'America's Got Talent' Finalist Booted from ZZ Top Musician's Tour After Posting Photo with MAGA Hat
Cancel culture doesn’t seem to be stopping country music upstart Benton Blount’s slow but steady career growth.
With 2020 in the books, Blount recently reached a major milestone, his 2017 single “Say Something” now above 100,000 streams on Spotify and his audience on the way to 1,000 listeners a month.
The path wasn’t without rocks and rough road, however.
Let’s not forget the major flat tire Blount had in 2018, when the “America’s Got Talent” 2015 finalist was forced out of a touring opportunity with ZZ Top front man Billy Gibbons after Blount’s implied public support for President Donald Trump.
According to the Greenville News, the dismissal came shortly after a mid-term elections post in which the artist was pictured eating a Chick-fil-A sandwich while wearing an “I voted” sticker and one of the president’s “Make America Great Again” campaign caps.
“Someone reading this just got offended multiple times,” the caption read. “My work here is done! #Vote”
Benton, who is from Greenville, South Carolina, went on to discuss the fallout in detail via Facebook posts and a live video. The artist claimed he had been banned from the platform briefly in light of the post, then was told of his tour removal second-hand, when he arrived in Atlanta for a show.
“I was banned from Facebook (for 24 hours) and now I’ve just been banned from my opening spot on the Billy Gibbons tour,” he wrote. “But suppression of Conservative opinion doesn’t happen and it doesn’t effect your career!”
Gibbons never made detailed public comments on the dismissal, and statements from a tour spokesman did little to illuminate circumstances surrounding the matter.
“Benton Blount was disinvited to continue the tour because of a creative decision,” the spokesman told WHNS-TV in the aftermath.
Given the timing, it would be hard to convince anyone this “creative decision” was anything other than a cold, hard instance of left-wing cancel culture.
Seeming to slow the musician’s promising rise, however, the incident certainly has not stopped him from voicing his political opinions on social media.
It might even have made Blount more outspoken.
POTUS JUST NUKED CONGRESS! BOTH SIDES! Well done sir! https://t.co/Z8FBTwEpXt
— Benton Blount (@bentonblount) December 22, 2020
Let them see how it feels being shelved for a year but expected to continue on with their obligations!
Blount/Barr (Rossanne) 2024
— Benton Blount (@bentonblount) December 24, 2020
Among the issues at the front of Blount’s mind these days is a failed bipartisan attempt at funneling larger coronavirus relief payments to Americans.
“Since the government thinks it’s so easy for millions to survive without the ability to work, make money, or feed their family…… I think the next stimulus package should include that all Americans are free from paying any taxes whatsoever in 2021,” Benton tweeted on Christmas Eve. “Let them see how it feels being shelved for a year but expected to continue on with their obligations!”
This class-act country singer certainly has earned a few streams from me.
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