Country singers criticize Chase Rice as ‘selfish’ for concert in front of hundreds in Tennessee

Washington Post logoCountry singer Chase Rice played his first in-person concert in months on Saturday night and appeared thrilled to do so. “We back,” he wrote in an Instagram story with a smiley-face sunglasses emoji, accompanied by video of hundreds of people singing along to his recent hit, “Eyes on You.”

But on social media, many were horrified to see images of a packed crowd, with no masks and no social distancing — especially as the concert took place in Tennessee, which is experiencing a significant spike in coronavirus infections. As the videos started circulating on Twitter, other country singers took the unusual step of calling out Rice by name.

“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. @ChaseRiceMusic,” Kelsea Ballerini tweeted to her million followers. “We all want (and need) to tour. We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait.” Continue reading.