Death Threats and Defections: 2026’s Rock The Country Fest

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In late 2023, Kid Rock and Jason Aldean announced they were co-headlining what became known as the 2024 Rock The Country festival. It was part festival, part tour, with multiple dates in multiple locations throughout the South and Midwest, and a different lineup in each location depending on the city. It’s a similar model to the original Lollapalooza or Lilith Fair festivals from the ’90s.

Miranda Lambert, Hank Williams Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd, Koe Wetzel, Brantley Gilbert, Travis Tritt, Lee Brice, Big & Rich, and Gretchen Wilson were some of the other big names involved in the tour, with an even deeper undercard of developing talent.

The big, unspoken theme behind the festival seemed to be that it was basically a big traveling political rally promoted during a Presidential election year, and coded toward the American right. This was never expressly stated on the posters or in any of the promotional copy for the traveling festival. But watching a documentary on the 2024 Rock The Country confirms the political tie-in, with Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump leading invocations, and fans touting their MAGA bonafides.

The Rock The Country festival/tour also took place in 2025, with Kid Rock and Nickelback being the two big names leading lineups in eleven different cities. By all indications, Rock The Country has turned into a strong and successful touring franchise that can be expected to happen each year.

Announced on January 12th, the 2026 Rock The Country Festival would travel to eight different locations, and feature the reunification of Kid Rock and Jason Aldean, along with top names like Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll, Creed, Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Riley Green, Hank Williams Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shinedown, Jon Pardi, Ella Langley, Brantley Gilbert, Treaty Oak Revival, Gavin Adcock, Ludacris, Nelly, and a large undercard depending on the city.



But where in previous years the Rock The Country announcements came with excitement by many, and eye rolls and grumbles from folks that were unlikely to attend anyway, the January 12th announcement was proceeded by widespread rebuke and condemnation of the performers whose names were associated with the event.

It seemed that the “vibe shift” that preceded the last Presidential election had started to shift back, and a passive resignation by some music fans to the politicization of the music turned into active pressure campaigns to shame artists to drop out of the events, or face supposed “cancellation” like it was 2020 all over again.

The first to capitulate was rapper Ludacris, who just like Nelly, has appeared on multiple “country” festival billings before. As opposed to owning up though, the Ludacris camp played dumb, saying appearing on the lineup was “a mix-up. Lines got crossed, and he wasn’t supposed to be on there.” Maybe that’s the case. But artists must confirm poster placements for events like this, and Ludacris has made a concerted effort to open the country market to his music. It’s more likely public pressure was the culprit.

Shortly after the Ludacris departure, two openers from the country world in Morgan Wade and Carter Faith also dropped off the lineup. In the face of public pressure being put on all the performers, the drummer for rock band Shinedown, Barry Kerch, called out Ludacris for being a coward for dropping out, though also acknowledged the band didn’t know about the political notions of the festival. He said in late January,

I had no idea this was Kid Rock’s thing. It was just, ‘Hey, here’s an offer. It looks like a cool lineup, and it’s a mix of country and rock. Okay, we’ll play it.’ We took the offer and played it, and then all of a sudden we find out, ‘Oh, this has got some political leaning to it.’

I don’t care. I’m just gonna go play a show. I really, really don’t care. You can keep your politics to yourself. I have no opinion one way or the other on Kid Rock. I love his music. This is about music. Ludacris wasn’t tough… I mean, it’s not like he needs the money, Jeez. If he’s not tough enough to stick it out, that’s just silly. That’s him being a coward, in my opinion.

But where the pressure really began to mount is after Kid Rock’s involvement was revealed in TPUSA’s alternative halftime to the Super Bowl. Two days before the Super Bowl (Feb. 6th) Shinedown decided to pull out, saying in a statement,

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.

The defections from the festival ultimately doomed two of the dates scheduled for Anderson, South Carolina, on July 25th and 26th, which were canceled.



But as the Super Bowl Halftime performance became the culture war du jour, people seemed to move on from the Rock The Country outrage, and public pressure died down on the performers, even if high-profile performers like Blake Shelton and Jelly Roll who previously were not considered through a political lens are now considered “MAGA.”

But it wasn’t just public pressure and backlash some Rock The Country performers have been facing. A 46-year-old man named Baptiste W. Brafford from Sheridan, Wyoming allegedly sent Rock The Country performer Tanner Usrey from Texas numerous death threats directly tied to a show he was scheduled to play in Rapid City, South Dakota on February 6th.

Saving Country Music has been able to confirm that the threats Usrey received were directly tied to his involvement in Rock The Country.

On January 12th—Rock The Country lineup was originally released—Tanner Usrey posted on X/Twitter, “Getting death threats for being on a festival lineup is f-cking CRAZY…”



Baptiste W. Brafford allegedly sent in Facebook messages, “Don’t come to Rapid City, you could end up ‘Charlie Kirk’ spreading that same hate. It be an arrow though … Hey a 30-06 (thirty-ought-six) would blow your head off. That’s what killed Charlie Queen yet didn’t blow his head off. You think it was a 06 (ought-six) but any good ole boy knows that was a .223 at best.”

Rapid City police were contacted about the threats, who then reached out to Sheridan, Wyoming police who arrested Brafford. The man told officers that he remembered sending Facebook messages to Usrey approximately one month previous and stated that he was drunk when he sent them. Brafford said he later deleted the conversation.

Brafford was taken into custody Feb. 4 for telephonic threats for communicating with Usrey electronically and threatening to inflict death. He pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge during arraignment Feb. 5, and later posted a $5,000 bond.

What the narratives, news stories, and now criminal charges stemming from the 2026 Rock The Country festival underscore is how political acrimony has now officially permeated every crevice of American culture, to the curation of many music events, to how those events are received by the public. Where you perform, who you perform with, what tour you choose to join, what music you perform or listen to is all being whittled down to a political decision, not one of personal taste.

Despite the proclamations of Rock The Country in their statement after the cancellations, they are dividing America, as are the fans an activists shaming the performers for participating in Rock The Country.

Now that negative rhetoric has even rose to the level of death threats, it’s not hard to imagine how it could manifest into physical violence. It did for Charlie Kirk like the alleged death threat author mentioned. It also did for the 60 people killed, and over 400 wounded in 2017 at the Route 91 country music festival in Las Vegas—the deadliest mass shooting in modern history, and one where a motive has never been concluded upon.

All of this is a catastrophic prognosis for the music community, and the ability of music to unite people. It’s all a symptom of the societal decay in a crumbling empire and late-stage Capitalist era that it now feels somewhat fruitless to rage against, and impossible to game a solution to, especially since so many are poised to personally benefit from this rabid polarization, at least in the short-term, feeding off of it for attention, social clout—and for those in the political class themselves, power.

But if for no other reason than for personal safety, everyone should work to turn the temperature down, show more grace and understanding than judgement, and work to restore music’s unique ability to unite people beyond the political binary, even if such a statement in itself seems blind and innocent to the realities of American society today.

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