{"id":454236,"date":"2026-02-07T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454236\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:40:09","slug":"maga-friendly-rock-the-country-event-in-anderson-canceled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454236\/","title":{"rendered":"MAGA-friendly \u2018Rock The Country\u2019 event in Anderson canceled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Likewise, early 2000s Christian-inspired rock band Creed \u2014 which along with Ludacris was to be a premier headliner in Anderson \u2014 has been quietly removed from the event\u2019s website<\/a> as of Feb. 6.<\/p>\n

The website also removed the stop in Anderson, leaving only Bellville, Texas; Bloomingdale, Ga.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Ashland, Ky.; Hastings, Mich.; Ocala, Fla.; and Hamburg, N.Y.<\/p>\n

A host of popular artists remain listed, including Kid Rock, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll, and Brooks and Dunn, among others.<\/p>\n

The two-day Upstate event was to be held July 25-26 at the Anderson Sports and Entertainment Center and was billed as a celebration of America\u2019s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n

In its first year in 2024, \u201cRock The Country\u201d drew about 25,000 people and generated about $17 million for the state, Anderson County reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRock The Country\u201d was primarily founded by Kid Rock (real name Robert James Ritchie), and while it wasn\u2019t overtly billed as a political event, it served as a counter-cultural haven for MAGA-leaning ideology, with outspoken criticism of former President Joe Biden and progressive political policies.<\/p>\n

Kid Rock campaigned for President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election, has visited the White House in flamboyant patriotic regalia, and to kick off a 2022 concert tour had the president introduce him via a pre-recorded video.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 8, Kid Rock will headline a televised concert \u2014 sponsored by the late Charlie Kirk\u2019s conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA \u2014 during halftime of the Super Bowl to serve as a counter-performance to the game\u2019s halftime performer, Bad Bunny.<\/p>\n

The Puerto Rico-born artist \u2014 real name Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio and credited with bringing Latin rap to international fame \u2014 first drew the consternation of MAGA voices last October, when during hosting \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d he spoke in Spanish and told the audience that if they didn\u2019t understand what he was saying, they \u201chad four months to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Likewise, early 2000s Christian-inspired rock band Creed \u2014 which along with Ludacris was to be a premier headliner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,53663,61007,462,198045,35259],"class_list":{"0":"post-454236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jason-aldean","10":"tag-kid-rock","11":"tag-maga","12":"tag-rock-the-country","13":"tag-shinedown"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}