âRight to Rockâ bill would ban venues from cancelling shows over politics
Entertainment venues would not be able to cancel shows over a performer’s social media activity or political stances in Florida under the “Right to Rock” bill introduced by a Panhandle Republican who plays guitar in a rock cover band.
Florida state Rep. John Rudman, R-Navarre, penned the legislation Wednesday after claiming the Santa Rosa County Democratic Party and “the woke mob liberals” flooded the website for his band’s “God, Guns and Less Government” tour earlier this month “with fake emails and bogus names, so now we have no way of knowing how many [guests] to expect.”
“Show these radicals what happens when you try to cancel conservatives!” Rudman said Aug. 9 on his campaign’s Facebook page. “The liberals tried to cancel my voice. I became Navarre’s Business of the Year. Then they tried to cancel my medical career. I became State Representative. Now they are trying to cancel my concert tour. Keep it up, Santa Rosa County Democrats! You might just make me Governor!”
The Santa Rosa County Democratic Party denied Rudman’s allegations.
“Dude we didn’t even know about your tour until we saw this post,” the organization replied. “If you’re experiencing Eventbrite issues it has nothing to do with us. You’re not that important. Our job is to expose what little you do for our county, we could care less about your guitar career.”
Under Rudman’s “The Right to Rock Act,” entertainment venues that obtain state funding in Florida “may not cancel or terminate” an act “for any reason related to the person’s use of social media or political affiliation.”
Last month, conservative rocker Ted Nugent’s concert at Avondale Brewing Co. in Birmingham was canceled a day before tickets were set to go on sale amid social media backlash against the brewery and Nugent.
“We have heard the concerns of the Avondale community, which is so important to us, and in conjunction with our partners, have taken the necessary steps to to cancel the Ted Nugent concert scheduled for July 18,” the venue said in a post on Instagram Stories.
Detractors cited their opposition to Nugent’s far right-wing political views — which the rocker himself has proudly called “radical” — and said they wouldn’t support Avondale Brewing Co. in the future if Nugent performed there. They slammed the rocker as homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, an intolerant hate-monger and more.