On Zac Brown Laying Off 90% of His Employees

Look. In this dark and moldy corner of the internet, we love to razz on pop country artists for their bad songs and stupid haircuts. It’s fun. It’s what we do. It’s a way to use comedy to commiserate about the sad state of what much of country music has become. But there’s an appropriate time for that, and no different than congregating at your local honky tonk to hear your favorite band, now is not the right time. But even when it does feel appropriate, there’s never a lack of respect for these performers on a human level. When times get tough, it’s a good reminder that we are all still part of a greater community, and family.
You average bad pop country performer is probably a really good person at heart, and however ill gotten their gains might be at the expense of the integrity of country music, they’re more than often apt to turn around and share a portion of that wealth with their communities, and take their role as benefactors and role models seriously.
We’ve seen this over and over during this Coronavirus nightmare. Florida Georgia Line has pledged to give $1,000 to all the employees of their FGL House club and restaurant in downtown Nashville amid the closure of the venue due to COVID-19. Dierks Bentley is doing the same for the 90 employees of his downtown bar. John Rich is doing this also, and has challenged all the celebrity owners of country music establishments to think about the human toll of these social distancing measures, and to reach into their deep pockets.
Of course these acts of generosity often coincide with press releases and social media posts which result in good PR for their pop country celebrity “brands,” let alone the tax writeoffs that will be forthcoming. It’s even more cool when a celebrity doesn’t broadcast these acts of generosity. They just do them. But it’s truly the thought and action that counts. Even though these celebrities are in a much better position to absorb the hit, it’s a financial burden on them nonetheless.
Truth is there are many touring musicians that without a lot of fanfare pay a long list of employees on a yearly basis, even if there’s little or no work to be had. That’s part of the job if you want to keep a quality and loyal road crew together that will be there when you need them, even through long hiatuses in the yearly calendar.
In a teary-eyed address on Instagram Wednesday night (3-18), Zac Brown explained that after 15 years of touring, he was having to let go of 90% of his full time employees as part of his road crew due and support staff due to the Coronavirus cancellations. Though there is no doubt this was a tough decision for Zac Brown, as it would be for anyone, some are questioning why a man worth an estimated $40 million couldn’t do like many of his peers in the music industry, and pony up to keep his employees afloat during this tough time.
Of course this also comes at a moment when Zac Brown has gone from one of the more beloved characters in the greater country music realm, to incredibly polarizing for some of his recent output, and his push toward EDM and hip-hop in his career. Zac Brown left behind even some of his most loyal fans at the end of 2019 when he released songs like “God Given” and “Swayze.”
Something else worth pointing out in this situation is how quick Zac Brown’s hook was in pulling the plug on his current tour. Before much of the rest of the industry announced COVID-19 cancellations, Brown postponed his tour on March 10th, affecting dates well into late April. Some bands and artists are still rescheduling dates to April, or keeping them on their calendars. You can give Zac credit for being ahead of the curve when it comes to Coronavirus, though some are wondering if it was a just a good excuse to cancel a tour that wasn’t selling through well due to the pretty widespread criticism of the current direction of his music.
It’s really easy to sit back and criticize Zac Brown for the decision to let go of his employees, especially if you’re apt to dog pile on him already for those terrible songs he’s been releasing recently. But I’m not sure this is entirely fair. There is no doubt that the new direction in Zac’s music has resulted in a slight insurrection within Zac Brown’s fan base that has eroded some of his underlying support. But there is also no doubt this was a tough decision for Zac. After a recent divorce, we really don’t know the financial status of Zac Brown.
This all feels similar to criticizing Jason Aldean when he ran for cover while on stage during the Route 91 Las Vegas massacre in 2017. Some say he should have stood his ground and announced to the crowd to seek cover. But since there really was little or no cover to seek since the fans were basically in a fenced-in bullpen, it’s questionable if that would have done any good. Meanwhile, think about what your reaction would have been when you hear bullets whizzing by your head, and have your stage manager screaming at you to get off the stage because someone is shooting.
Everybody is hurting right now due to this Coronavorius issue aside from Amazon, teleconference companies, and toilet paper manufacturers. It would have been cool for Zac Brown to step up and support his employees through this tough time, especially since we don’t have a real clear timeline on how long this shutdown of American life will last. If he’s back touring in May, his move will look incredibly presumptuous. If this lasts well into the fall or farther, Zac Brown will look ahead of the curve, just like he was postponing his live dates.
What’s a little irking is how Zac Brown blamed our “leadership” for this move, as if he isn’t the least bit culpable for his own actions. Undoubtedly, leadership in the United States could have handled this situation much better, and some of this could have been avoided. But if you’re looking for governments and leaders who bungled this important moment, the line forms to the left, and behind China whose unregulated wet markets gave rise to the virus when we’ve known the risk for many years, while their government looked to hide the severity of the outbreak early on.
Many European countries have fared much worse than the United States so far. This may change over time. But with the death rates we’re seeing in Italy, Spain, and France, it’s hard to say leadership in the USA handled this any worse than the rest of the 1st world. Every corner of the Earth has been touched by the Coronavirus. No matter what anyone did, it was coming to the USA and everywhere else. The United States and other countries could have made unprecedented moves much earlier to control and prepare for this virus, and still the outbreak could have been severe. This moment, and this disease is unprecedented in the modern era.
Meanwhile, “Leadership” could have been Zac Brown stepping up to make an example of how the more privileged can take care of employees in this trying time. Blaming others for having to let go of his staff, and broadcasting that to the world through social media looking for sympathy is where it feels like Zac Brown misstepped in this situation. We can’t control what leaders did in the past. But we all have control over our current actions. Then again, put yourself in Zac Brown’s shoes. If you think this was an easy decision for Zac to make, you didn’t watch the same video I did. We’re all trying to do the best we can in this situation.
