Country star Chase Rice responded to the backlash, after his first tour stop for the year seemed to defy social distancing protocols in the middle of COVID-19, Monday, June 29.
Rice took to Instagram to address his Saturday night show on East Tennessee. "I took a video of the concert, everybody had a blast," He said. Rice noted that once people saw the video he uploaded, they saw a problem with how it looked and his show went down. He added that there are different opinions regarding the highly contagious disease and "how it works with live music crowds." Chase Rice then addressed his fans, saying that they are the reason why he writes songs and tours the country to perform. "You guys are everything to me, so your safety is a huge, huge priority," the country singer said. Moving forward, the 34-year-old artist explained that his next show in Ashland, Kentucky, will have a drive-in setup. His next stop is slated on Friday, July 3. While his next appearance would require patrons to come in cars and trucks, Rice invited them to party with him. "But stay in your own space, stay with the people you came with," he requested. He noted that the biggest thing for everyone is that "the safer we are now, the quicker we we get to actual normal live shows." He then thanked everyone for understanding. However, Rice reminded everyone to follow the rules and laws for his upcoming Friday show as well as all the following stops of his tour.
On Saturday evening, June 27, Chase Rice headlined a performance in Tennessee. As a part of his 2020 tour, the "50 Shades of Crazy" drew around 1,000 people in Brushy Mountain State. The former historical penitentiary turned music venue is located in Petron, TN. READ MORE: Chase Rice Fills Tennessee Venue With Maskless Audience, Draws Flak He even took a film of his audience singing along to one of his hits and uploaded it in his Instagram story on Sunday, June 28. In the video, the people are jampacked in the venue and are mostly wearing no face masks. The show has made rounds on social media, most notably on Twitter, where other artists criticized the event. Fellow country artist Kelsea Ballerini wrote: "Imagine being selfish enough to put thousands of people's health at risk." Ballerini also added that while they all want to tour, they "care about our fans and their families enough to wait." In a statement issued to TMZ, The Brushy Mountain Group said that the venue abided by all local requirements and that precautions were put in place. They explained how they "drastically reduced" the venue capacity of 10,000 down to 4,000, exceeding the state advise of 50% venue capacities. Also, since less than 1,000 attended the Saturday show, there has been "amplespace in the outdoor lawn area for fans to spread out to their own comfort level." They added that guests had temperature checks before entering the venue and that free sanitizers were handed to everyone. According to the entertainment portal, the site noted that they are looking for alternatives for their future events - from adding more stanchion dividers to outright postponing their events.
Chase Rice 2020's First Stop at Tennessee
