Country superstar Dierks Bentley surprised guests at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th-anniversary gala Friday night with a rocking performance at the Gaylord Hotel in National Grand Harbor, Maryland.

The two-day event featured some of the biggest names in the conservative movement, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and gala keynote speaker Fox News host Tucker Carlson, but attendees were blown away when Bentley, a 14-time Grammy nominee, took the stage for several songs. Bentley’s appearance was kept secret from guests prior to the evening.

“What a fabulous night celebrating free thinking and Liberty at @Heritage  50th anniversary celebration,” Congressman Matt Rosendale (R-MT) tweeted. “Entertainment by Dierks Bentley and Tucker Carlson. Even saw my good friend Scot Miller from Billings. What a night!”

What a fabulous night celebrating free thinking and Liberty at @Heritage 50th anniversary celebration.

Entertainment by Dierks Bentley and Tucker Carlson. Even saw my good friend Scot Miller from Billings. What a night! #Heritage50 pic.twitter.com/0Zlp69Xm97

— Matt Rosendale (@MattForMontana) April 22, 2023

Activists, members of the media, and elected officials were in attendance to celebrate the organization founded in 1973.

“Surprise of the (last half) century, from @Heritage — what a treat,” writer Carolyn Bolton said of Bentley’s singing.

Surprise of the (last half) century, from @Heritage — what a treat #Heritage50 @DierksBentley pic.twitter.com/1R4ydlSx2E

— Carolyn Bolton (@carbolton) April 22, 2023

“I didn’t know I could love @DierksBentley more,” said Heritage communications staffer Gloria Taylor.

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I didn’t know I could love @DierksBentley more. https://t.co/WroxQmXPFz

— Gloria Taylor (@glo_tay) April 22, 2023

The gala was the pinnacle event of the two-day summit billed as Heritage’s Leadership Summit. According to the organization, the purpose of the event was to “demonstrate consensus around big-picture questions facing America and deliver a conservative policy agenda equipped to unite the movement around an offensive strategy to take back our country, restore self-governance, and rebuild key institutions of civil society.”

Prior to the event, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts praised the founders of Heritage, as well as others in the movement who have helped achieve success.

“Ever since Heritage’s founding 50 years ago, this organization has dedicated itself to advancing conservative policy with world-class research, analysis, and advocacy,” Roberts said. “Today, we celebrate those who had the vision for Heritage and the accomplishments they achieved on behalf of the American people. We equally celebrate the men and women throughout the conservative movement who have worked tirelessly to save our country alongside all of us.”

For his part, Bentley has not divulged his political beliefs, but has expressed frustration with Washington, D.C., and the politicization of country music.

“[What’s happening in country music] is definitely a microcosm of the country at large,” Bentley told Rolling Stone. “There’s a lot of tension, a lot of anger, a lot of mistrust. A lot of fear being used on both sides to build their base.”

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Anheuser-Busch is still facing backlash and boycotts weeks after the company teamed up with controversial transgender activist and social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney to advertise its Bud Light products.

The owner of a Florida seafood restaurant chain announced Thursday he was removing Bud and Bud Light products from his establishments following the controversial sponsorship.

“I am disgusted by what you have done and what you are doing,” Grills Seafood Deck and Tiki Bar owner Joe Penovich wrote in an open letter to the corporation via Facebook, Fox Business first reported Friday. “You are the one causing this division and anger in our society. You are responsible for making some of the gay community think Grills does not welcome them. And you knew EXACTLY what you were doing when you launched this campaign. How could you not? ‘Good ole boy beer…meets Dylan Mulvaney? Hmm. Let’s see what that does to the country.’ NOBODY is that stupid. This goes way beyond transgenderism.”

Critics of Anheuser-Busch‘s team-up have voiced outrage over what they view as the corporation participating in the erasure and mockery of women. Mulvaney, a male, has claimed over the past year that he’s a “girl,” documenting his “journey” online.

Penovich’s decision to remove the beer from his restaurants is part of a larger trend of Bud Light boycotts, largely from consumers. As The Daily Wire highlighted earlier this month, Jeff Fitter, owner of Case & Bucks, a restaurant and sports bar in Barnhart, Missouri, said Bud Light drinkers have started swapping out their beer orders for other brands in protest.

The backlash has hit the country music industry, too. Country singer Riley Green was met with applause at a Nashville show last weekend when he changed lyrics referencing Bud Light to, instead, reference Coors Light, while performing his hit song “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.”

WATCH:

Country Music Artist Riley Green Cancels Bud Light at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium Friday Night

Riley changed the lyrics from his hit song ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died’ from Bud Light to Coors Light…and the crowd went wild!@RileyGreenMusic pic.twitter.com/VYUZySG0Zh

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) April 16, 2023

Country singer Brantley Gilbert has also made his feelings about Bud Light known, smashing a can of the beer to the ground when he was tossed a Bud Light at a recent concert.

“Yeah, f*** that,” the country star said after taking a look at the Bud Light can. After smashing it, Gilbert was tossed a different beer. He looked at it approvingly and tossed it to one of his bandmates to “shotgun,” or consume very quickly by punching a hole in the side of the can.

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Even though Brantley Gilbert doesn’t drink anymore his reaction to someone throwing him a Bud light was Awesome🙌🏼👏👏👏😂❤️.#GoWokeGoBroke pic.twitter.com/HYDfApZXmx

— ꪻꫝể ꪻꫝể (@TheThe1776) April 16, 2023

Country singers John Rich and Travis Tritt have also joined the Bud Light boycott.

“What beer should my bar [Redneck Riviera] in Nashville replace #BudLight with?” Rich tweeted earlier this month.

“I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider. I know many other artists who are doing the same,” Tritt shared on Twitter.

“In full disclosure, I was on a tour sponsored by Budweiser in the 90s. That was when Anheuser-Busch was American owned. A great American company that later sold out to the Europeans and became unrecognizable to the American consumer. Such a shame,” he wrote in a follow-up post.

Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth addressed the controversy with Mulvaney last week, but fell short of appeasing folks on either side of the issue.

“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” Whitworth said. “We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”

The statement notably contained no apology to offended customers and no mention of Mulvaney or the radical transgender ideology he espouses.

Related: ‘F*** That’: Country Music Star Gets Tossed A Bud Light During Concert, Smashes It