As bad as the current music of Zac Brown is, it should be the hope of everyone that he can get back out on the road soon because that means the rest of performing artists can do the same, and we can all return to normal life. Then if the market deems Zac Brown’s new music to not be worth the price of admission and he has to lay off employees, that’s just the way it is, and not due to some evil virus wrecking all of our lives.
But no matter our taste in music, people come first. Thousands, and eventually millions will lose their jobs due to the Coronavirus outbreak. And though this is a really sad assessment, it pales in comparison to concern for the sick, the dead, and the severely displaced due to COVID-19.
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UPDATE: Zac Brown and The Zac Brown Band have now cancelled all 2020 dates, citing concerns for the Coronavirus.
March 20, 2020 @ 10:40 am
The USA and South Korea had their first confirmed case on the exact same day.
South Korea is now testing 20,000 people per day, free of charge.
Meanwhile, people in the States, with symptoms, can’t even get tested.
We’re not as densely populated as a lot of these countries, so the spread has only just begun…and the fact that we have so few confirmed cases is a bug, not a feature.
March 20, 2020 @ 10:56 am
Regardless of what I think of Zac Brown’s recent crappy music, nearly everyone’s job is in jeopardy at this time. Unemployment is going to sky rocket and the music industry will not be immune. Would be cool to see that he made some commitment but I don’t know all the circumstances. It is easy to spend someone else’s money and say “he or she should do this or not do this.” I guarantee if he would have committed $X to help them folks would have lit him up for not doing more.
March 20, 2020 @ 11:32 am
I’m not trying to defend the response of the United States to Coronavirus, though none of us will have the capability of giving a fair assessment of any country’s response until all the cards have been played out. It’s easy to point to this country, or that country as examples, but the countries people point to are often the exceptions, not the rule. South Korea is the shining city on the hill for how to deal with Coronavirus. Italy would be the worst case scenario. Regardless of testing, every death is confirmed, and the amount of deaths in Italy, France, and Spain, is much higher than the United States at the moment, and that is attributed to the US banning travel from China before these European countries, while many of the US cases are being attributed to European travel, including John Prine’s wife Fiona. The UK still has yet to ban mass gatherings. Pubs and restaurants are still open in London.
I just think it’s real easy to shake our little balled up fists at the “government” or “leadership” and act like all of this was completely avoidable. Coronavirus was coming to the United States, just like it was coming everywhere where international travel is common. At the worst, the United States scores par with their response. That’s still not good enough, but there’s a very good chance we could have banned travel sooner, stockpiled more testing kits, masks, and ventilators, and still Zac Brown would have been forced to cancel his tour. The Coronavious is what’s to blame here. This is an unprecedented disease. Looking for scapegoats for laying off employees when you can dip into savings or sell off some assets seems to be passing the buck to me.
March 20, 2020 @ 12:14 pm
The US hasn’t banned mass gatherings either, though – some states have, and others have not.
No one currently pissed at the federal government’s utter failure of leadership thought the virus was avoidable. We expected it to go worldwide, and wanted the federal government to prepare for it to arrive on our shores.
The government didn’t prepare, repeatedly lied to the American people about the virus’s spread and the risk it poses, and even now refuses to implement the best practices seen in Korea.
Also, the “lack of spread” has nothing to do with the fact that US air carriers stopped flying to the US from China, at which point the government announced that they were “banning travel.” It has to do with:
A) The lack of testing equipment resulting in underreporting of cases (NY state has a third of the total confirmed cases in the country…because they’re one of the few states actually testing).
B) The relative lack of population density in the states – Germany (currently testing 10,000 people per day, even though their patient zero arrived after ours) has a population of over 80 million in a land mass half the size of Texas. Not even counting the UK, the EU as a whole has a greater population density than California – and Germany’s is twice as much as that of the EU as a whole.
The Coronavirus crisis hasn’t begun to hit the States yet.
March 20, 2020 @ 12:48 pm
This is my point about Zac Brown’s assertion that he’s having to lay off his employees due to the lack of leadership in the United States:
His current leg of “The Owl” tour was announced on November 22nd, 2019, and included 19 dates.
The Zac Brown Band played five shows on the tour in 2020 from February 28th to March 6th.
On March 10th, Zac Brown announced he was postponing the tour due to the Coronavirus.
If the government would have acted more swiftly, the first thing they would have banned was mass gatherings like major arena concerts.
The Zac Brown Band would have not been allowed to play some or all of those five shows before the cancellations, meaning they would have made even less money, and would have offered even less employment opportunities to his support staff than he already has.
There is no way government inaction is what caused Zac Brown to lay off his employees. If the government would have acted more swiftly, he would have likely had to make this decision sooner, and had even less money. It’s a total cop out.
Again, I don’t think it’s fair to totally throw Zac Brown under the bus. This had to be a difficult decision for him. But it’s not the fault of our “leadership.” Either way, he was having to cancel the tour. At least this way, he was able to get a few shows in.
And testing is one thing, and deaths are another. Sure, Coronavirus might be coming to the US in a much bigger way in the coming weeks. But our government acted similarly, if not even more aggressively than the average 1st world nation. And even though Trump was out there calling it a hoax, The CDC and others were already taking it very seriously and preparing. Was there a failure in leadership? Yes. Did it result in Zac Brown having to lay off his employees? No. Not at all. If anything, it helped him.
March 20, 2020 @ 1:22 pm
Trigger, it’s cute that you think (or pretend to think) Lester is here to talk about Zac Brown.
March 20, 2020 @ 1:44 pm
Trigger. When it is all over Zac Brown will announce a massive tour of the USA. All concerts FREE.
March 21, 2020 @ 5:52 pm
As haggard said if you don’t love it leave it.so when this is over if you have such a problem with this country and it’s government move to China or Korea.how many soldiers died and sacrificed for this country and I have yet to hear hardly one bitch about it.
we are asked to stay at home for a month and people place blame and raise hell about it.toughen the fuck up and dig in for this.
