Shinedown vocalist Brent Smith has addressed the controversy surrounding his band’s now past involvement with the annual ‘Rock The Country‘ festival. Earlier this month, Shinedown withdrew from performing at that touring festival this year, citing intense pushback on social media.
Led by Kid Rock, the ‘Rock The Country‘ festival has largely been seen as a MAGA-oriented bill due to its frequent booking of artists aligned with Republican-held beliefs. Shinedown were by no means the first artist to exit this year’s bill, but their drummer Barry Kerch‘s decision to call rapper Ludacris a “coward” for pulling out of the festival shortly after being announced for it certainly helped fan the flames of discontent among the Shinedown fanbase.
In a statement issued on February 06th, Shinedown confirmed they had exited the bill, offering:
“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.
All love and respect,
SHINEDOWN“
The multi-platinum hard rock outfit’s exit appeared to have immediate consequences for the festival, with its planned July 25th-26th stop in Anderson, SC being scrapped soon afterwards, That two-date outing was booked with Creed serving as the headliner on the opening date, and Shinedown headlining the second stop.
In a newly published interview with Rolling Stone, Smith further addressed the controversy surrounding ‘Rock The Country‘ and the dissension the decision to play the festival had created among their fans: “We saw infighting that we had never seen before, and for us, it was our job to diffuse it. Elaborating on the reaction to their decision to drop off the fest, Smith added:
“There were certain people that were not happy about [pulling back.] I will say that there was an overwhelming amount of people that agreed with the decision.… You’re entitled to your opinion 1,000 percent in this country, and that’s one of the beautiful things about it.”
Smith, who identified himself in this interview as neither a Democrat or Republican in this chat, went on to add: “I just want to remind everybody, it says the ‘United States of America’ — And a lot of people right now don’t feel united.”
Smith further went on credit his upbringing in helping him see past gender, skin color, religion or sexual orientation. He stated, “That is what makes you who you are, and we are all on this planet, and we occupy it together.”
Speaking a bit on his political views, Smith also floated the idea that having candidates from opposing parties running together could potentially ‘fix’ the fractured identity of the United States at the moment, he questioned, “If you’re a Democrat, why can’t you have a Republican for your running mate?” While not unheard of in American politics, such alliances have become almost unthinkable in the current climate.
If you’ve yet to see the news yet, today (February 17th) saw Shinedown announce their new album “EI8HT“ and a lengthy touring campaign in support of it.
