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Jason Isbell Draws Line in the Sand About COVID Restrictions at His Shows

There are musicians out there who will go out of their way to collect fans no matter what. Jason Isbell, on the other hand, would rather have quality over quantity when it comes to his fans.

Isbell has long been one of my favorite artists in the Americana sphere. As his fans know, Jason Isbell is a top-notch songwriter as well as an otherworldly guitarist. It doesn’t matter if he’s with Drive-By Truckers, The 400 Unit, or doing soulful acoustic duets, Isbell doesn’t miss. At this point, though, his Twitter is almost as entertaining as his deep musical catalog.

More than that, Isbell is using his Twitter to put his money where his mouth is. He put COVID restrictions on his shows before it became an industry standard. That brought him praise from like-minded fans and ire from those who didn’t agree. The thing is, Jason Isbell doesn’t care about what his detractors have to say. He’s doing what he thinks is right and that’s what matters to him. Agree or disagree, you’ve got to respect the consistency here.

Last night, Jason Isbell took to Twitter to talk about the kinds of people he doesn’t want as fans.

“I don’t want anybody who is ok with racism, anybody who doesn’t take the virus seriously, and boob-grabbers or fight starters or general assholes at my show or listening to my albums,” he said, drawing a line in the sand.

Jason Isbell Interacts with Fans and Haters Alike

This statement came after a back-and-forth with a couple of fans who were angry about Jason Isbell’s COVID restrictions at shows.

One disgruntled fan tweeted at Isbell to ask if he had apologized for requiring “vaccine passports” at his shows. She added that COVID vaccines are “non-sterilizing” and called Isbell’s COVID restrictions “foolishly discriminatory” before adding, “Admitting you were wrong is not a sin.”

Jason Isbell, obviously fed up with comments like this one, replied, “Just get the damn shot already. Then you can think about your sterilization.”

In response to that, Randal Sparks – who doesn’t seem to be a fan at all – tweeted at Isbell, “As if I needed another reason to never go to your show or listen to you[r] music.”

Jason Isbell replied to this tweet letting Randal and people who think like him that he doesn’t want them as fans. “This is good, though! I don’t understand why y’all assume all artists want the same thing. I am literally trying to run you off, Randal. Please don’t purchase my product.”

Isbell knows that he might take a hit in the pocketbook with this stance. The truth is, he doesn’t care. “I don’t need their money, I’m all good. I need to stay happy,” he said. Like I said, whether you agree or not, you’ve got to respect Isbell’s consistency.