Shinedown Drop Off MAGA-Associated Rock The Country Festival

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. In an Instagram statement, the band wrote, "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 do not want to participate in something that we feel will create further division."

As Loudwire points out, this announcement is a bit of a surprise, since Shinedown drummer Barry Kerch recently called Ludacris a "coward" for dropping off of the festival. In a podcast interview, Kerch reportedly 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."

Shinedown's post-grunge peers in Creed haven't issued any public statements about Rock The Country, but they're no longer listed on the poster that appears on the festival's website.