Later in the year, the country-focused touring festival Rock The Country will bring MAGA-affiliated headliners like Kid Rock and Jason Aldean all across America. The festival has a huge lineup that includes names like Jelly Roll, Brooks & Dunn, Riley Green, Hank Williams Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ella Langley, Nelly, and former spouses Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert. But since the festival lineup came out a few weeks ago, a bunch of acts have dropped the tour, and now active rock all stars Shindown have joined their ranks.
Ludacris was the first artist to drop off of Rock The Country, and he's been followed by country artists Carter Faith and Morgan Wade. Today, Shinedown announced that they won't play the festival, either. On Instagram the band wrote that their purpose is "to unite not divide" and that they "do not want to participate in something that we feel will create further division." Here's their full statement:
Shinedown is everyone’s band. We feel that we have been given a platform to bring all people together through the power of music and song.
We have one BOSS, and it is everyone in the audience. Our band’s purpose is to unite, not divide. With that in mind, we have made the decision that we will not be playing the Rock The Country Festival.
We know this decision will create differences of opinion. But we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division.
And to our fans, thank you for supporting and believing in us.
We love and appreciate you always.
Shinedown were supposed to headline the second date of the fest's Anderson, South Carolina stops on July 25 and 26, and Creed were scheduled to headline the first. Those shows are no longer listed on Rock The Country's site, and both bands have been removed from the poster.
Shinedown's announcement is a bit of a surprise, since their drummer Barry Kerch recently called Ludacris a "coward" for dropping off of the festival. In an interview on The Vinyl Road podcast, Kerch said, "Ludacris wasn’t tough... I mean, it’s not like he needs the money, jeez. If he’s not tough enough to stick it out, that’s just silly. That’s him being a coward, in my opinion."
