(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Kelsea Ballerini is calling Chase Rice out for performing to a full concert during a pandemic.
On Saturday, Chase shared videos to his Instagram story taken from the stage at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. The footage showed a large cheering crowd in close proximity with no masks. “We back,” Rice wrote on the video with a sunglasses emoji.
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Fellow country star Kelsea Ballerini wasn’t impressed with the footage and called Rice out for holding a concert and even calling him selfish.
“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,” tweeted Ballerini. “@ChaseRiceMusic, We all want (and need) to tour. We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait.”
Many other country stars jumped in to add to Kelsea’s comment. “An absolute selfish act. Shame on him,” singer-songwriter Mickey Guyton replied.
Cassadee Pope added, “Wait. Is this real? I’m so confused as to how this many people got approved by a venue to gather during a pandemic. Wtf?”
Chase Rice responded to the controversy by posting to social media to acknowledge that some people “had a big problem with how the show looked.”
“I understand that there are a lot of varying opinions, a lot of opinions on COVID-19, how it works with live music crowds and what all that looks like.”
“My biggest thing is y’all. Y’all are why I get to write songs. Y’all are why I get to tour the country, why I get to do live shows and sing these songs to you guys and you guys sing them back,” he said. “You guys are everything to me, so your safety is a huge, huge priority.”
“Take your truck. Take your cars. You have your own space,” he explained. “You can get out of your cars, you can get out of your trucks and party with me. Please do sing the songs, but stay in your own space and the people you came with.”
He added, “The biggest thing for all of us is the safer we are now, the quicker we get to … actual normal live shows, which I know we all want.”
“Please go by the rules. Please go by the laws on this Friday show coming up and the shows moving forward, so we can get to regular shows soon enough.”
“Love you guys. God bless you and God bless country music,” he concluded.