March 21, 2020 @ 8:00 pm
Oh, honey…I’ve lived in Ireland for a while, now.
Leo shut down bars across the country the week before St. Patrick’s Day, to protect lives.
The morons we elected refused tests from the WHO, and repeatedly lied to the American people, in a failed attempt to save face for November.
December 16, 2021 @ 7:49 am
I wish immigration and emigration happened as easily as reactionaries think it does. I’ve never had not one of these “love it or leave it” mfs (an attitude that Merle Haggard reneged on calling Okie from Muscogee an embarrassment by a kid that didn’t know what he was talking about) offer to bankroll me for the massive income it requires to actually “leave it”.
March 20, 2020 @ 1:38 pm
Oh please Trigger. One of your better articles on the virus until near the end. The U.K. government has ordered the closure of ALL pubs, restaurants, theatres, cinemas etc until further notice. And all schools closed until at least autumn. A bit late, granted. But they have responded. They also gave out a list of all regarded as essential workers. Have a laugh, one group———undertakers. And in Ireland there are plans to turn refridgerated lorries into makeshift morgues as they think morgues May be overrun. However having brought in the ban on pubs etc at least the government in a totally unprecedented move has guaranteed the owners of these establishments that they will pay their workforce 80 percent of their workers wages. There is actually a very sound reason for this but it is complicated. Music is going to take a hell of a hit. So are we all. As far as your comments on China are concerned, I could not agree more. When you look at what is going on in Italy you have to seriously question the figures and timeline for China. Stay safe.
March 20, 2020 @ 2:07 pm
I’m fairly sure the announcement that they were closing all restaurants and bars in UK was made after this article was published.
March 20, 2020 @ 2:13 pm
I stand corrected then about UK pubs and restaurants. I watched a report last night that said they were still open. Nonetheless, my point is that there have definitely been governments that have not acted as swiftly as the United States. The United States may have not handled this well, but really nobody has. And though we should identify those mistakes and learn from them, I think it’s a little silly to say the USA’s response has been subpar. I wouldn’t even say that about Italy because that seems unfair. I truly believe people are trying to do everything they can to combat this virus aside from a few outliers.
March 20, 2020 @ 2:55 pm
See Triiger. Read. Read. And then read again. Todd said the U.K. announcement was made after your article. And he is probably right. Yes I do agree that all concerned are trying their best to defeat this. But they should leave it to those people who have the expertise to do so. An article in today’s NYT states that the White House vetoed bringing into force a federal law that would require businesses to manufacture items needed to fight this virus. Reason being it would go against long held conservative opposition to big government. Several companies,including General Motors, say they are willing to do this. If a conservative government in this country say they will pay 80 per cent of workers wages surely USA could do something on a similar scale there is no point in surviving this thing if we are only going to lurch into a wholesale recession. Or worse. By the way the U.K. closedown announcement was made at 4pm our time.
March 20, 2020 @ 3:15 pm
Hey Paddy,
Actually those war powers were just enacted today by the Trump Administration, and will primarily be used in the manufacturing of masks, and the retrofitting of ventilators.
March 20, 2020 @ 3:04 pm
A little update. Irish govt has just passed an emergency law giving the State sweeping new laws in relation to the virus. Includes laws to detain people, restrict people to their own homes and restrict travel among other laws. One lawmaker said that this virus has made the powerful powerless.
March 20, 2020 @ 4:42 pm
Trump hasn’t actually used the War Powers Act, at this point.
He’ll tell anyone who asks that he’s “enacted” it, but he hasn’t actually compelled any companies to begin manufacturing medical supplies.
March 20, 2020 @ 4:39 pm
Leo banned pubs the Sunday BEFORE Paddy’s, because lives were at stake.
Meanwhile…Trump STILL won’t compel companies to produce supplies (he’s lying and pretending otherwise, but he hasn’t done it).
March 21, 2020 @ 4:03 am
Hey Lester. Yeah, Leo is getting a lot of kudos over here. But stupidity reigns. Here in Northern Ireland all schools closed on Friday. To help them get over no school (or to celebrate) a group of 200 16-18 year olds had a beach party And some parents when asked said they were doing no harm. Jesus wept.
March 21, 2020 @ 6:33 am
Cool Lester Smooth, what do you make of the “small” number of deaths due to corona so far, 227 in America? You said there might be 50,000 cases in NYC alone, so with a 1% death rate that would be 500 deaths just in NYC. Why only 227 deaths? Deliberate under-reporting, or not testing those who died for corona? Funeral directors in Italy think they are WAY under-reporting the number of deaths there…it should be 4 or 5 times higher than the “official” number of deaths.
March 21, 2020 @ 12:37 pm
Yeah, I saw that.
I know 26+6=1 and all…but things like that make me wonder, haha!
Dubs has been really good about it, those idiots on TB notwithstanding. Absolutely ghost town, this week.
Justin – I’m sure there were quite a few deaths that were “just” ruled pneumonia, before the outbreak properly began…and given the government’s behavior to date, I don’t expect them to report anyone who dies before getting a test as a COVID-19 death.
March 21, 2020 @ 10:00 pm
Don’t ignore your part in the blame game trigger. You pointed to China, as is the wont in some circles, even though they were able to contain it in their country. We had enough time to get ready and we didn’t. Not China’s fault. You can be optimistic all you want but not at the expense of reality and preparedness. We acted much too late and are still dragging our heels, and it’s going to cause a lot of suffering for a lot of people. Saying or suggesting things like “it’s not going to be as bad as Italy” is so unhelpful. It’s going to be bad, and the time to act was yesterday.
March 21, 2020 @ 11:47 pm
Everything is China’s fault. The virus emanated from an unregulated wet market in the Wuhan Province of China where someone ate a bat infected with the virus, starting the human transmission. This has been a known concern for years. It’s exactly how the SARS outbreak started. Books have been written about the subject, dozens of academic papers have been written about the subject. The WHO and CDC have addressed the issue directly in the past. This concern is the reason you can’t purchase or order deer meat or other wild game anywhere in the United States and most others developed countries. The question wasn’t if, but when this outbreak would happen. Now it has.
