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Justin Timberlake has his hands in a lot of culinary pots these days. While his barbecue restaurant, Southern Hospitality BBQ, expands across the country — including in Denver, with the help of One Republic frontman Ryan Tedder — he’s also trying to grow a spirits brand, 901 Tequila.
And his involvement — or lack thereof — in 901 Tequila has Justin Biel, Boulder native, brother of Jessica Biel and former employee of 901, on the attack.
Biel posted harsh videos on his Facebook page, saying he wanted Timberlake to “do something — make a song about it; put it in a video; hold it up, dude, take some pictures, I don’t care, just do something ’cause we’re dying on the vine here!” He also berates the drop-off in sales, adding his own suggestions for how the group might be able to drum up more business, like by using this catchy line: “901 Tequila: so god damn exclusive our own CEO doesn’t even drink it.”
The rant is a little odd, considering the fact that Biel, according to reps who spoke with TMZ, left the company on good terms just weeks ago. And while we can’t speak to the dissatisfaction of employees involved, we’ll anecdotally add that we’ve been to a 901 Tequila promotional party — and JT showed up to play a set. That didn’t exactly feel like an uninvolved owner.
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But then, maybe the video was all a farce: Biel has since said the whole thing was a joke, and 901 told TMZ that the video was part of a campaign that’ll launch at the end of the year. If it was a publicity stunt, it worked…we guess?
The vid:
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