After he held a concert in Tennessee on Sunday, June 28, country star Chase Rice came under fire online and received backlash from fellow musician Kelsea Ballerini.

For those who missed it, in a series of Instagram Stories videos — which were screenrecorded and reposted by fans — Chase showed off a major crowd during his live performance at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. Kelsea took to Twitter and called him “selfish” after it appeared that no one in the crowd was social distancing or wearing face masks amid the current coronavirus pandemic.

“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, we all want (and need) to tour. We just care about our fans and their families enough to wait,” the “Legends” songstress wrote alongside a video from his Instagram Stories. 

But Kelsea wasn’t the only musician who responded to Chase’s concert. Maren Morris took to Twitter and retweeted a post that called him out and explained how this one event could affect the future of concerts for “conscientious musicians.” She then followed up and revealed fellow country singer Chris Janson blocked her on Twitter. Fans explained that he also came under fire for holding a concert and posting a video of the crowd to Instagram Stories.

As fans know, the World Health Organization has reported that over 10,300,000 people have contracted virus so far, resulting in more than 505,000 deaths. Medical professionals called for “social distancing” to prevent further spreading of the illness, which is defined as “trying to keep yourself away from other people, especially large crowds.” Because of this many events, concerts and festivals were canceled, including all Broadway plays and sports games. People were asked to avoid public spaces, stay indoors and quarantine themselves.

According to a statement from the concert venue made to Variety, “numerous precautions were taken” before the event.

“We drastically reduced our maximum venue capacity of 10,000 to 4,000 maximum capacity (lower than the state’s advisement of 50 percent) with less than 1,000 in attendance Saturday night, providing ample space in the outdoor lawn area for fans to spread out to their own comfort level,” Brian May, VP of the Brushy Mountain Group, told the outlet. “All guests were given temperature checks prior to entering the venue and free hand sanitizer was provided to everyone at entry.”

He added that they were “unable to further enforce the physical distancing recommended in the signage posted across the property and are looking into future alternative scenarios that further protect the attendees, artists and their crews and our employees.”

Chase has yet to publicly address the backlash.

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