I’m not going to apologize for not being alarmist and trying to remain positive. You can do this, and still be very concerned and vigilant against this virus.
March 21, 2020 @ 11:56 pm
That’s nonsense. I’m not going to defend China’s meat practices or say that the virus didn’t start there. Clearly it did. But we have no control over China’s meat markets, only our response. An adequate response costs a lot less lives than an inadequate one. Pointing the finger at China doesn’t do anything to help us now
March 22, 2020 @ 12:14 am
“Pointing the finger at China doesn’t do anything to help us now.”
Totally agree. But it could definitely help us in the future, and it certainly isn’t racist.
March 22, 2020 @ 10:42 am
It’s not racist to point out that the virus started at meat market in China, but it’s something different to sit on our hands and say “look what the Chinese bat eaters are doing to us”. The assessment of our response up to this point as “average at worst” isn’t borne out by the data. We’ve been on a steady trend to become the worst hit country in the world. Getting away from that scenario requires doing something different than what we’ve been doing, because what we’ve been doing is not enough.
March 21, 2020 @ 9:59 am
CLS,
We already knew you hated Donnie. Next?
March 21, 2020 @ 12:40 pm
Why do you feel the need to politicize a public health crisis?
I’m just stating facts, here. No need to get your feelings hurt.
March 21, 2020 @ 2:25 pm
Hurt? I just wanted you to know that we all already know that you hate Donnie, and that you don’t need to remind us. Your politicization of a public health “crisis” to show your hatred of Donnie that we all already know about, is very unoriginal. The media has been doing it for weeks.
March 21, 2020 @ 3:15 pm
He and the media are triggered.
But they should be happy. They finally got a crisis to take down the economy. Russia failed. Impeachment failed. But yap about public health and the people panic.
March 21, 2020 @ 7:50 pm
…huh?
Again, snowflake, let’s try to stick to facts, rather than getting emotional.
Which of my statements do you think were incorrect?
List them, then offer evidence to that effect.
After all, sport…facts really don’t care about your feelings.
March 21, 2020 @ 8:47 pm
I didn’t say anything about your “facts”, and have no interest in confirming or denying them. I just wanted you to know that we know you hate Donnie. We get it. You really, really don’t like the guy.
March 21, 2020 @ 10:12 pm
Frankly who gives a shit about who hates Donnie or whether or not Zac Brown is touring. It doesn’t have any bearing. You and the mouse in your pocket are completely and totally convinced that he hates “Donnie”. Cool, now move on.
March 21, 2020 @ 10:47 pm
Hi Zach,
That’s not a mouse. It’s your mother’s hand. Anyway, I clicked on this article to state that I’m glad ZB isn’t touring, although I feel bad for his employees, and the very first comment is CLS crying about Donnie. But we already know he and his comrades hate Donnie. Everywhere we turn, somebody is crying about something Donnie has done or said.
Donnie is probably doing a worse job than Donnie thinks, and a better job than these crybabies think. The crying doesn’t help, it just makes people think you’re a hysterical, emotionally-insane kook.
December 16, 2021 @ 7:54 am
Some TRIGGERED Donnie Deals fans in here I see! Get it? Ahahahaha okay I’ll be here all week folks
March 20, 2020 @ 11:02 am
Sorry Lester, my comment was not meant to respond to you.
March 21, 2020 @ 7:52 pm
You’re grand, dude.
It is amusing watching snowflakes like CK and Honky start to throw hissyfits because they can’t handle facts and logic, though.
March 20, 2020 @ 11:41 am
Yeah ya know I don’t know Zac Browns business/personal financial balance sheet but his blaming whomever for this if he did isn’t cool. Maybe he was told by advisers to “lay them off” so like myself and many others in show business they/we can collect our unemployment compensation that I personally have been paying into for 40 years (30 at my current job) and never taken a penny out of until today when I finally got through and the lady told me I’d be getting $484 a week for 26 weeks which is close to about a day or so’s worth of work pay for me any givin week. For any artist to pay a full crew full pay for however long this lasts is not only a business decision but a personal one as well. People in our line of work are not afforded the luxury of a guaranteed 40hr X 52 week life or a yearly salary like many or paid sick leave/vacation pay. We know that. No shows = No pay. I’ve never really touched on it on here but when I make the decision to buy a ticket for a show….say…..the Emily Scott Robinson ticket I bought for $13. I was offered to work that night for $500. That’s the ridiculousness I and many in my business have in our lives. I missed the show not because I couldn’t of afforded to go but I have to draw the line sometimes in my head my heart and ohh yes……..my wallet. Cody always wins though. 🙂
March 20, 2020 @ 11:49 am
For the record to clear up any confusion. I missed Emily’s show because sadly I went to work.
March 20, 2020 @ 12:08 pm
I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt on this. Who knows the full story, what the costs are, his actual worth,etc. The problem, for me at least, is that this is exactly what I would think a celebrity who would turn his back on country music while chasing trends and seeking more fame and fortune would do. The attempt to shift the blame only solidifies that impression. I don’t know…maybe that’s harsh, and he’s really a great guy. I might just be biased because I just happened to watch the Wade Bowen documentary…he paid his crew when his throat got fucked, his career was uncertain, and he couldn’t tour. Not the exact same scenario for sure, but also not completely different either.
March 20, 2020 @ 1:00 pm
How dare anyone say Zac Brown band does crappy music. I am 71 years old and dance and juggle 3 footballs to his knee deep songs. If you ain’t got no rhythm or soul then sit and watch others enjoying simple joyous compositions. Plus, his “highway 20” or what it’s called is a deep comment on far away fatherhood. No comment on layoffs, except he must have enough cash to help out his workers
March 20, 2020 @ 1:12 pm
Typical.
