An attorney for Chris Young is calling for three misdemeanor charges against the country singer to be dropped after he was arrested following an alleged scuffle with state agents in a Tennessee bar on Monday. And he wants an apology.
The “I’m Comin’ Over” and “Famous Friends” musician was arrested at the Dawg House bar in Midtown Nashville and later charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assault on an officer, according to Nashville’s criminal court clerk records reviewed Wednesday by The Times.
He was taken into custody and released on a $250 bond for the disorderly conduct charge, a $1,000 bond for the resisting arrest charge and $1,250 for the assault charge, the court records said, and he is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 16.
According to a copy of the arrest affidavit reviewed by The Times, the 38-year-old was approached by agents for the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC) doing compliance checks at the bar next door, Tin Roof, at around 8:30 p.m. Young presented his ID to the agents, who scanned it and returned it to him. He asked questions of the agents at the time and started recording them. When the agents moved on to the Dawg House, Young and “multiple” friends followed, the affidavit said.
“While walking out the door Mr. Young put his hands out to stop me from leaving the bar and struck me on the shoulder,” an agent said in the affidavit. “I then pushed Mr. Young to create distance since I had no idea of who Mr. Young was or what he had.”
Patrons at the bar got up and got in between the singer and the agent and began yelling and screaming, the affidavit said. Another agent also intervened, giving orders to a retreating Young. Two agents then detained Young, putting him in handcuffs.
“While all agents were trying to leave the bar, multiple people who were with Mr. Young started following agents and making the incident hostile,” the affidavit said, noting that Young had bloodshot, watery eyes and slurred speech.
However, Young’s attorney Bill Ramsey disagreed with the agent’s remarks.
“What happened to my client Chris Young at a bar in Nashville on Monday night was wrong, and he never should have been arrested and charged in the first place,” Ramsey said Wednesday in a statement to The Times. “In light of the video evidence, Tennessee ABC needs to drop the charges and apologize for the physical, emotional and professional harm done towards my client.”
In surveillance footage provided by Ramsey and reviewed by The Times, Young puts his left hand out to try to stop one of the agents passing him and the agent immediately shoves him away, knocking the singer-songwriter into a high-top table. Both Young and a stool fall over.
Once Young gets up, he puts his arm out and starts to back away from the agent, and patrons and friends are seen getting between the two men. Other videos provided by Ramsey show the incident from behind and other angles.
The musician is preparing to launch his 18-track “Young Love & Saturday Nights” album in March, his ninth studio album and his largest album to date. The album comes after his 2021 successes with Kane Brown on “Famous Friends” and with Mitchell Tenpenny on “At the End of the Bar.”
