saying fans wearing Bryan merch are not allowed in his establishment. They even have a feud over farming!

“He’s pretend farming,” Bryan said of Shelton on Apple Music Country’s The Ty Bentli Show. “I mean, he’s just putting out like wild grasses — stuff that literally will grow on Mars. I’m actually planting stuff that human beings can enjoy. I’m not feeding a bunch of rabbits and moles and stuff. Blake’s farming earthworms and stuff.”

Despite the digs and starring on rival talent shows, Shelton on The Voice and Bryan on American Idol, the two men have been friends for more than 10 years. For the most part, the feud is just good-natured ribbing. Bryan even admitted that Shelton pushed him to join American Idol.

“You said, ‘Do it,’ I said, ‘Heck yeah, I’m going to do it.’ Man, it was like you told me,” Bryan said to Shelton during an episode of his podcast Party Barn Radio. “It certainly opens your eyes, opens your world up to stuff you can never imagine. Thank you for that.”

However, according to Radar, a source close to Bryan said that the latest dig at the Alabama show upset him.

“Blake and Luke are always ragging on each other, but Luke felt Blake took it too far,” the insider claimed. “It hurts Luke that even though he’s a big country star, people always slam him for being lightweight ‘Bro country,’ and Blake is just playing that up for a laugh at his expense.”

What do you think? Is this all just friendly banter or something more? Are you Team Blake or Team Luke?