Photo Credit: Rock the Country
Kid Rock’s Rock the Country festival cancels its South Carolina dates after multiple artists drop out, with at least one citing political division.
This summer, the Kid Rock-backed “Rock the Country” festival will hit several so-called “small towns” across the U.S., but Anderson, SC, will not be on the itinerary. On February 5, Anderson County was informed of the decision to nix the two-day concert, which they announced to the press the following day.
While county representatives said they weren’t given an explicit reason for the cancellation, Administrator Rusty Burns said that he was aware of “online chatter” about artists dropping out of the far-right event. However, rock band Shinedown announced the same day that they were dropping out of the lineup to avoid “further division.”
“Shinedown is everyone’s band,” the group posted on social media. “We feel that we have been given a platform to bring all the 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,” their statement continued. “We know this decision will create differences of opinion. But we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division.”
Shinedown’s move follows three other acts who dropped off the festival lineup last month without explicitly stating their reasons why. These include country musicians Morgan Wade and Carter Faith, as well as rapper and actor Ludacris. Similarly, Shinedown’s fellow 2000s rockers Creed also no longer appear on the festival lineup as of February 6.
The festival still lists dozens of acts who appear in select cities, including Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll, Brooks & Dunn, and, of course, Kid Rock. Cities that remain on the tour schedule include Bellville, TX; Bloomingdale, GA; Sioux Falls, SD; Ashland, KY; Hastings, MI; Ocala, FL; and Hamburg, NY.