March 20, 2020 @ 1:13 pm
Speaking from Rome,Italy this whole situation is FUCKING insane and governments have little responsability about it. The only thing i can say for sure is Italy didn’t run out of toilet paper because we got bidets!
March 20, 2020 @ 1:51 pm
Many many years ago I had a friend who went on holiday to Italy. He was greatly impressed with the bathroom facilities in his room. Said there was even a wee bowl type thing for washing his feet. Irish by the way.
March 20, 2020 @ 2:00 pm
As much as I can’t stand Zac Brown at the moment, it’s sad he has to do this, and that so many other es have to lose their jobs as well. Blaming leadership is just stupid; this whole event was unfits rebake, particularly given the fact that China covered it up for so long. I guess this is the world we live in, where everyone blames “leadership” for anything bad that happens? Stupid to make this political.
March 20, 2020 @ 2:46 pm
Well, you’ve done it again my good man- brought some insane politics into the discussion. Why do you feel the need to defend this government that by EVERY account beyond what comes out of the horses addled mouth itself has proven wildly inadequate while maintaining classic ‘yellow fever’ race baiting bullshit that got his very stable genius ass elected? Drop it. It is a problem. Or rename your website something more appropriate. Is it our gov’s fault? Of course not. Could they have planned better? Obviously. The fact that you can’t be critical of a politician/want and expect them to do better for us without being labeled a socialist and verbally assaulted is insane. Now to the issue you brought up and then obscured needlessly-
There are very few artists that are consistently good to their crew/players- notably, Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks have been consistently supportive of their employees over the decades. The hard part is, when the artist and/ or management decided to clean house, there’s a legion of folks ready to jump into those positions for less money/job security. NDA’s re: salaries complicate the mess. Nothing particularly new here. That is simply the biz, if it’s a pandemic or you made a bad album and no one’s coming out anymore
March 20, 2020 @ 3:11 pm
” Is it our gov’s fault? Of course not. Could they have planned better? Obviously. The fact that you can’t be critical of a politician/want and expect them to do better for us without being labeled a socialist and verbally assaulted is insane.”
Agree with all of this. Also agree that it’s just insane that if you don’t blame everything on the evil orange guy, you’re immediately considered a fascist.
Trump is not helping things by trolling people by calling this the “Chinese virus,” but his detractors aren’t helping by allowing themselves to be trolled. The simple fact is that Asian wet markets is where this virus and SARS emanated from due to animal/human contraction, we’ve known this is a problem for a long time, books have been written about it, and still the Chinese government refuses to regulate these open air markets that have now lead to this crippling of the world.
There’s a reason you can’t buy deer or elk meat, or any other wild game at the store, or in a restaurant in the United States. This carelessness by the Chinese that we’ve known about for years has now killed thousands of people and decimated the world economy. The world should come together to help secure the food supply in Asia to prevent this from ever happening again. Trump has made mistakes here, but focusing ire on him, the United States, or the response of any country is to overlook the much bigger issue. If we’re afraid to address how we got here from fear of being labeled racist, it’s bound to happen again. But again, Trump isn’t helping the cause with his purposefully inflammatory rhetoric.
March 20, 2020 @ 9:13 pm
“..allowing themselves to be trolled”…?
So in this particular instance, there’s something wrong with being outraged by Trump’s manifestly racist behavior, naming it as such, and pressuring him to stop? Even if you’re critiquing the reaction in terms of tactics about the best way to combat this kind of racism, you’re woefully wrong. And I’m pretty sure that’s not what you’re saying.
Naming flagrant racism as racist and being outraged by it is good; there should be a public shaming. Bludgeoning some otherwise well-meaning someone for a mistake, almost always not a good idea. What Trump is doing and his critics reactions is the former, not the latter. Get a grip.
I’m sympathic to critics of so-called “wokeness” but this is a confused critique that takes that sentiment to a completely mistaken place. That’s putting it generously. Bizarre take.
March 20, 2020 @ 11:14 pm
Trump is calling it the “Chinese Virus” for one primary reason: to piss you off. It you let it, he wins. Then, every time you and others think about Trump, you have a very negative visceral reaction, which clouds judgement with emotion. He wins again. It’s called getting in somebody’s kitchen. It’s a strategy.
March 20, 2020 @ 11:24 pm
He’s calling it the Chinese virus for a variety of reasons; some cause he’s a bigot and that’s the play he knows. Mostly though, he’s doing it to leverage peopel’s fears for support for his xenophobic agenda and to deflect blame from his horrendous failures of leadership that have meant this crisis is so much worse than it needed to be. “You got a problem with this virus? Me too! And you know who’s caused this suffering? The Chinese, that’s who!”. Checking that against reality is important. To be silent would be to be complicit.
Being “emotional” about racism isn’t a problem; feeling is not the enemy. There’s nothing wrong with having a “visceral” reaction of disgust by it and conveying that; to the contrary, it means you’re on the right track.
March 21, 2020 @ 7:46 am
Calling is the Chinese Virus came from a PR consultant. That’s why it spread through right wing media so fast.
The WH is calling COVID-19 the Chinese Virus to distract from their failures. It’s designed to shift blame from the White House to China.
Trump is a TV personality, he cares about ratings, he said this out loud when he talked about leaving sick people on cruise ships, he said he didn’t want the “numbers” to go up.
But now along with Neilson ratings (he regularly comments on viewership for his time on TV and the ratings of cable news shows), he cares about polls, and you can go through his Twitter feed and see him posting Rassmussen polls almost daily.
He tried to BS his way out of this, saying there were only 15 people and they would all get better, while the CDC and WHO said we should all be concerned.
His story kept changing until last week when he claimed he always knew it was a pandemic.
We had our first confirmed infection on the same day as South Korea and the fact that you cannot get a test right now should make Patriots at least a little bit sad.
I hope everyone is okay.
March 21, 2020 @ 11:34 am
Yeah, it’s probably not because the virus started in China.
