Single Mom Bartending On Christmas Eve Shares The ‘Life-Changing’ Tip Post Malone Left On His $1 Bar Tab
He gave her the kind of Merry Christmas even Santa Claus couldn't conjure.
Monkey Business Images | Shutterstock Musician Post Malone has had his share of controversy over the years, but there's no denying that beneath all the music industry swagger is the kind of generosity that would put a lot of other celebrities to shame.
Case in point: the gesture of goodwill the singer gave to a struggling bartender he met over the holidays, which she has called nothing short of "life-changing."
A single mom shared the staggering tip Post Malone left her on Christmas Eve.
Stories of rude, miserly celebrities are a dime a dozen nowadays, as are hot takes from regular rank-and-file people who've made refusing to tip generously an act of protest. Post Malone, however, has definitely taken a different approach.
Bartending is no easy job on a regular day, of course, but on Christmas Eve? It can feel downright brutal. Such was the case for Renee Brown, a single mom and bartender in the Houston area who found herself having to work instead of being home with her young daughter. But her "blue Christmas," if you will, turned right around when Posty came into the bar and quickly brightened her night.
Post Malone spent his time hanging and snapping selfies with the single mom — and then left her a $20,000 tip.
What the heck was Post Malone doing at The Railyard Bar in Grapevine, Texas, on Christmas Eve? Well, the city near Houston is his hometown, and The Railyard Bar has been a long-time favorite among the locals.
When he wandered in, Malone found one of those locals to be a bit tapped out on holiday cheer. "Going into work Christmas Eve, I was so sad I had to leave my baby girl to go to work," Brown told Music Mayhem of being separated from her 9-year-old daughter Iliana that night.
Brown doesn't have any living family, and that night was the first time she and Iliana had ever been apart on the holiday. “We usually bake cookies and watch Christmas movies," she said. Instead, she found herself working a "super slow" shift, "trying to be in a good mood for others."
That all changed when Post Malone wandered in later in the night. As the bar picked up, so did people's excitement that the star had shown up on the patio — so much so that at the end of the night, when he asked for his tab, Brown told him he didn't have one because everyone had been buying him drinks.
“So he asked me to ring him up for a penny or anything, so I did," she explained, handing him a check for $1. Later in the night, she was cashing out all her checks as usual. "Then I got to his," she said. "It was a tip for 20,000 dollars."
Post Malone has become well-known for generous gestures like the 'life-changing' tip he left Brown.
Unsurprisingly, Brown struggles to make ends meet as a single mom on a bartender's income. But on top of it, she and her daughter have landed on some bad luck recently that resulted in them losing most of their belongings over the summer. Brown has been working two jobs while home-schooling Iliana, trying to catch up.
So, when she saw the $20,000 tip, “I immediately broke down crying," she said. “I finally got a chance to stop cleaning and talk to him some more and thank him. I know I was crying and thanking him, but he has no idea exactly how much this meant to me."
It seems like he actually might, though. Posty has become well-known for this kind of generosity. Back in 2019, he reportedly left $1000 tips for the staff of an LA diner, and a server shared in a viral 2023 Reddit post that the singer left them a $3,000 tip on top of an already generous automatic gratuity.
For Brown, though, Malone's generosity may just end up being "life-changing" in the literal sense. She told Music Mayhem that with the tip, she could now get a car for herself and her daughter, and she could begin working toward her goal of starting her own business.
"Things have been extremely difficult, and this was truly a blessing that I can’t fully put into words," she said. "I know I told him that night how grateful I am, but I’d like to reiterate that he helped me in ways I can’t even begin to explain."
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.