It’s like the old proverb says: How can you win the hearts and minds of a nation if you can’t even keep Shinedown on your side? Such is the plight of Kid Rock’s Rock The Country music festival, which has just added the Florida-based rock band to its list of recent festival dropouts. At the same time, outlets like Complex are reporting that the festival has just canceled what was supposed to be one of the 8 shows of its 2026 tour, dropping out of a July weekend appearance in South Carolina.
It’s not clear if the two incidents are related, with representatives for Kid Rock and Rock The Country so far not deigning to speak on the topic. But you know who does deign? Shinedown, which issued a statement on social media today asserting that Shinedown refuses to be drawn into fractious political debates:
SHINEDOWN is everyone’s band. We feel that we have been given a platform to bring all people together through the power of music and song. We have one BOSS, and it is everyone in the audience. Our band’s purpose is to unite, not divide. 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. And to our fans, thank you for supporting and believing in us. We love and appreciate you always. All love and respect, SHINEDOWN.
News of The Shinedown Withdrawal follows earlier reports that Ludacris had either dropped out of the shows, or never intended to be part of them in the first place. (Eagle-eyed Creed watchers have also noticed that the band’s name has disappeared from the Rock The Country site.) There are still a lot of pretty well-known names topping the bill for the other seven shows, including Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, and Jelly Roll, so it’s not clear if the withdrawals were the reason for the South Carolina cancellation. (Local authorities have told journalists that they weren’t given any motivation for why the festival pulled out.) But it’s obviously pretty hard to disconnect the festival from the wider political divides in America at the moment, especially because Rock himself won’t really let you, what with his endless efforts to associate himself with the Donald Trump regime—including headlining this week’s Turning Point USA “All-American Halftime Show”—in ways that are definitely turning up the political heat surrounding the festival.