March 21, 2020 @ 11:46 am
It’s imperative that we point out where this virus came from, and not be daunted by ridiculous accusations of “racism” for doing so. I can’t think of a more glaring example of political correctness getting into the way of human progress. But the way Trump is punctuating it, and leading off press conferences with it, he’s doing it to purposely get under the skin of his detractors. He’s right, but it’s not helping the cause. Explaining rationally why it’s important we emphasize what led the world to this is important. The way he’s doing it feels petty to me.
March 21, 2020 @ 12:02 pm
I actually don’t completely disagree with you. But can you blame the guy (can’t believe I’m defending him)? They’ve done nothing but cry and accuse for 3 years.
I fully support his right to use facts to offend morons.
March 21, 2020 @ 7:57 pm
I actually agree that it’s important to prevent Trump from changing the subject from his incompetence to his racism.
In the two days since Trig posted this article, the number of American cases has literally doubled, and that’s mostly driven by Cuomo getting New York up to international testing standards, even as most of the country lags behind, due to the President’s refusing WHO testing kits, lest the spread of the virus make him look bad.
April 14, 2020 @ 10:54 am
Trump, like him or loathe him (there seems to be no in-between) is the ONLY one that has had the balls to take on China. Who do you think is going to come out smelling of roses from this? China. They have a population of 1.5 Billion (give or take)…Their death toll (if to be believed) is a drop in the ocean, and you can bet their economy will bounce back the fastest. I’m not worried about Covid… I’m worried China could start WWIII whilst the world is bickering about who did what when. People don’t give two sh*ts about the hundreds of thousands that die every year from cancer… they suddenly do about Covid when the media pound daily death rates in your face 24/7. Wake up and see you’re all being played by all sides. Oh, as for Zac Brown… Someone that has the talent, but chose the wrong path. Still time to right the wrong.
February 12, 2021 @ 12:16 pm
The same Cuomo that hid the actual numbers of deaths?
But he wrote a book about it so he is an expert to the Loony Left. /s
March 20, 2020 @ 3:10 pm
I don’t understand why he even announced it like this..
March 20, 2020 @ 3:16 pm
Yeah, why broadcast this information? If I were him, I would hope it goes under-the-radar, and hire everyone back come after the hiatus. It was just a half-cocked bid for sympathy.
March 20, 2020 @ 4:24 pm
Businesses shut down. That’s life. Toys R Us shut down. They had a lot more employees than Zac Brown.
Heck, I’d bet that George Strait and Alan Jackson have probably let go of 90% of the support staff they had when they were running full-time recording and concert-touring enterprises.
March 20, 2020 @ 5:08 pm
Some people with wealth have character and a sense of stewardship and responsibility and others do not.
Some folks understand a moral obligation to take care of the people who help them and others don’t.
My wife will likely be forced to temporarily lay off her shop help next Wyatt, but she will, nonetheless, continue to pay them as if the store is open for business.
We have a tenant who is not paying rent, but, instead of haranguing them for money, we will instead help with compensating their employees.
I overtip everyone who served us (25-50%), mostly because I remember cleaning tables as a young man
We tip people who never get tips (busmen and servers).
I hope that Zac has done more for his people than Trig has observed.
He may one day find out that wealth can be fleeting.
March 20, 2020 @ 5:14 pm
Zac Brown and The Zac Brown Band have now cancelled all 2020 tour dates, citing concerns for the Coronavirus.
March 20, 2020 @ 6:09 pm
I love all the TDS suffers who post here. Watching the far left’s heads explode for the last three years has been great fun, but now is not the time for the left and right bullshit. What we have is a world wide problem, and we need to come together and act accordingly. Stop listening to the mainstream news outlets who are only interested in fear-mongering and furthering discord among the masses.
Had the Chinese government been forthcoming when all hell broke loose over there, every other country could have been better prepared. China is still unwilling to take the blame. Even if they had, it is impossible to be 100% prepared for something like this. The White House – both sides actually – are at the mercy of the WHO and CDC scientists, and they act accordingly. Trump is president, not a fucking scientist.
And cut Trigger some slack for fucksakes; the guy writes from his heart (which is more than I can say for most journalists). It’s time to put our petty differences aside and come together. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. And they will get better.
March 20, 2020 @ 6:16 pm
he fired his road crew because t hes a rapper now and he only needs 1 dj making beatz
March 20, 2020 @ 10:56 pm
Like
March 20, 2020 @ 6:30 pm
This ridiculous protocol is equivalent to dropping a nuclear weapon on a city to get rid of a bed bug infestation. Of course, our entire economy was an over-levered house of cards which was bound to fail in the near future, but now, we are basically assuring a depression and incredible hardship for billions of people world-wide, in order to prevent the deaths of people, who, for the most part, weren’t going to live very long anyway. There is no reason that elderly and at-risk people couldn’t have been told to stay home, and had the national guard, FEMA, etc. bring them food, medicine, etc. while the rest of us continued to keep the ball rolling. Instead, we get a hysterical response, which will plunge us into economic despair. As with any modern crisis, the oligarchs will only get more power, consolidate more wealth, and come out better off. The wastrel class, Orwell’s “proles” will be fine. Their checks will still show up and they will continue to vote themselves more handouts. The middle class will continue to be slammed and will bear the brunt of the burden, as they have for decades.
March 20, 2020 @ 7:06 pm
I agree with your comments RD. At least here in the Northeast, especially in NY, our governor has made greater efforts in trying to keep us informed and that action is being taken at least on the state level.(for better or fir worse, at least it’s better than the drivel from DC). Between DrBlasio and Cuomo we have effectively been told to not go out unless we have to and most businesses are shut…small business like barber shops, nail salons and the like are closed. Those laid off employees are in a similar situation to Zac’s band, more than likely contractors etc. Laying off will at least allow them to get unemployment. I am not going to criticize Zac Brown because he is not Amazon or Google who can afford luxurious benefits.
