Texas Country Guitarist Flips Gun Control Stance After Las Vegas Shootings; Band Cancels Two Texas Dates

HOUSTON, TX — The Josh Abbott Band's cancellation of two upcoming Texas shows comes on the heels of guitarist Caleb Keeter stating he's changed his stance on gun control. The popular Texas-based band played Sunday afternoon at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, just a few hours before the deadly mass shooting that left 59 people dead and more than 500 others injured.

A spokesperson for the band said Thursday morning that the shows in College Station and Waco scheduled for this weekend have been cancelled for various reasons. The statement read that the band needed to mentally recover from the weekend's event. In addition, their equipment is still in Las Vegas and won't get it back until the FBI releases it after an investigation.

The Victims Of The Las Vegas Shooting

Keeter, a professed long-time supporter of the Second Amendment, sent out a tweet that he has flipped his stance on gun control after witnessing Sunday's horror first hand.

"I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd Amendment my entire life," Keeter wrote on Monday. "Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was. We actually have members of our crew with CHL licenses, and legal firearms on the bus. They were useless."

Keeter also noted that his bandmates and crew couldn't access their firearms during the attack because police could have mistaken them for attackers as well. The guitarist said the shooting gave him a wake-up call on the need for stricter gun laws.

"We need gun control RIGHT. NOW.,” he wrote. “My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn’t realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it.”

Band leader Josh Abbott said he was in his room on the 20th floor of the Mandalay Bay — the shooter was on the 32nd floor. Some of the band members were on the concert grounds, with some of them hit by shrapnel.

The band was scheduled to play Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater in College Station on Friday and the Heart of Texas Fair in Waco on Saturday.

The next scheduled appearance by the Josh Abbott Band is Saturday, Oct. 14 in Houston at Sam Houston Race Park.

Top image: (From left) Musicians Austin Davis, Caleb Keeter, Josh Abbott, Preston Wait, Edward Villanueva and James Hertless of the Josh Abbott Band attend the 50th Academy of Country Music Awards at AT&T Stadium on April 19, 2015 in Arlington, Texas.

Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images