{"id":7509,"date":"2026-07-01T17:54:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/vanilla-ice-says-he-will-always-raise-the-flag-at-his-concerts-after-doubling-down-on-freedom-250-show\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T17:54:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:54:56","slug":"vanilla-ice-says-he-will-always-raise-the-flag-at-his-concerts-after-doubling-down-on-freedom-250-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/vanilla-ice-says-he-will-always-raise-the-flag-at-his-concerts-after-doubling-down-on-freedom-250-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanilla Ice says he will always &#8216;raise the flag&#8217; at his concerts after doubling down on Freedom 250 show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2026%2F07%2F132937322.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft wp-block-nypost-editor-partner-article-links\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Vanilla Ice is all about sharing his patriotism with his fans.<\/p>\n<p>During an interview with Fox News Digital, the 58-year-old rapper <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/05\/30\/entertainment\/vanilla-ice-defends-freedom-250-concert-amid-performer-exodus\/\">once again defended his decision to perform<\/a> at\u00a0America 250\u2019s Great American\u00a0State Fair, explaining, \u201cit\u2019s kinda shocking to me that we can\u2019t celebrate the birthday of our country\u201d without backlash, saying he is \u201chonored\u201d to have been asked to perform and that \u201cit\u2019s not about politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMan, I raise the flag at every concert I go to. You know that. And I\u2019m proud because I know what we\u2019ve gone through for 250 years to be where we are. And I am proud because I\u2019m friends with so many soldiers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the guys on the Vanilla Ice Project that do construction with me, they\u2019re all Marines. They teach me the code of ethics. They teach how, what it\u2019s like to be a real American. They teach what it is like to understand that the veterans that have lost their lives and everybody that has fought for this country, what it means.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He went on to say that the celebrations are \u201cpart of our freedom\u201d as well as \u201cpart of the fun that we are allowed to do these things and enjoy our freedom, and come together.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Vanilla Ice is all about sharing his patriotism with his fans. <span class=\"credit\">Rob Grabowski\/Invision\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cMan, I raise the flag at every concert I go to. You know that. And I\u2019m proud because I know what we\u2019ve gone through for 250 years to be where we are. And I am proud because I\u2019m friends with so many soldiers,\u201d the rapper said.  <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When it comes to the backlash he received for agreeing to perform at the <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/entertainment\/freedom-250-concert-festival-artists-backing-out-lineup\/\">President Trump-backed events<\/a>, the rapper said he is \u201cjust an entertainer\u201d and that it isn\u2019t fair for him or any other entertainer \u201cto be dragged into politics and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think people are taking everything too serious, and you should enjoy this concert, this celebration of our country, and we should all come together. That\u2019s what music\u2019s for anyway, to bring people together,\u201d he said. \u201cMusic brings people together, and that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While other artists announced they were dropping out of the lineup, Vanilla Ice received backlash for not backing away, telling Fox News Digital that the critics only \u201creinforced\u201d his resolve to perform.<\/p>\n<p>After the lineup was announced on May 29, several performers, including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/05\/29\/entertainment\/martina-mcbride-quits-freedom-250-festival-meant-to-celebrate-americas-birthday\/\">Martina McBride<\/a>, Bret Michaels, Young MC, the Commodores, Morris Day and others announced they were dropping out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair for all the other musicians. I respect them all too, that pulled out even, because they\u2019re still on tour with me, and they have their own reasons, and they live in different places, and it\u2019s different,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have to feel that heat. So for them, it\u2019s not fair and they just kind of like, \u2018Hey man, I don\u2019t need all this heat. I\u2019m just here to play and enjoy.\u2019 But for me, I\u2019m gonna celebrate my country and I don\u2019t think anybody should tell me I shouldn\u2019t, and I\u2019m honored to be on this.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair for all the other musicians. I respect them all too, that pulled out even, because they\u2019re still on tour with me, and they have their own reasons, and they live in different places, and it\u2019s different,\u201d Vanilla Ice said.  <span class=\"credit\">Rob Grabowski\/Invision\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While he understands why the other artists chose to back out, he told Martha MacCallum on \u201cThe Story with Martha MacCallum\u201d in June, that he chose not back out of the performance, because \u201cI don\u2019t like anybody telling me\u00a0I can\u2019t be proud of my country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m born here. I\u2019m raised here. I\u2019m proud of it. I represent it everywhere I go. I wear the American Flag everywhere I go. It\u2019s just a shame that it\u2019s going down like this. I really don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair on us as musicians to have the pressure put on us like this, but it\u2019s a shame. It\u2019s a shame that we can\u2019t be proud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rapper first shared his excitement over performing at the celebration, in an Instagram video posted in May, in which he said he was \u201chonored\u201d to be performing at the event, promising to \u201cbring back the 90s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the caption, he promised that the concert will \u201cbring us all together\u201d in addition to being \u201can epic party,\u201d adding, \u201cWe are all one. This is not a political platform. This is\u00a0celebrating America\u2019s birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/07\/01\/entertainment\/vanilla-ice-says-he-will-always-raise-the-flag-at-his-concerts-after-doubling-down-on-freedom-250-show\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vanilla Ice is all about sharing his patriotism with his fans. During an interview with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/132937322.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}