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American Pie singer Don McLean pulls out of National Rifle Association rally concert following Texas school shootingTori BrazierEntertainment – Metro
‘I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week.’
Music legend Don hs dropped out the concert ‘in light’ of recent events (Picture: Getty)
Don McLean has dropped out of his National Rifle Association (NRA) Convention performance after the Uvalde school shooting in Texas, the second deadliest school mass shooting in US history.
The American Pie icon has said he will no longer do the Houston show put on by gun pressure group the NRA, where Lee Greenwood, Danielle Peck and Larry Gatlin are also billed to perform.
The singer-songwriter explained his appearance would be ‘disrespectful and hurtful’ after 19 children and two teachers were shot dead at Robb Elementary School by an 18-year-old mass shooter in Uvalde, Texas.
‘In light of the recent events in Texas, I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week,’ the 76-year-old musician announced.
‘I’m sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events as well. After all, we are all Americans.’
Don offered his ‘sorrow’ for the tragedy, which comes after numerous similar incidents across the United States.
The singer-songwriter said his appearance would be ‘hurtful’ and ‘disrespectful’ (Picture: Getty)
He has been a hugely successful musician since his 1971 classic song American Pie (Picture: Chris Walter/WireImage)
He added to TMZ: ‘I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation.’
The NRA’s Grand Ole Night of Freedom Concert is scheduled to go ahead on Saturday in Houston, where former president Donald Trump, Texas governor Greg Abbott and Texas senator Ted Cruz also expected to give speeches at the rally.
The Uvalde shooting took place just over a week after another lone teenage gunman killed 10 people in what police are calling a racially motivated attack in Buffalo, New York.
Various celebrities such as actor Matthew McConaughey, who hails from the town where the shooting took place, have spoken out against the latest spree of gun violence.
Actor Matthew McConaughey, who comes from Uvalde, condemned the violence (Picture: Getty)
‘As you all are aware there was another mass shooting today, this time in my home town of Uvalde, Texas,’ the 52-year-old actor wrote in a statement on social media.
‘Once again, we have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us.
‘This is an epidemic we can control, and whichever side of the aisle we may stand on, we all know we can do better.’
In addition to the Oscar winner, Kim Kardashian also condemned the violence, calling into question the relevance of the keeping such a rigid reading of the US constitution when AR-15s, the military-grade weapon used in most of the deadliest school mass shootings, including Newton’s Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 and Parkland’s Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, ‘didn’t even exist’ at the time.
Kim Katdashian also shared a lengthy statement on social media (Picture: Hulu)
Mourners at the vigil for the victims of the Uvalde shooting on Wednesday (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
People paid their respects at a makeshift memorial outside the school (Picture: Reuters)
The 41-year-old reality TV personality said: ‘Assault weapons didn’t even exist when the Second Amendment was written.
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‘We have to stop allowing people to use a sentence written centuries ago when technology, times, humanity were completely different, to dictate how we regulate gun ownership, how we protect our kids today.’
Gunman Salvador Ramos, 18, was shot and killed at the scene by an elite border patrol agent who rushed into Robb Elementary school on his own without waiting for backup.
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