(This is new to all of us and the actions of our federal government, from the empty blame mongering to the cutting of epidemic preparedness programs is appalling. If the Fed can’t get it right, I’m not expecting a small business, a local government or a singer to get it right either…whether or not I care for Zac Brown’s music is no the issue here. Neither is laying blame on him…)
BTW there is nothing more frightening than a desolate Times Square, an empty F train at rush hour or. Dollar Tree with empty shelves. Kinda makes debates about hick hop vs EDM or whether TS is a sellout seem moot dontcha think???????????????????
February 12, 2021 @ 12:18 pm
Yeah, Cuomo did a great job. LOL.
He is the Grim Reaper.
March 20, 2020 @ 7:32 pm
This. Wait till more and more testing is done and the actual death rate becomes more clear. By then we might just begin to almost understand just how bad we’ve fucked ourselves.
February 12, 2021 @ 12:19 pm
RD,
You completely called it. As most rational people did when this event started. It was a naked power grab and people fell for it.
March 20, 2020 @ 6:55 pm
Zac Brown’s net worth is 40 million dollars. If he’s really feeling the deep sadness over layoffs for his road crew and its impacts on the blue collar folk, it doesn’t strain the imagination to come up with a few million ways to soften the ladning for his chosen family.
Also, our standard for acceptable leadership on this issue is…Italy? Cause that Italy is where we’re headed and to the extent that we aren’t its because of sound and sober-minded state and local leaders, like those in Austin who cancelled SXSW, against the objections, I’d add, of public health “experts” like….Trigger? Yikes.
It’s fun to see conservative apologists claiming the United States just can’t hurdle the astronomical bar that is South Korea; just content to be potted on the downward slope of the bell curve.
March 20, 2020 @ 8:27 pm
I’m not a public health expert, nor a scientist. But anyone with a basic understanding of probability and statistics knows that citing the worst case scenario (Italy) or the best case scenario (South Korea) is presenting the extremes as opposed to the probable outcomes. I don’t know where the United States will end up. But comparing the United States to South Korea is inherently unfair when you consider the population and geographic differences, and comparing it to Italy seems to be especially alarmist.
March 20, 2020 @ 8:56 pm
It doesn’t take a lot of familiarity with the facts to know that isn’t true. They have tests, we do not. There’s nothing inherent to South Korea that makes that so. This has to do with choices and policy at the top, to take one example among many that have been critical to their trajectory versus ours.
There’s not much you can say about this crisis that would be alarmist; if you’re reading experts, it’s certinaly possible that everyone could know someone who’s died from this by the time it’s passed.
And if you’re content with the performance from the top, we’ll keep on getting that stellar kind of self-interested, callous, and wreckless leadership that set us on this course months ago. That will come at a grave cost.
March 20, 2020 @ 11:20 pm
Zac Brown blamed the cancelling of his tour on “leadership.” More testing could have possibly mitigated the spread of the pandemic in the United States, but would have not affected the cancellation of his tour. Massive gatherings like arena concerts would still need to be cancelled under the current plan of using social distancing to mitigate the spread of the virus. Zac, like others, are utilizing an easy scapegoat. Zac Brown now has cancelled the entire tour for the rest of the year, giving further evidence this was all a cover to deal with the lagging sales of the tour.
March 20, 2020 @ 11:41 pm
We may have some overlap.
I agree that Zac Brown should feel and take responsibility for redressing this enormous problem for his crew, and own it. Help them! Wouldn’t be hard for you, Zac!
And I agree with Zac Brown that any reading of the facts bears out that Trump bungled this crisis from the start and that Trump and co. ought to similarly take responsibility and redress those cataclysmic problems that they’re responsible for and do better. God knows Trump is constitutionally incapable of admitting a mistake but we all need him to do better.
Both are struggling to take responsibility and move forward as leaders who possess so much power right at their fingertips to make things better. Hold all their feet to the fire!
March 21, 2020 @ 6:51 pm
That’s nonsense man. Again, I don’t know why you stray into these conversations. Our guy gutted the response team earlier in his admin, downplayed it’s severity again and again, put his wildly incompetent Veep on the case to pray it away, blamed everyone else, then said he knew what was up all along. No surprises there. You offer free testing early and often, and you don’t tell people it’s no big deal don’t change a thing about your life, and you pay attention to a fuckin scientist or two even if it changes your precious ‘numbers’ or makes Mr. Hannity sad. I feel you trying to maintain some middle of the road stance here, but I’d urge you to stay out of the comments section- your articles are good and interesting and so is your mission- this just becomes more fb toddler boy bullshit.
March 22, 2020 @ 12:16 am
I believe dialogue is important, and that everyone’s opinion matters. That is why I engage with commenters. I don’t want this website to be an autocracy.
March 20, 2020 @ 11:55 pm
I don’t think this is your intention, but I swear it just seems like lately with these boilerplate politically conservative posts, you’re just pleading for some readers to respond with something equivalent to the dumb, tried trope of “stick to music”, that’s so often the rallying whine of discomforted conseravites when they’re favorite artists turn out to be polically left.
I wouldn’t presume to tell you to “stick to music” and neither should you when musicians say something you don’t like. There is no apolitical. Just engage with their ideas if you think they’re bad!
March 21, 2020 @ 10:22 am
Ryan,
People have been trying to assign political affiliations to me for 12 years. When I started Saving Country Music, the assumption was I was hard left-leaning pinko because I promoted diversity and gender equality in country, championed politically-oriented Alt-country and Americana artists, called Toby Keith out on his bullshit, and even put together a fake country music persona named Michael Jackson Montgomery to poke fun at the right-leaning politically-pompus music in country music at the time that among other things, led to the blackballing of the Dixie Chicks that I have always been outspoken as being against. During the Obama Administration, it was the right’s opportunity to lose their marbles, screech at us about how Sharia Law would be enacted and we’d let the Muslim hordes take over our country. Now it’s a lot of the left that has lost perspective since they’re the party out of power.
