Country star Blake Shelton speaks out on 'ridiculous' backlash leveled at his 'Minimum Wage' song — a message of love and hope

Country singer Blake Shelton is hitting out at critics of his latest single, "Minimum Wage" — a song that many critics blasted as tone deaf.

In the song, Shelton sings, "Girl, your love can make a man feel rich on minimum wage."

Shelton debuted the song on New Year's Eve during the countdown to 2021.

What are the details?

In an interview with CMT, Shelton, 44, refused to apologize for his latest project, explaining that the song is a "love song" about "how if times are tight and you ain't got much money — as long as you have love and you're happy — at the end of the day, that's all any of us can really hope for."

"You got it if you got that," he said. "That's all that matters. And if that's offensive to you, then we'll just have to agree to disagree."

He also said that he, too, can personally relate to the song.

"Just like probably 95 percent of artists out there, I struggled for so long to get by," he explained. "But at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade those times for anything. Those days when the big struggle was, 'Man, do I pay my rent or my electric bill, or do I just say 'screw it' and go buy some beer?' You had to decide because you didn't have enough to go around. But those really were some of the best days of my life that I still think about all the time. And I think about all the jobs and things that I did over the years, just so I could play music for free somewhere."

He later added that there is a large contingent of people around the world — and on the internet — who simply can't be pleased.

"I just feel like these days, there are people out there who don't want to know the truth," he explained. "They just want to hear what they want to hear, and they want to pick a fight. ... No matter what your intention is, no matter what the truth is, they want it to be something that they can be upset about so that they can get on social media and try to grab a headline."

Here are the lyrics

You can read the lyrics to the apparently controversial song below:

Yeah I met you 'fore anybody knew my name
Playing for pennies on the dive bar stage
Split an All-Star Special on our first date in a Waffle House booth
Your daddy was crying when he gave you away
'Cause all those country songs I played
They didn't come with a 401K, but hey, I had you
You could make a six pack on the carpet
Taste like a million dollar bill
You could make a one-bedroom apartment feel like a house up on the hill
You could make my truck out in the driveway
Roll like a cleaned-up Cadillac
Girl lookin' at you, looking at me that way
Could make a man feel rich on minimum wage
Girl your love is money, your love is money
Yeah your love, can make a man feel rich on minimum wage
You could give me a tab that's always open
Or give me a yacht parked out in the ocean
But all that keeping with the Joneses just ain't my style
Just give me some lights strung out in the yard
And give me a lawn chair under the stars
The top of the world's right where you are 'cause every time you smile
You could make a six pack on the carpet
Taste like a million dollar bill
You could make a one-bedroom apartment feel like a house up on the hill
You could make my truck out in the driveway
Roll like a cleaned-up Cadillac
Girl lookin' at you, looking at me that way
Could make a man feel rich on minimum wage
Girl your love is money, your love is money
Yeah your love, can make a man feel rich on minimum wage

Blake Shelton - Minimum Wage (Lyric Video)www.youtube.com