Donald Trump wants a Great American State Fair, called Freedom 250, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States' founding. While that will happen, the musical guests invited to perform are getting fewer. Poison's Bret Michaels is the latest to withdraw from the two-week-long event.
The others include Morris Day and the Time, Milli Vanilli, Martina McBride, Young MC, and the Commodores. The reason most have given is that they were "misled" by what the political orientation of the event was supposed to be. They thought the "state fair" would be non-partisan, but few things in the current culture are that.
Michaels said in a social media post on Friday, in part, "Unfortunately, what was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of. Concerns have also been raised regarding the safety of my fans, band, crew, family, and myself, including threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable. Because of that, I have made the difficult decision to step away from this performance."
Bret Michaels is the latest to back out of the Great American State Fair, Freedom 250
Some of the responses are quite negative on the Instagram post, some playing Michaels for giving in to the "liberal machine." No matter one's political views, the performers were likely put in a no-win situation by initially agreeing to perform anyway.
If they did play their songs, they were going to be seen as supporters of Donald Trump. If they decided to withdraw from performing, they could be viewed as anti-Trump. It may have been best to have never been asked to do some songs at all.
Music, ideally, brings people together, and being associated with what will inherently be a political event does the opposite of that.
Besides Bret Michaels, Martina McBride has also said the reason she withdrew from the event, organized by Trump staffer Keith Krach, saying she was "presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event" but that "turned out to be misleading."
The only performer to have confirmed his appearance is Vanilla Ice. Milli Vanilli's Fab Morvan will appear, but Morvan wasn't on any of the group's studio recordings, and isn't one of the faces of the controversial band.
Even stranger, and no offense to those musical artists who were asked to perform, is that none of the group are currently pop superstars, but instead one-time, sometimes hit-makers, or always on the fringes of true stardom, such as Vanilla Ice and Young MC. One might logically ask why newer artists were not seemingly asked to play.
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