Don McLean is saying “bye bye” to the NRA — for now, at least.
The “American Pie” singer has canceled a scheduled gig at the NRA convention in Houston this weekend, days after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.
“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,” he said in a statement to the Portland Press Herald Wednesday.
“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. I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation.”
Other planned performers include Danielle Peck, T. Graham Brown, Larry Gatlin, Larry Stewart, Jacob Bryant and Lee Greenwood.
Former President Donald Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are all scheduled to speak.
The annual convention, which will “showcase 14 acres of the latest guns and gear from the most popular companies in the Industry,” according to its website, will run from Friday to Sunday at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, five hours west of Uvalde, where 21 people were gunned down Tuesday at Robb Elementary School.
The NRA has offered “deepest sympathies” to “the families and victims involved in this horrific and evil crime,” making sure to point out that Ramos was “a lone, deranged criminal.”
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