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Today – just nine months after the pandemic took off seriously – the United States has passed 10 million cases of coronavirus. This is according to Johns Hopkins University, a stronghold of public health and medicine, not a medium that some might choose to label as “bogus.” More than 237,000 Americans have died since the first reported case of Covid-19 in January.
And yet today a number of country music artists – some who should more than know better – speak of “hypocrisy.” In their view, this weekend’s spontaneous celebrations in cities across the country following Joe Biden’s presidential victory (an election George W. Bush called “fundamentally fair”) are somehow equal to their right to resume playing concerts.
“The hypocrisy is unreal,” Morgan Wallen wrote on Instagram, with a photo of people crammed into the street across from Lafayette Park in Washington, DC. “If you don’t agree with me, fine. can remain friends. But I have a family, a group and a crew that need to be provided and supported. If we can party in the streets without ‘social distancing’, we can book shows now. “
Wallen, as you may remember, was not invited as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live last month, after videos and photos were posted online of the singer kissing women and assaulting for the camera at a party in Alabama days before his SNL start. In an apology video, Wallen said it was going to take a little while and “it might be a second before you hear from me.” It was hardly that long. He resurfaced last week on the Bobby Bones radio personality podcast; this weekend, he was lecturing online on largely masked celebrations.
Brian Kelley, half of Florida Georgia Line, has suggested that Covid-19 could be somehow linked to the election itself. “I knew we’ve been waiting for the election since March when this shit show started,” he commented on a photo of a celebration in DC. Plots seem to be going on in the Kelley house. Earlier this summer, his wife, social media influencer Brittney Kelley, amplified the online furniture conspiracy Wayfair, an insane cousin of Pizzagate and QAnon who warns against child trafficking. On Monday, she addressed her followers in an Instagram video, clarifying her take on election dance parties. “We’re for rallies, we’re for celebrations, whoever wins is good,” she said, “but it seemed to me someone had to call hypocrisy.”
“It’s time to get back to work in AMERICA,” continued Brian Kelley in his post. “The reservation is displayed as soon as possible.” Well, not as Florida Georgia Line, he won’t: On Monday, his duo teammate Tyler Hubbard announced he was in quarantine after testing positive and will miss FGL’s planned performance at the CMA Awards Wednesday. (Coincidentally Lincoln-had-a-secretary-named-Kennedy? Hubbard, a staunch advocate for gun reform, is from the next Blue Georgia; Kelly is from Red Florida.)
Country singers Chase rice, RaeLynn, Michael Ray, Mitchell Tenpenny and Chris Lane also weighed in with comments online likening spontaneous celebrations to organized concerts (“People are partying in the streets all over this country, but we can’t have concerts. Lane wrote in a photo of the students recklessly rushing onto the field at a Notre Dame football game on Saturday.) Unmasked gatherings don’t bother Rice and RaeLynn: The former hosted an unmasked concert (but admittedly outdoors) for Tennessee fans in June, and RaeLynn posted a video of a cleric. “protest” cult she attended alongside thousands of people in October in downtown Nashville.
Obviously, some artists don’t see the main environmental differences. A celebration that erupts in the wake of an emotionally exhausting election – or a protest that forms against racial injustice and police brutality – and spills out onto the streets, with nearly everyone wearing masks and in constant motion, n It’s not the same as a person sitting or standing – an indoor performance only. While a recent German study affirmed that the risk of transmission of Covid may be low during indoor concerts, good ventilation, strict hygiene rules and a limited audience are essential.
On top of that, and perhaps most blatantly, the nonchalant calls to resume live broadcasts typically ignore fans. We have all been plunged into an economic crisis because of the pandemic – millions have lost their jobs, music teams particularly affected – and yet artists are clamoring to get back on the road in traditional ways (not like socially distant concerts and limited capacity (by Jason Isbell and Marcus King) suggests that they do not consider their fans’ finances and their health and safety.
Given the recent diagnoses of two of their colleagues – Hubbard and singer Lee Brice, who also had to withdraw from the CMA Awards – and Covid death by Joe Diffie and John Prine, such comments to cover live gigs seem both cavalier and extraordinary.
But maybe they shouldn’t be. Maybe some of these artists are perhaps making up for another setback they witnessed last weekend.
When Donald Trump was on the campaign trail in the weeks leading up to Election Day, where was the outrage over his largely unmasked and elbow-to-asshole rallies? Herman Cain was diagnosed with Covid nine days after attending a Trump rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and then died. Where were the Instagram stories – that most chickenshit method of saying something in a way that doesn’t drag on for too long – when this happened?
So maybe they are just mourning the loss of Trump, the aspiring Superman who, on a supercharged, super-expensive drug regimen, beat Covid but couldn’t beat Biden – even though John Rich is Tweeter that, like Lazarus, Trump will soon rise from the dead.
At the end of the day, we also want the shows to come back. It will be a glorious day when we will be side by side again, singing and swinging and drinking drinks on top of each other. Until then, it’s time to stop spitting bullshit.
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