
Did Parker McCollum Play The Inauguration Thanks To His 2024 Concert in Kalamazoo?
The 47th President, Donald J. Trump, was sworn into office on Monday, January 20th and his inauguration performances were a who's who of country stars. One of those Included Texas-native Parker McCollum, who was tapped in to cover the late Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)", which is not a song the artist typically does.
However- there's a chance Parker got the gig thanks to a concert he played in Kalamazoo, Michigan in early 2024.
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On February 8th 2024, Parker played the Wings Events Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan as a part of his Burn It Down tour, just three days after Country iconic Toby Keith lost his battle to stomach cancer. It was his first show after the news broke, and like many other stars at the time, he played tribute to the late singer in a way only he could.
The video captured and shared by Country Minute from this show went viral, according to setlist.fm it was the first of only a few times that Parker played the song last year.
While he did play the song in two other cities after the enthusiastic response from Kalamazoo, no other performances were as widely shared as the one from his performance at Wings Event Center. Later in the year, he was also invited to perform the song as part of the Toby Keith tribute in Nashville.
One thing we do know is how much the President loves social media. Is it possible he, or someone on his team, saw this video and the tribute performance afterward and invited Parker to play the inauguration because of it?
Michigan was a hot spot during the election being a swing state, so it only makes sense we could have possibly influenced a decision about the inauguration ceremony too. Either way- it's pretty cool to know a piece of US history started right in Kalamazoo.