Kyle Rittenhouse is having a hard time making and keeping friends.
Two months ago, Rittenhouse — who became a national figure in 2020 after fatally shooting two men during a Kenosha, Wisconsin, protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake — lost considerable street cred with the MAGA movement when he announced he would be writing in Libertarian Ron Paul’s name on his presidential ballot.
After being called a “traitor” and worse, Rittenhouse, now 21, backtracked and endorsed Donald Trump, but the damage was done. He was already unlikeable after his 2021 acquittal for the murder charges as he used the outcome of the case for notoriety.
Now, the gun rights advocate’s mere presence at an upcoming charity music festival has led many of the metal bands who were scheduled to perform to cancel.
Headlining act Evergreen Terrace announced, “We will not align with an event promoting murderers such as Kyle Rittenhouse capitalizing off of their pseudo-celebrity.”
Proceeds from Shell Shock II, scheduled for Oct. 19 in Orlando, will be directed to veterans and others struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The show will go on, organizers say, even though they are left with a Slipknot cover band as its featured act.
Tyler Hoover, the event’s founder, told Outkick eight bands — basically the entire music lineup — had to be replaced.
“The woke mob tried to cancel Shell Shock because Kyle Rittenhouse will be in attendance,” Hoover said in a statement. “They bullied ALL the bands into quitting the show. We will not discriminate against anyone. Whoever wants to come to Shell Shock is more than welcome. This is not a conservative event. This is an American event.”
Hoover, who hosts the “Antihero” podcast, told USA Today Rittenhouse is just one of several pro-Second Amendment influencers invited to the event.
Let it Bleed, one of the bands that canceled, disagreed, saying in a statement that “problematic and potentially alienating entities were being used to market the show, and that is something we simply cannot condone.”
“Though we are advocates of free speech, we are collectively not a political band,” they said.
Rittenhouse was just 17 years old when he catapulted to fame after the Wisconsin shootings. He was charged with five felonies, including intentional homicide, in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26. Another man, Gaige Grosskreutz, then 26, survived a shot in the arm.
At his trial, Rittenhouse testified Rosenbaum chased him and grabbed his rifle. Huber and Grosskreutz then joined the pursuit, he told jurors. Huber struck him with a skateboard, which evidence seemed to support, and Grosskreutz admitted to pointing a gun at Rittenhouse, though he said that he didn’t intend to shoot.
Jurors bought Rittenhouse’s claim of self-defense, acquitting him on all charges, but a former bodyguard and spokesman said recently that, before the shootings, Rittenhouse was angling for a fight with protesters. That would seem to bolster the prosecution’s claim of pre-meditated intent.
Even before that latest revelation, Rittenhouse was considered a toxic figure to the left. He used the attention generated by the tragedy to promote right-wing causes and figures while dispensing conspiratorial hot takes online and in interviews.
But not everyone has abandoned him.
“I’m here to tell you — you’re not punk, you’re not hardcore,” Hoover said in a recently posted Telegram reel, referring to the bands that canceled. “You people — the people that are trolling and the people that are talking s–t — you guys are the mentally ill portion of society. You guys are the ones that are manipulated.”
Organizers of the Shell Shock II concert, scheduled to take place Oct. 19 in Orlando, will now feature a Slipknot cover band, according to LoudWire.
