Jason Isbell Cancels Houston Show, Moves Another To Billy Bob’s Texas Due To COVID Protocol Disagreement

A group of men posing for a photo

Jason Isbell announced just a couple days ago that he will require a vaccination or negative COVID test at all of his shows this fall.

He stated that if the venue was not on board and would not agree to helping ensure that those guidelines were met, he simply wouldn’t play there:

He is implementing these requirements as a way to hopefully reduce the chances that more shows will be canceled or delayed in the upcoming months. And today, it seems as though he’s already dealing with some scheduling issues.

Though this is the first time we’ve seen a venue change over a disagreement on new COVID protocols, with more and more venues and/or artists taking a stance on how the show will be run, I have a feeling it won’t be the last.

He was scheduled to play a show today at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands near Houston, Texas. The promoter, Live Nation, recently announced that they would also leave COVID policy decisions up to the artist and support whatever decision each individual artist or band made.

But according to Jason, it was the venue owner who did not want to try and implement his requested policy:

“The pavilion statement is false.

Live Nation, the promoter, was on board but the venue owner flat-out refused to even attempt to implement the policy.”

On the other hand, the statement from the pavilion said, in part, that they wanted to implement his requested guidelines, but were unable to do so on such short notice:

“The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion full supports and commends Jason Isbell and his team for their commitment to the health of their fans, crew, band and venue staff.

We are all on the same page here and we agree with what Jason Isbell would like to implement, but there is a timing issue.

To implement a major change in policy such as what is requested will take more time than we have.”

It’s hard to know exactly what went down behind the scenes, but either way, the show there was canceled because of it.

Also, his Friday show at Panther Island Pavilion in Fort Worth will now be taking place at Billy Bob’s Texas. They confirmed this morning:

A beer bottle on a dock

STAY ENTERTAINED

A RIFF ON WHAT COUNTRY IS REALLY ABOUT

A beer bottle on a dock