The inaugural music season at The Coves Amphitheater has barely begun, and already there is a cancellation. This one signals a honky-tonk blues icon’s retirement.
Delbert McClinton, who was scheduled to play the Union Hall venue July 10, announced the end of his touring days in an Instagram post on Thursday. His reason was simple: He didn’t want to deal with COVID-19.
“Here I sit, 80 years old, in the middle of a pandemic,” McClinton said in the Instagram post. “This is not how I envisioned playing out my final years as an entertainer. Music has been my total being for my whole life. … I had been considering finishing this year with a modest number of shows. But the more I thought about it, and the more obstacles that have been placed in front of me, the less my heart was in it.
“I don’t want to get up in front of audiences who might be the cause of my incapacity or death just because I want to play music.
