<p>Nineties icon Vanilla Ice made it clear that he would never join the artists backing out of performances at the &#8220;Great American State Fair&#8221; — part of the America 250 celebrations — saying that he refused to let anyone tell him he couldn&#8217;t be proud of his country.</p>
<p>The musician, born Robert Matthew Van Winkle, spoke with CNN anchor Brianna Keilar about his plans to participate in the upcoming events — and artists like Bret Michaels and country superstar Martina McBride, who have already pulled out of planned performances citing &#8220;politicization&#8221; of the overall celebrations.</p>
<p>Keilar asked the rapper why he was planning to go ahead with his appearance even though other artists had backed out of their own performances, and he held nothing back.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know, I can only speak for myself, and I&#8217;m proud to be an American,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I was born here and raised here. This is my country and I don&#8217;t like anybody telling me I really can&#8217;t be proud of it. This is a huge honor to play the birthday, it&#8217;s one of the — it&#8217;s once in a lifetime, you know, 250.&#8221;</p>
<p>He went on to say that he respected the decisions of other artists, but that he had no intention of going down that road himself.</p>
<p>&#8220;I know there&#8217;s a lot of tension everywhere,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;This whole world is like a snow globe, but it shouldn&#8217;t be that and music is here to bring people together, man. And, you know, it shouldn&#8217;t be that this music is dragged into politics. It&#8217;s not fair. I don&#8217;t even vote! I&#8217;m not a politician, I don&#8217;t have the first thing to say about how to run a country or do anything like that.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I think this is a huge honor, and I&#8217;m wanting to celebrate the country I was born and raised in,&#8221; he declared. &#8220;We didn&#8217;t take things so serious back in the &#8217;90s — I feel sorry for these kids today, man, you know? I have kids, so I know!&#8221;</p>
<p>The rapper went on to suggest that kids would be better off if they were able to go back to the &#8217;80s and &#8217;90s and get off the computer screens for a bit.</p>
<p>&#8220;Havin&#8217; fun, and Z. Cavariccis, and you just go out and you rip your back seat and put subwoofers in, and you enjoy going to Blockbuster,&#8221; he said. &#8220;All we&#8217;re doing is celebrating the birthday of our country, what&#8217;s the big deal here? And as far as entertainers, I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s fair to put any of us on a pedestal like that as far as politics goes because, you know, it shouldn&#8217;t matter: we&#8217;re just here to play.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>WATCH:</strong></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">🚨 NOW: American rapper Vanilla Ice SAYS IT PERFECTLY after artists bail on performing at America&#8217;s 250th celebration in Washington DC</p>
<p>CNN: Why are you still planning on performing?</p>
<p>ICE: &#8220;I&#8217;m PROUD to be an American! [&#8230;] I don&#8217;t like ANYBODY telling me I can&#8217;t be proud of… <a href="https://t.co/UHYyWjTiMy">pic.twitter.com/UHYyWjTiMy</a></p>
<p>— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) <a href="https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2061535931576754437?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2026</a></p></blockquote>
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Vanilla Ice Blows Up The America 250 Boycott Narrative

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Vanilla Ice Blows Up The America 250 Boycott Narrative