Country and gospel singer Larry Gatlin and Larry Stewart of the country band Restless Heart also said Thursday they were dropping out.
Singer-songwriter Don McLean has announced that he’s dropping out from performing at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting this weekend in Houston, saying it would be “disrespectful and hurtful” to perform days after 19 children and two adults were killed in a mass shooting in the state. McLean, who is best known for his legendary 1971 folk rock anthem “American Pie,” was scheduled to perform Saturday night during the NRA’s Grand Ole Night of Freedom concert. But those plans changed when a gunman, identified by police as Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., and started firing on children in the worst mass shooting at an American school in nearly a decade.
“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, 76, 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.”
The news was first reported by the Portland Press Herald in Maine. McLean is among a few performers who have announced they will no longer perform at this weekend’s convention. Country and gospel singer Larry Gatlin and Larry Stewart of the country band Restless Heart also said Thursday they were dropping out in response to the shooting at Robb Elementary. McLean’s exit comes as gunmaker Daniel Defense, which manufactured the rifle used by Ramos in Tuesday’s massacre, appears to have also pulled out of the NRA convention. The NRA’s exhibitor list no longer includes Daniel Defense among the hundreds of gunmakers, firearm parts manufacturers and taxidermists appearing at the convention hall. The booth once claimed by Daniel Defense is now listed only as “the NRA.”
Maker of Uvalde shooter’s rifle posted image of child with gun before massacre
The NRA’s annual meeting this weekend in Houston, about 275 miles from Uvalde, is the largest gun-lobby gathering this year and comes after cancellations because of the coronavirus pandemic.
