{"id":242266,"date":"2026-01-13T11:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/242266\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:58:17","slug":"18-time-grammy-winner-cancels-kennedy-center-show-center-says-he-caved-to-the-woke-mob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/242266\/","title":{"rendered":"18-time Grammy winner cancels Kennedy Center show; center says he \u2018caved to the woke mob\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legendary banjo player B\u00e9la Fleck, winner of 18 Grammy Awards, is the latest artist to cancel a performance<\/a> following the move to add President Donald Trump\u2019s name<\/a> to the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n

Fleck was scheduled for three performances in February<\/a> with the National Symphony Orchestra, but announced his decision to withdraw from the shows on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center. Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music. I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art,\u201d Fleck posted<\/a> to the social media site X on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Richard Grenell, the center\u2019s president, quickly responded on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties. This mob pressuring you will never be happy until you only play for Democrats,\u201d Grenell posted to X<\/a>. \u201cThe Trump Kennedy Center believes all people are welcome \u2015 Democrats and Republicans and people uninterested in politics. We want performers who aren\u2019t political \u2015 who simply love entertaining everyone regardless of who they voted for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleck\u2019s post on X drew more than 13,000 replies. R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills<\/a> praised Fleck\u2019s decision, while country star John Rich of Big and Rich<\/a> posted that Fleck was the \u201cgreatest living banjo player,\u201d but added, \u201ctoo bad he\u2019s also weak and woke.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Washington Post<\/a> published Wednesday, Fleck said that he didn\u2019t want to take a political stand, but believed it became unavoidable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs this Kennedy Center thing became more and more charged, it wasn\u2019t any longer something where I\u2019m under the radar playing this gig. I am actually taking a position by playing at the Kennedy Center now,\u201d Fleck said. \u201cBy not canceling, I\u2019m taking a position, and I don\u2019t want to take that position. That\u2019s what it really comes down to: I don\u2019t want to take a position, but whatever I do is taking a position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleck has been nominated for 43 Grammy Awards<\/a> and has won 18, according to the Grammy website. He has been performing for close to 50 years, as a solo artist and as part of B\u00e9la Fleck and the Flecktones<\/a> and New Grass Revival<\/a>. He has performed at the Syracuse Jazz Fest<\/a> and at the Skaneateles Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The last 12 months have been tumultuous for the arts center. In February, Trump forced out members of the center\u2019s board<\/a> and replaced them with his supporters. Trump was then elected board chair. After that happened, several artists canceled shows in protest, including the smash Broadway musical \u201cHamilton.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Then, in November, Trump\u2019s hand-picked board voted to change the name<\/a> to the Trump Kennedy Center. That caused more artists to cancel performances<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t think I should be playing there right now in this climate. That\u2019s really all it is,\u201d Fleck told the Washington Post<\/a>. \u201cAnd when it\u2019s not like this, I would love to play there.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on the Trump administration<\/p>\n

Read the original article on syracuse.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary banjo player B\u00e9la Fleck, winner of 18 Grammy Awards, is the latest artist to cancel a performance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[122576,122579,969,93,21947,61,60,278,122577,122578,122575],"class_list":{"0":"post-242266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-bela-fleck","9":"tag-bela-fleck-and-the-flecktones","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-grammy-awards","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-national-symphony-orchestra","17":"tag-richard-grenell","18":"tag-the-kennedy-center"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}