Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | News | May 29, 2026
Bret Michaels grew up in Mechanicsburg, Pa., literally the next town over from where I'm sitting, and he 100% fits the bill of local legend. He still has ties in the area and comes through so often that you can catch him at the local go-kart track or on the golf course. More notably, this is a very red section of the state, and at 63 years old, Bret is pure boomer bait. So, when I saw him on the list of Great American State Fair performers, I was not surprised. And I was not surprised that he wasn't among the acts that immediately jumped ship. I would have bet cash money that Bret would be the last man standing. He had nothing to lose by performing, and a world of trouble if he didn't. The path of least resistance was to ride this thing out.
Welcome to the moment I was surprised.
In an early morning post on Friday, Bret Michaels announced that he would not be performing at the Freedom 250 event. Like others before him, he made it a point to note that the highly partisan backdrop was not what he signed up for. I actually believe this story. This show was most likely booked by management teams who are used to seeing "state fair" as a venue, and before anyone realized what the event actually was, the cat was out of the bag.
Here's where things get weird. While Bret echoes the other performers in saying "what was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of," he drops this little number: "Concerns have also been raised regarding the safety of my fans, band, crew, family and myself, including threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable. Because of that, I have made the difficult decision to step away from this performance."
That's some shady hedging, and of course, I've already seen it working on Facebook where people are saying things like it's a shame that Bret can't celebrate his country without getting threats from the president's enemies or whatever. But I'm willing to look past that because here's the more important thing: Someone on Bret Michaels' team, or even the man himself, stuck his finger in the wind and said, "Yeah, we shouldn't do this." That's pretty huge.
While there are some folks on Facebook buying the threat line, they are nothing compared to the angry throng ripping Bret up and down for backing out. Your worst relatives are calling him every name under the sun right now. He did not have to risk upsetting his core demographic like this, and yet, here we are. There was nothing to gain with this move and everything to lose, but Bret looked to the road ahead, and you know what he saw? That we're going to win.
You can see Bret Michaels' full statement below:
