The 2026 Rock the Country Festival will no longer play in Anderson, South Carolina, after multiple musicians dropped out of the concert.
Anderson County administrator Rusty Burns told local newspaper The Post and Courier on Friday, February 6, that the two-day show was canceled. Burns further claimed that he wasn’t given a specific reason why the festival canceled its South Carolina shows.
Rock the Country is described as “a festival for the people” featuring performances from Kid Rock, Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll and Blake Shelton. The festival was scheduled to stop at eight towns across the United States this summer.
While Rock the Country has not publicly addressed shuttering the South Carolina dates, the festival’s website and social media pages have since been updated to highlight its remaining seven shows. The festival is currently scheduled to begin in Bellville, Texas, on May 1-2 before heading to Bloomingdale, Georgia, later that month. Performances are also scheduled to take place in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Ashland, Kentucky, Hastings, Michigan, Ocala, Florida, and Hamburg, New York.
Hours before the Anderson show was scrapped, Shinedown revealed that they no longer planned to play at any of the shows on the tour.
“Shinedown is everyone’s band. We feel that we have been given a platform to bring all people together through the power and music and song,” an X statement read. “We have one BOSS, and it is everyone in the audience. Our band’s purpose is to unite, not divide.”
The band added, “With that in mind, we have made the decision that we will not be playing the Rock the Country Festival. We know this decision will create differences of opinion, but we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division.”
Shinedown — featuring Brent Smith, Zach Myers, Barry Kerch, Eric Bass and Jasin Todd — previously denied any political motivation contributed to their initial decision to perform with Rock the Country.
“We are an apolitical band, but the knives have come out. It’s crazy, and to be honest, I had no idea,” Kerch, 49, said, on the “Vinyl Road” podcast in January. “It was just, ‘Hey, here’s an offer. It looks like a cool lineup, and it’s a mix of country and rock [artists].’ We took the offer … and then, all of a sudden, we found out this [has] got some political leaning to it. I don’t care, I’m just going to play a show. You keep your politics to yourself.”
Kerch further stressed that neither he nor his bandmates knew the festival was “Kid Rock’s thing.” (Kid Rock, 55, is a noted supporter of President Donald Trump and the Republican party, and is also set to headline Turning Point USA’s alternative halftime show during Super Bowl LX on Sunday, February 8.)
Shinedown isn’t the only artist to back out of Rock the Country — Carter Faith, Morgan Wade and Ludacris have similarly walked away from the shows.
“Lines got crossed, and he wasn’t supposed to be on there,” a rep for Ludacris, 48, told Rolling Stone earlier this month, claiming his inclusion was a “mix-up.”
