On Saturday, Chase Rice, who has had No. 1 songs and albums on the US country charts in recent years, performed at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, a Petros, Tennessee event center that used to be a prison. That normally wouldn’t be big news, but of course, the show took place during the pandemic, without substantial social distancing measures being implemented.
Rice posted (and later deleted) a video of his audience, members of which were packed tightly together and not wearing face masks. Rice wrote in the post, “We back.” The venue told TMZ they took “numerous precautions” for the show, including reducing the allowed capacity from 10,000 people down to 4,000. They said fewer than 1,000 people were in attendance.
Chase Rice just played a concert to an enormous crowd of unmasked fans here in Tennessee. For once, I am at a loss for words. pic.twitter.com/wB47u1EaFd
— Lorie Liebig (@lorieliebig) June 28, 2020
Regardless of the precautions taken, Rice’s peers in the community were not pleased with what happened in Tennessee over the weekend. Fellow country musician Kelsea Ballerini was upset, writing on Twitter, “Imagine being selfish enough to put thousands of people’s health at risk, not to mention the potential ripple effect, and play a NORMAL country concert right now. @ChaseRiceMusic, We all want (and need) to tour. We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait.”
Finneas also wrote of the news, “A year ago, imagine all these people being asked ‘are you willing to die to see Chase Rice.’”
Imagine being selfish enough to put thousands of people’s health at risk, not to mention the potential ripple effect, and play a NORMAL country concert right now. @ChaseRiceMusic, We all want (and need) to tour. We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait.
https://t.co/eJaLnGu28k
— Kelsea Ballerini (@KelseaBallerini) June 28, 2020
A year ago, imagine all these people being asked “are you willing to die to see Chase Rice”
— FINNEAS (@finneas) June 29, 2020
Find some more reactions from others in the music world below.
this is really not good. musicians, & their managers, & venues (& promotors….all the way down the line) have a huge responsibility to the common good RIGHT NOW to not make a bad situation worse.
the arts should be leading culture, not endangering it. https://t.co/z8kgqK7NBu
— Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer) June 29, 2020
I did not know who Chase Rice was before I saw the video of him playing a show to thousands of unmasked people in Tennessee. Now I know he’s a big dumb idiot.
— The Ballroom Thieves (@BallroomThieves) June 29, 2020
I literally had to google Chase Rice. And I live in Nashville. And he’s got 1M followers on Twitter and Instagram both. Things that make you go hmm…
— Damon Johnson (@DamonJOfficial) June 29, 2020
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.