What the Reaction to Artists Booking or Backing Out of ‘Freedom 250′ Tells Us About the Fickleness of Fan Bases: Bret Michaels’ Guitarist Speaks Up

Is every musical artist’s fan base just waiting to turn on them, at a moment’s notice? The fickleness of fandom was never more apparent than it was reading the comments this past week from self-proclaimed followers of the artists who were booked to perform at the ill-fated “Freedom 250” concert series on the National Lawn in Washington, D.C. Six out of nine artists publicly backed out as the firestorm grew.

What these artists were hearing from many so-called fans, mostly those on the center or left, before they withdrew from their appearances: “I’m done with you.”

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And then, what they were hearing from other would-be supporters, mostly Trump supporters, after they withdrew: I’m done with you, also.

These strikingly similar (or ironically identical) comments came from different sides of the political aisle, depending on the moment, but what they had in common was an American public so polarized it will leap to immediate judgment when their putative favorites are caught in a sticky situation, without much caring about the background, context or nuance of what might have caused a musician to either take the gig or let go of it.

I was most struck by this after reading a heated missive on the page of Pete Evick, the longtime guitarist in Poison rocker Bret Michaels‘ solo band. Michaels was the fifth of six acts to publicly retreat from the concert series so far, the others being Morris Day, Martina McBride, Young MC, the Commodores and Milli Vanilli. (Only Vanilla Ice stayed proudly in, and the other two may just be trying to run out the clock without having to say anything more, after the president finally went on record as being inclined to cancel the whole thing.)

Here is the most impassioned part of Evick’s note to the fans… or to the “fans”:

“If Bret or me have ever put a dime in your pocket, given you a free ticket, a free meet-and-greet, a free hotel room, a free flight, a photo pass, let you or your child perform on stage with us, gotten something signed for you or your charity, let you stand on the side of the stage, let you open for us, given you a shout out on social media, gone out of our way to call or FaceTime a sick or dying relative that we don’t even know, or if you are one of those people (whom) I’ve gotten Bret to show up for at one of my local gigs, and you were the first in line to be close to him, who has now openly turned your back on him: FUCK OFF. We see you, we see your posts — FUCK OFF. I’m not saying you have to openly support him. But those that called us friends four days ago and have used and abused us and have now turned on us: FUCK OFF.”

Some fucks given there, by Evick, but zero words minced.

The guitarist’s words obviously apply to a very specific situation, but they could have been written by so many artists in recent years who have seen segments of their stan base turn on a dime, for not terribly well-considered reasons. The time it takes for a sports car to go from zero to 60 is longer than the time it takes for fans to go from “We love you” to “Gotcha.”

Most of the performers who signaled they were getting out of the D.C. concert series indicated that they’d been misled about the nonpartisan nature of the events. (That very N-word, nonpartisan, is cited throughout official Freedom 250 materials. Suspicions that the shows could turn into MAGA rallies seemed to have been confirmed when Trump said that he wanted to replace these “overpaid, third-rate musicians” with a Make America Great rally headlined by a figure indisputably bigger than Elvis, i.e., himself.

In his exit statement, Michaels alluded to the unexpected partisanship but also indicated that he was largely motivated by security concerns.

Evick did a pretty good job of making the case that Michaels really was motivated by fears that the shows could become a target for a terrorist attack — mostly convincing because he said that he had bowed out of being in the band for that night, himself, before the gig was even announced, because of his own feelings about that. “I’m simply not leading my friends and family into a possible terrorist attack,” the guitarist said. “I’m watching all these right and left comments acting like we the artist are thinking the left might attack us as to why we backed out. That’s the furthest thing from my mind. Have you all forgotten we are at war with Iran, who has a leader whose father and other family members were killed at the hand of our military?… Do you think our concern is some anti-gun extreme lefty throwing a rock at us, or spray painting our bus? Come the fuck on. It’s a much bigger picture than that.”

Not everyone bought that explanation. Wrote one fan in the replies to Evick: “If Bret doesn’t want to play, it’s fine… nothing against you or him, but making up a safety story is kind of an insult to the fans’ intelligence.”

But is it easier to believe that the star has real security concerns — and/or has made a policy of not doing partisan gigs — or to believe that Bret Michaels, a literal flag-waver, is cowed by radical leftists stopping coming to his shows? Regardless of what you imagine a performer’s motivation is, if you’ve been a fan of someone your whole life, it likely says more about you than them if you ‘ve publicly proclaim your abandonment after 10 seconds of thoughtful consideration.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinions,” Evick wrote, but “the people in telling to fuck off are the ones that we have done personal favors for, gone out of our way to be friends with and who will be nice to our face but not think we see the post being two-faced…

“In 21 years I’ve done and seen the following things with Bret… We have traveled all over the Middle East during war and non-war times to perform ‘for the troops.’ We have with our own bare hands helped build homes for veterans. Bret has bought and given away new homes to veterans. We have cooked and delivered food to troops, we have played several military bases in the United States ‘for the troops.’ We have partnered with and participated with wounded warriors and many other veteran helping associations in activities helping veterans. Bret had donated millions of dollars to veteran organizations. He was giving away tickets for veterans long before ‘Vet Tix.’ We have brought thousands of troops on the stage to honor them and have giant crowds scream for them. On a smaller note, I can’t count the times me and Bret stop at a traffic light and he gives money to a homeless veteran. All of this actually is for veterans; all of this helped veterans either emotionally or monetarily…

“This particular concert was going to do ‘nothing’ for the veterans directly. The only people that actually lose out is us; we are now not getting paid. So why do all the actual things Bret has done for the veterans seemingly get erased for something that does nothing for them?

“Furthermore, if you dig and do enough research, you will see that on multiple occasions we have played Trump’s golf course for charitable events. Way before he became a politician we performed at Trump’s daughter’s bachelorette party. Everyone has opinions, I know I can’t change them, but… I would certainly like everyone to have all the facts if you are literally turning your back on someone you loved 96 hours ago.

“There is/was no winning this. Unless you’re Kid Rock, you play this event, you lose half your fans; you don’t play, you lose the other half. The BMB (Bret Michaels Band) did not pull out because of political affiliation. That’s a fact, we absolutely would not have played an event with Biden or Kamala’s name attatched to it, either, absolutely not! No political affiliation has always been rule 1.

“I pray the veterans Bret has spent a lifetime supporting and serving don’t erase a lifetime of love and support for one day.  It is heartbreaking to see so many on both sides draw assumptions, make conclusions and try to crucify people to create a story that matched their narrative.”

For someone who eschews politics, Evick is nearly as good an observer of political science as he is a guitarist.

You hate to say it.., really, you do… but in the rosy world of accruing fans over a lifetime, there are a lot of thorns. (Sorry.) Imagine a world in which music lovers were willing to trust their heroes, or at least give them a moment’s grace… rather than thinking it was their job to keep an eye on them in case they should turn out to One Of Them, whatever the forbidden “them” might be.

In the 2020s and beyond, may every artist get the fan base they deserve … after the not-so-fair weather is done blowing through.