‘80s Rock Legend Says Canceling Kennedy Center Gig Was ‘a Very Easy Decision to Make’
- - ‘80s Rock Legend Says Canceling Kennedy Center Gig Was ‘a Very Easy Decision to Make’
Craig RosenJanuary 1, 2026 at 1:20 AM
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(Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images)
Peter Wolf canceled an event to promote his memoir at the Kennedy Center back in March, but the former J. Geils Band frontman is talking about it now, as other musicians have pulled out of engagements in the wake of President Donald Trump’s staff changes and name change at the hallowed Washington, D.C. venue.
Wolf was booked for an event on March 21 at the Kennedy Center to promote Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters and Goddesses, but opted to move it to Politics and Prose, a Washington, D.C. independent bookstore instead.
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“When they changed the administration and fired a lot of good people, I just felt uncomfortable,” Wolf told The Boston Globe. “It became a political issue. Appearing at the Kennedy Center became political, and I felt that was wrong.
“It was a very easy decision to make,” he added.
Since Wolf canceled, others have made similar moves, including Isa Rae and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who scrapped an engagement of his acclaimed musical Hamilton at the venue that was to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
With the Trump appointed board reportedly voting to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center, other acts have decided to cancel, including the New Year’s Eve headliners jazz group The Cookers.
Yet the cancellation was still a bit of a disappointment for Wolf. Although the J. Geils Band never played the venue, he did perform at the Kennedy Center in 1997 as part of an all-star tribute to blues legend Muddy Waters. “I was hoping to get back there,” he told the outlet.
While Wolf won’t be playing the Kennedy Center any time soon, he is hitting the road for the first time in years fronting a full band.
“I did an acoustic tour of stories and songs right before the release of the book, but I feel now it’s time to get out there with the A team,” Wolf told The Globe, referring to the lineup of his band called the Midnight Travelers, which features guitarists Duke Levine and Kevin Barry. “I have an album that’s about 89 percent finished great. I might draw from that, but I tend to focus on material from the solo recordings and I always toss in some of my favorite songs from the Geils era.”
Aside from the initial slate of dates Wolf announced, he recently added five more shows, including stops in New York City and Detroit.
This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
