Rodney Atkins knew that when he released “Watching You 2.0,” a new version of his 2006 restyled as a duet with his son Elijah, there would inevitably be some kind of negative response from a few fans on social media.

He even prepared Elijah — who inspired the original song — for a few hurtful comments.

“Because when the first ‘Watching You’ came out, the first reviews I ever saw were just, ‘F you, this is horrible,'” Atkins says in a new interview with Taste of Country. “That’s what I saw first: A ton of that.”

And of course, “Watching You” went on to be a massive hit, topping the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart as well as the year-end Billboard Country Songs chart for 2006.

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Sure enough, amid the “90 percent” of all positive comments on Atkins’ full-circle new version of his song, there were a handful of listeners who weren’t fans of Elijah’s voice.

“People started coming out saying he had brain damage, or a speech impediment — all these things about him,” Atkins recounts. “It’s crazy. Or because he seems shy in one of the videos we did for content. He’s just shy. He’s not used to being in front of a camera or onstage.”

23-year-old Elijah sings in a different style than his famous father does, and Atkins says he wanted his son to follow his natural vocal inclinations during the recording process.

“I encouraged him to have his own voice. ‘Sing like you sing,'” he continues. “He pronounces words a little differently sometimes, similar to Post Malone, in that vein.”

Atkins didn’t expect “Watching You 2.0” to have quite the viral impact that it did on platforms like TokTok. But since the song was so popular on social media, he thinks some amount of negativity was unavoidable. It probably even fueled the song’s virality, Atkins notes.

“When something goes that viral like this did, that’s when the troubles come out,” the singer continues, adding that those negative comments prompted supporters to come to the song’s defense in the comments section.

“Part of what made it go even more viral was people going back and forth commenting about it…just arguing about it.”

But as a seasoned pro at being in front of the spotlight, Atkins let it roll off his back — and he taught Elijah how to do the same.

“He just kinda let it bounce off him. And learned to laugh at it,” Atkins says of his son’s response to the minority of commenters with negative things to say. “I told him, ‘If they love you, love them back. If they don’t, just [let it go].'”

Judging by Elijah’s unflappable response, he’s still learning from his dad’s example — just like he did as a little boy in the lyrics of “Watching You.”

“It’s been fun,” Atkins says of making the duet version of the song. “We have a lot of fun with it still.”