Roughly five years after some of the most divisive actions of Trapt vocalist/guitarist Chris Taylor Brown publicly transpired, his multi-platinum band continue to feel the fallout. Brown established himself as a controversial figure amid the height of the pandemic, after increasingly heated confrontations took place online between himself and numerous musicians (see here and here,) as well as various social media users.
Brown‘s then growing vocal support of right-wing politics seemed to serve as the catalyst for at least some of those interactions. Ultimately, Brown‘s most damning exchange came back in December of 2020, when his comments on pedophilia got him banned from Twitter. Several other social media accounts related to Brown and Trapt have also been banned over the years.
While Trapt have remained active in the music world through it all, Brown‘s past exchanges and opinions on social media have seemingly still held a stiff consequence for the band. In 2024, amid apparent backlash, they were removed from the ‘Louder Than Life‘ festival. The group posited that ‘virtue signaling’ was to blame, stating in part, “All along the media (govt propaganda mouthpiece) has tried to “destroy trapt” after 2020 and they have failed miserably.”
Earlier this year, in what appears to have been a similar situation, they were also removed from a tour with Powerman 5000, Ill Niño and more just days after an initial announcement.
Those booking troubles have apparently extended to the band’s ongoing touring to this day, as a video shared yesterday (April 18th) by Brown saw him claim roughly 4 venues booked for the band’s current acoustic tour ‘caved’ to ‘cancel culture’ and scrapped Trapt‘s shows.
The group were originally scheduled to have that trek hit the SideQuest on 44th in Pittsburgh, PA last night, but were impeded by an apparent venue cancelation. Instead, the band set up an impromptu plywood stage instead at The Building For Arts And Culture in North Versailles, PA and went on to perform a very intimate set.
In the below video, Brown shared the following of the matter [transcribed by theprp.com]:
“What’s up? Trapt is in Pittsburgh tonight, and we had a couple venues cave to cancel culture in the last few weeks, and it was going to be really hard to do the show. But we decided we’re doing it no matter what. So we got a stage together. We got this venue, called The Building For Arts And Culture. We got some Bud Lights, White Claw, you know, and just everything that our fans are going to need to have a great time with us tonight.
And I want to thank all the venues out there — it’s probably about 35 out of like 39 shows that didn’t cave to cancel culture. The couple venues that did in Pittsburgh… You know, they, trolls, they say… they lie about things I said five years ago and the joke I made — I did apologize for that, for my insensitivity, for anybody who was who’s hurt by that. But, yeah, we moved on. Our fans have moved on. There’s a few people who haven’t, but yeah, we did this show… We were, we were gonna do this show no matter what.
And I just want to thank Chase — he helped us put this together — and he also was like, ‘We’re doing it no matter what.’ They’re not stopping the show. It’s gonna be a great night tonight, and we’ll show you all the footage after we get done.”
Speaking on social media this past March, Brown mentioned that he and the band had been distancing themselves from politics on social media in recent years, stating:
“Blessed to have fans that stuck with us through all the 2020 Trump support hate. So close to hitting a million listeners in a week! We were at 994k yesterday, lol. Come on Spotify, let’s get hit that million mark! As soon as Trump won last year, the hate has dialed up. Seems Trump haters need an outlet to bare their frustration, sadly. Trapt has not spoken about anything other than music for years now. Again, thank you to our fans for having our backs through it all! ~CTB”