This was not a “conservative boiler plate” article in the slightest. I thought I was very fair, and labored to present and explain multiple perspectives on a difficult issue. Zac Brown’s blaming of “leadership,” which we all know is a code word for Trump, as the reason he had to cancel his tour is just incorrect. Now that he’s cancelled his entire tour for the year, this is further validation. It’s a perfect example of how people use politics to scapegoat their own problems, or problems out of anyone’s control. This is the root of all the problems with politics, and why I’m not apolitical, I am anti-political. I think politics is a scourge. The fact that so many people are waiting for an election or a law to pass to change their lives or change the world is symptomatic of why there are so many problems these days. Sure, politics can government can be important for solving or addressing certain problems, but there is no bigger oppressor or change master in anyone’s life tan one’s self, especially in the United States. Zac Brown could have ponied up and supported his road crew. Instead, I bet he really does think it’s Trump’s fault. And because of this, he won’t be able to understand or address the real problem plaguing his organization, which was making a dramatic sonic shift in his music that eroded the loyalty out from under his fan base, and made his current tour impossible to continue, Coronavirous or otherwise.
As Gandhi once said, be the change you want to see in the world. Blame others, and you’re doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again. Trump is just a symptom, not a cause. And until that cause is addressed, he will continue to win, and specifically due to the very emotional reaction people have over him that puts them at a disadvantage. I don’t take political sides. That’s just a suggestion.
March 20, 2020 @ 11:58 pm
Zac seems to truly care about his crew and genuinely care. That is something i can respect. Hopefully this corona crisis can bring changes to the music industry; new ways of distribution of music, both live and recorded, changes in tone and attitude and more tigthly knitted community.
March 21, 2020 @ 1:40 am
Kenny Rogers is dead.
Kenny and Willie Nelson really were the national faces of country music for a decade-plus, starting around the U.S. Bicentennial.
They made Kenny wait to get into the Country Music Hall of Fame, but no country artist was more famous than Kenny in his heyday.
March 21, 2020 @ 4:18 am
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-51970379. Don’t know if this works/
March 21, 2020 @ 6:18 am
https://www.facebook.com/events/san-antonio-texas/sunny-sweeney-live-from-quarantine-prison-blues-everywhere/1151625685189347/
March 21, 2020 @ 8:32 am
Thanks for that heads up. She can make America Sunny again with that smile! I’ll have my “Bottle By My Couch” and it won’t have any nipple on it. Things like our favorite artists doing this that make you happy during the sadness or even just hearing a lyric like:
“But a guy named Darryl
Hidin’ in a barrel
Red nose and a painted-on frown
Yeah, she didn’t just leave me
She left me for a rodeo clown”
Is what it’s all about………..Kinda wish there was someplace to keep track of all the virtual shows going on? I think Paisley, Gill, & Stewart are on the Opry tonight. Probably some others elsewhere.
March 23, 2020 @ 10:32 am
JB-Chicago, there are a couple of places to find upcoming live shows. Check out http://www.cabinfevertunes.com, KOKE-FM, and http://www.revelatorcoffee.com (possibly only listed on their Instagram).
March 23, 2020 @ 11:12 am
Ohh thanks, last night was absolutely incredible! Sunny Sweeney played and drank from her living room with her guitar player and pooch for 2 and half hours!! Old tunes, new tunes, covers etc…..It’s still on her Facebook page now. I was happy to donate to the tip jar as she was sending out autographed merch as prizes. She yacked a lot in between songs but it was just like partying with her in her living room….lol Had a great time watching that then Kaitlin Butts played 2 hours on Instagram Live and she was in a zone!!! Songs from her album + new ones, etc…. tore up Turnpikes’ Gin, Smoke, Lies as well as Prines In Spite of Ourselves. Cleto sang duets with her on the couch including my favorite A Life Where We Work Out. These 2 women are so underrated and I love them both dearly. Only too happy to contribute to them for all the joy they’ve brought me. Thank you Sun, Kaitlin, and Cleto stay well.
March 23, 2020 @ 11:51 am
Tried to reply to you below, JB-Chicago, but must have misfired.
March 23, 2020 @ 11:49 am
In the past couple of days, I’ve seen Emily Scott Robinson, Vincent Neil Emerson, Corey Baum of Croy and the Boys, and Jamie Lin Wilson. For me, that’s a Hall of Fame lineup in the space of 72 hours. I live in Washington, DC and might never have a chance to see any of those folks otherwise. “Texas Cookin'” was a formative album for me, as for so many others, and when JLW sang “Anyhow, I Love You,” last night, which I guess is part of her repertoire, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.
It is disorienting to revel in all of this beauty and joy and pleasure with a sword hanging over our heads and knowing that so many people already are in dire straits physically, financially, and emotionally. In some ways, the unfolding wreckage of the life we knew probably makes moments like last night’s “Anyhow, I Love You” mean that much more. Apologies if this is a buzzkill, but it feels wrong to chitter-chatter away about how lucky I am without taking time to recognize others’ pain. 🙁
March 24, 2020 @ 5:22 pm
I liked him better as a coked up line cook.
April 5, 2020 @ 6:05 pm
“Your average bad pop country performer is probably a really good person at heart”
“The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45
uh…. is there a spin doctor in the house?
April 5, 2020 @ 7:43 pm
I think it’s very important to point out that even if someone is making bad music, they can still be a good parent, a good community member, a good person. Florida Georgia Line stepping up to support their employees through the COVID-19 crisis is a good example.
March 16, 2022 @ 9:58 am
Zac Brown also sold off his life company, southern grind, firing all the employees.
I’m sorry, but if I’m worth $40 million, I’m gonna take care of my employees even if it means it comes out of my pocket and I’m not touring. I also wouldn’t of sold off my knife company as a cash grab screwing over the employees. After this happened I sold off my for southern grind and will never support this GREEDY guy again.