Country band booted from concert over comments on Charlottesville protests

Credit: Nicholas Hunt

Credit: Nicholas Hunt

Rodney Parker and Liberty Beach, a country band from Sylvania, Ohio, was booted from the Northwest Ohio Rib Off concert and an opening slot for Nashville star Lee Brice after complaints over a Facebook post.

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Singer Rodney Parker, on his personal Facebook page, posted Tuesday about the Charlottesville, Virginia, protests.

The Toledo Blade, which sponsors the Rib Off, made the decision to pull the band.

Parker’s post read: “Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Communists -- pure trash, period. Certainly in the face of this ongoing relentless behavior from these leftist agitators, White Nationalists (who’re NOT White Supremacists, just so we’re clear) totally have a legitimate right to speak, be heard and retaliate. Mainstream media wants to manipulate and keep you timid and full of white guilt, and that empowers these leftists (expletives). Do not fall for that communist tactic ever.”

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Parker posted the message after he shared a video of protesters tearing down a Confederate statue in Durham, North Carolina.

Parker told the Blade he isn't a racist, and neither was his Facebook post.

“The claims of racism against me are as false as dengures, period; end of story,” Parker told the Blade.

Parker said the allegations came from someone he banned from his page for making racist remarks.

John McAfee, the band’s founder, said the rest of the band had nothing to do with the post, and that the band isn’t racist.

“If anything we’re about getting along and getting past this government crap,” McAfee said.

On the official Rodney Parker & Liberty Beach Facebook page, band members wrote that they would not be performing at another festival, "due to the issues at hand this week."

“The Swanton Corn Fest has decided that they will cancel us for this Saturday. We apologize to our friends and fans who know this is a contrived assault against us,” the post read.

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