Bruce Springsteen just got canceled — at the Jersey Shore.
A tribute band dedicated to The Boss’ music pulled the plug on a gig at a bar not far from his Garden State home after a dispute with its owner over the singer-songwriter’s anti-Trump comments, according to a report.
No Surrender, a 20-year-old, nine-piece Springsteen cover band from New Jersey, was slated to play Riv’s Toms River Hub on May 30 — until the “I’m on Fire” singer kicked off his European tour packed with on-stage rants flaming President Trump, NJ Advance Media reported.
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Band leader Brad Hobicorn started receiving “concerned texts” from bar owner Tony Rivoli shortly after Springsteen’s comments went viral, according to the outlet.
By Sunday, Rivoli allegedly put the kibosh on the show that was booked nine months in advance. He texted Hobicorn that the gig would be “too risky at the moment,” citing the restaurant’s conservative customer base, the outlet reported.
“Unfortunately it’s just too much money I wanted to do the Springsteen tribute for that money in my social media team would have promoted it we would have done well but now because Bruce can’t keep his mouth shut we’re screwed,” Rivoli wrote in a text message to Hobicorn obtained by NJ Advance Media.
Hobicorn offered to have his band play only classic-rock covers instead of Springsteen, but Rivoli balked at paying $2,500 for a classic-rock cover band, the outlet said.
In a message sent to the band’s bassist, Guy Fleming, Rivoli wrote, “Whenever the national anthem plays, my bar stands and is in total silence, that’s our clientele. Toms River is red and won’t stand for his bull—.”
After Fleming posted about the situation on Facebook, Rivoli seemed to change his tune a bit — insisting he never canceled the gig and had changed his mind. But the band decided it was too late for the bar owner to backtrack.
“This is not political for us at all,” Hobicorn told the outlet Thursday. “We’re just a cover band that’s trying to make some money, and people rely on it financially. We’re the ones really getting hurt.”
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“At that point, there were negative vibes about the whole thing,” Hobicorn said. “There was definitely a safety concern,” he said.
Rivoli, though, insisted the cover band could have played.
“As of (Wednesday), they could have played as No Surrender,” Rivoli told the outlet.
“I think a lot of people of my base would not have came, but I could have been wrong. You know, who knows? You can’t predict what people are going to do.”
Toms River bar and restaurant joints have previously sparked backlash for their conservative slant.
Aqua Blu Kitchen & Cocktails in Toms River put a hamburger on its menu dedicated to the right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys in January, leading to a massive online backlash and an apology from the owner.
Springsteen — who was born in Long Branch and raised in Freehold — lambasted Trump’s administration as “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous” while kicking off the European leg of his “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour in Manchester, England, last week.
Last Friday, Trump slammed the musician, calling him “Highly Overrated” and “dumb as a rock” for going “to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States.”
“Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country,” he posted to Truth Social.
Instead of playing The Riv’s Toms River Hub, No Surrender will play Headliner Oasis in Neptune Township on May 30, according to the outlet.
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