SHINEDOWN’s BARRY KERCH Calls Rapper LUDACRIS ‘A Coward’ For Pulling Out Of KID ROCK’s ‘Rock The Country’ Festival
On the latest episode of The Vinyl Road podcast, hosted by former SHINEDOWN and current SALIVA bassist Brad Stewart and Jason Bailey, SHINEDOWN drummer Barry Kerch spoke about the response to the recent announcement that his band would play this year’s edition of Rock The Country, the country music festival launched in 2024 by headliner Kid Rock. Kid Rock will top this year’s bill, along with fellow Donald Trump supporter Jason Aldean, and an undercard that includes everyone from CREED and SHINEDOWN to Gavin Adcock, Brantley Gilbert and Nelly.
When the 2026 Rock The Country lineup was announced on January 12, Ludacris’s name was also on the poster. But just four days later, Rolling Stone reported that the Grammy-winning rapper’s name had been removed from the lineup announcement poster, with a representative for Rock The Country confirming to Billboard that Ludacris was no longer on the festival.
Asked by “The Vinyl Road” co-host Jason Bailey if SHINEDOWN has gotten any pushback for agreeing to play this year’s Rock The Country — which isn’t explicitly a political event — Barry said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There’s been tons. The knives come out when they don’t like it, especially now politically. And we are an apolitical band. But the knives have come out. It’s crazy. And to be honest, I had no idea, and neither did Brent [Smith, SHINEDOWN singer] — I think Zach [Myers, SHINEDOWN guitarist] maybe had a clue — I had no idea this was Kid Rock’s thing. It was just, ‘Hey, here’s an offer. It looks like a cool lineup, and it’s a mix of country and rock. Okay, we’ll play it.’ We took the offer and played it, and then all of a sudden we find out, ‘Oh, this has got some political leaning to it.'”
Barry added: “I don’t care. I’m just gonna go play a show. I really, really don’t care. You can keep your politics to yourself. I have no opinion one way or the other on Kid Rock. I love his music. This is about music. Ludacris wasn’t tough… I mean, it’s not like he needs the money, Jeez. If he’s not tough enough to stick it out, that’s just silly. That’s him being a coward, in my opinion.”
Asked by Bailey if he and the rest of SHINEDOWN would ever turn down a festival appearance over a fellow artist’s political leanings and negative feedback from some of the band’s fans, Barry said: “I would hope not, but [SHINEDOWN] is a democracy. There’s four of us to vote. My vote would be no, but if three of the other guys vote against it, then, again, it’s a democracy. I can’t change their vote. But I would hope not. ‘Cause I like to stick by my grounds. And listen, I don’t do politics when it comes to the business of SHINEDOWN. I have my own beliefs. I keep those to myself, and so do the other three guys. I just wanna go play a rock show with some country bands ’cause it looks like fun.”
Back in 2019, Kerch told Cutter and Kaytie of Razor 94.7 and 104.7 that SHINEDOWN is “a full democracy.” He explained: “Brent’s the 51 percent, because he’s gotta be the captain. Every ship has a captain… You have to have a leader, and Brent’s good at it. He’s driven in a way that I don’t have, and he’s got the gift of gab, which I can talk to you guys and talk to anybody, but when it comes to business and getting in there and getting in somebody’s face, I don’t have that. I’m too nice — I’m very nice.”
According to Kerch, everyone in SHINEDOWN has “equal” say. “And if somebody’s upset or doesn’t like something, we’re gonna figure it out and find a way to massage that situation to where we all agree on it,” he said. “Like, we’ll never do a political record, ’cause there’s varying political views, so why would we bring that out there? We don’t wanna alienate half or bring in a half or any of that stuff — it’s not who we are as a band. Just conscious decisions like that. ‘Hey, how much are we gonna spend on this show?’ ‘Do we need to fire this person?’ We talk about it. We have meetings. And one cool thing that we always do before we kick off a tour cycle, we get in a room — the four of us — and hash it out. So we bring anything up that bothered us in the past. We sit down and have our little, like the ‘METALLICA movie moment’ where we just call each other out, tell each other the problems we’re having, come to conclusions, and then we can start with a fresh slate. And it makes everything a lot easier.”
Back in 2010, Smith addressed SHINEDOWN’s attitude when it comes to politics while answering a question about his band performing for the troops in Iraq. He said: “We’re not a political band, we’re never going to be a political band, but one thing that we are is very upfront about and supportive of the soldiers and what they do for us. No disrespect to the rest of the world; the thing is that these are our soldiers. This is our family. You have to support them, and you shouldn’t have to; you should want to. That’s ultimately the way we are. We’re always going to support them because they keep us safe. They’ve allowed us to keep our freedom.”
In 2022, SHINEDOWN bassist, producer and engineer Eric Bass told Grammy.com that he and his bandmates didn’t necessarily always agree in their in your sociopolitical beliefs. But, he clarified: “We never talked about it, to be honest with you. At least in the beginning, we never talked about it. At that time — and now, to a large extent — it was unimportant to me with the people in my life. I don’t have to align with people on any sort of political thing to be friends with them or family or whatever. We didn’t talk about it. It’s like being in a marriage. If it’s going to work out, you coalesce into a set of beliefs. My beliefs change on a quasi-daily basis, depending on what I read and educate myself with.”
Rock The Country 2026 will take place May 1-2 in Bellville, Texas; May 29-30 in Bloomingdale, Georgia; June 27-28 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; July 10-11 in Ashland, Kentucky; July 25-26 in Anderson, South Carolina; August 8-9 in Hastings, Michigan; August 28-29 in Ocala, Florida; and September 11-12 in Hamburg, New York. SHINEDOWN is only scheduled to perform at the Anderson, South Carolina stop of Rock The Country on July 26.
After Ludacris’s name was quietly pulled from the list of performing stars on the Rock The Country festival’s web site, a representative for the rapper told Rolling Stone that “lines got crossed and he wasn’t supposed to be on there.”
Several media outlets, including Rolling Stone, reported that Ludacris received backlash for being part of the tour. Some of the rapper’s fans believed that the concert tour had “political undertones of supporting President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement,” according to Rolling Stone.
In 2025 SHINEDOWN released four new singles: “Three Six Five”, “Dance, Kid, Dance”, , “Killing Fields” and “Searchlight”.
The band’s eighth studio album will arrive later this year.
SHINEDOWN recently announced they will be headlining the Sonic Temple festival. They’ll take the main stage on Friday, May 15, 2026, marking their first time headlining the Ohio event. Their performance will anchor the festival’s second night, with MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, BRING ME THE HORIZON and TOOL leading the other days of the lineup.
Barry Kerch photo credit: Ryan Camp
