Sammy Hagar is defending his involvement in the Freedom 250 event in Washington, D.C.
The Red Rocker was supposed to be a surprise performer during the 4th of July celebration, contributing the musical portion of the night’s festivities. Thunderstorms ultimately ruined those plans, with Lynyrd Skynyrd and country singer Gretchen Wilson among the other acts who had their sets rained out. The entire musical portion was canceled and Freedom 250 only went forward with a speech from President Donald Trump, followed by fireworks and a performance by the U.S. Air Force Band.
On social media, Hagar came under fire from fans who were outraged that he’d be involved in anything related to Trump.
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“This is not a political thing!” Hagar insisted in the comments of his Instagram post. “This is the celebration of our country’s birthday no matter who the president is at this time — this is our 250th birthday as a country. We’ve been up! And we’ve been down! And may always continue and survive. I hope that happens another 250 years. The hate the violence the prejudice hopefully will not survive. One nation under God! Hang in there all you doubters. We’ve come a long way. We have a long way to go.”
Sammy Hagar Shares Planned 4th of July Speech
In a separate post, Hagar revealed that he’d planned to give a heartfelt speech during his Freedom 250 performance.
“I was so excited to present this speech to the world at the beginning of the Van Halen song ‘Right Now,’” the singer noted. “For those of you that had seen shows leading up to the Fourth of July event I had been practicing every night trying to get it right.”
The Red Rocker shared an image of the handwritten speech he was going to give, which said the following:
“Right now we are celebrating our country’s 250th birthday & right now would be a good time to reunite this country. Come together right now. Stop the violence. Stop the hate. Right now is a good time to show some love & respect to our fellow brothers & sisters. Let’s not be prejudiced. Let’s all come together right now. Remember United We Stand, Divided We Fall. All we need is love! Right here, right now — Happy Birthday, America!”
Hagar will head to England for a run of performances beginning July 6. He’ll return to Las Vegas for another installment of the Best of All Worlds residency in September.