Joining the likes of Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, and John Legend is country mega star Garth Brooks, who has announced that he will be performing at Joe Biden’s inaugural events this week, claiming that his decision isn’t “political statement.”
The Friends in Low Places crooner spoke to reporters about his participation in Biden’s festivities, but he insisted that he does not mean to be seen as a Biden supporter. “This is not a political statement, this is statement of unity,” Brooks said according to ETOnline. “This is kind of how I get to serve this country.”
Garth Brooks added that performing for presidents is a personal tradition.
“I’ve played for every president there is, since Carter, with the exception of Reagan. This is an honor for me to get to serve… and it’s one of the things that, if my family is around, no matter who the president-elect is, it’s an honor to be asked,” Brooks added. “I might be the only Republican at this place, but it’s about reaching across and loving one another.”
The Grammy-winner was also asked about his thoughts on the Jan. 6 capital incursion, an incident that Brooks called “disturbing.”
“It was disturbing. It was sad. Try to remember that we the human race, so I’m always going to find sunny sides in there. …The fact that wed do make choices very much on the spur of the moment. I deal in music. I deal in raw emotion. That is what music is all about, and all that passion, guided, misguided as it is, I think that you saw the human race at a time that, for me as a person, seemed to reflect some other country’s deadline, if that makes any sense. But it’s here, and all I can do is beg and plead for everybody to take that second, that moment, take a breath and think about it. Think about your family. Think about what the mark you’re going to leave on this planet as a human being, and with the children that you raise, and then make your decision.”
“So I think what happened was we saw people in the heat of the moment, and we’ve seen it on television before, but I’m with you. I felt like it was in some other country, but it was here. And now we deal with it, take responsibility, we claim it, and now we do our best to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again.”
Still, Garth Brooks insisted that being asked to perform this week is an “honor.”
Joe Biden’s inauguration kicked off on Saturday, with a concert celebrating “diversity,” will include a total of days, and will feature a carousel of anti-Trump Hollywood celebrities, from Kerry Washington to Kal Penn, and Eva Longoria and Debra Messing.
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