Country musician Charley Crockett made headlines earlier this summer, after it was announced he had ejected satanic doo-wop outfit Twin Temple from a pair of shows after taking objection to their Satanic lyrical content and imagery. Twin Temple had issued a statement on the matter on July 08th, painting it as such. That statement read:
“Today we were informed that Charley Crockett has decided to remove Twin Temple from his upcoming shows next week due to our Satanic imagery.
Unfortunately, that means we will not be able to perform for you next week as planned. We are really disappointed as we were looking forward to getting back out and seeing you, and also what it meant as far as bringing different types of people and music lovers together. We are sorry to everyone who was planning to see us. We’re grateful for your support, not only of Twin Temple, but more importantly of artistic freedom. HAIL SATAN! 93/93″
Crockett seemingly acknowledged the situation at the time, telling Rolling Stone: “I thought they were like Black Sabbath but they ain’t. Not today Satan.” However, now over a month later, Crockett has just issued a new statement on the matter. Taking to his social media today, August 18th, Crockett alleged that he was apparently the victim of a PR stunt waged by the band and that it was the group’s production requests that saw them removed from the bill, not their religious beliefs:
“I gotta clear this up right quick. I never dropped that band from those 2 shows for “Satanic Imagery”, they made it up and dragged me by a rope real good. It all started about a month before those shows while we were off in Wyoming. Their production requests raised eyebrows simply because we couldn’t accommodate them physically. Then I noticed some of the things they’d been doing on stage and after thinking about it for a couple days I decided to cut em loose.
We told em the vibe just wasn’t right for an all ages audience, and we paid em in full. They got together with their business folks and plotted for days before finally making their public statement, designed for effect. Purposely making it look like it was a whole tour. Dog whistling about religious and creative freedom. Of course my rights didn’t matter since they had a new record coming out and a headline tour of their own to announce.
It’s my fault, I let ‘em slip through and being that this here’s my outfit, I’m the responsible party. I reacted. I might respond differently now but everybody’s got perfect vision in hindsight. I think the most difficult part of the whole deal was the way the media, save for one outlet, cared nothing for the truth. They sanitized these folks’ image for their own uses in the click bait traffic game that is America’s left-right culture war.
Or maybe it was all the artists I know who had their hand out showering me with praise the last few years that used the situation to kick me in the dick. I ain’t the one holding you down. And I won’t forget that when I was face down in the dirt coughing up blood you applauded. As for Jack White, he used it to sell tickets too and I lost a lot of respect for him.
I wonder why he wasn’t so outspoken back when he was in the white stripes 20 something years ago. They purposely avoided political issues. Maybe he was worried about losing audience back when it was all on the line and he needed all the help he could get. Funny, I’ve got everything to lose right this minute and I still shoot from the hip. I’ve been speaking from my heart against the wishes of the machine my whole life. Real patriots think for themselves.”
Crockett‘s above mentioned of Jack White follows Rock & Roll Hall of Famer inviting Twin Temple to open for him in the wake of Crockett dropping them from his own shows.
