Why even country singers wont play for Trumps inauguration
"Trump’s modest country lineup – including Lee Greenwood and Larry Gatlin – is missing the star power of names like Reba, Dolly, Willie or Blake. Chris Willman, an L.A.-based entertainment journalist and author of “Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music,” said it was the “lamest lineup” he could recall.
“It used to be beyond safe for any country artist to play for a Republican candidate, and certainly a Republican president,” Willman said. “So, what’s different this time? I think it’s clear we haven’t seen a Republican president as polarizing even to Republicans as Trump. There are a lot of country fans who, like a lot of Americans, voted for Trump only because they couldn’t stomach the alternative.”
While celebrities have managers and publicists to advise them on the Trump question, that’s not the case for the grass-roots acts whose participation in inauguration has thrust them into an uncomfortable limelight. Previously unknown dance troupes and school bands already struggling to come up with thousands of dollars for their travel and lodging suddenly face the added burden of publicly defending their decision to accept the invitation in the first place.
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