American Pie Singer Don McLean Cancels Performance at NRA Convention Citing Uvalde Shooting

American Pie singer Don McLean has cancelled his scheduled performance at the National Rifle Association Convention in Texas this weekend.

McLean cited the Uvalde shooting as his reason for deciding not to perform at the NRA’s Grand Ole Night of Freedom concert Saturday at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

“In light of the recent events in Texas, I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week,” McLean said in a statement. “I’m sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events as well. After all, we are all Americans. I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation.”

McLean was facing pressure to cancel on social media.

Thomas Countryman, a former State Department official, tweeted, “@donmclean has been one of my very favorite artists for 50 years, and I was planning to attend his next concert. But if, as reported, he plays at the NRA convention this weekend, after 20 people were murdered in Texas, I will burn my CDs and music books.”

“McLean was arrested in 2016 for domestic violence against his then-wife, Patrisha McLean, at their home in Camden. McLean eventually pleaded guilty to some charges, while others were dropped,” the Press Herald reports. “Their daughter, Jackie McLean, who performs as part of the indie-pop duo Roan Yellowthorn, told Rolling Stone last year that her father emotionally abused her for years. She said she was terrified of her father while growing up in the family’s secluded home in Camden.”

“Don McLean has denied those allegations and said he has disinherited her,” the report added.

Still slated to perform are country artists Danielle Peck, T. Graham Brown, Larry Gatlin, Larry Stewart, Jacob Bryant and Lee Greenwood.

 

 

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