Curb RecordsJerrod Niemann is busy promoting his new album, This Ride, which comes out October 6.
But the man who’s had #1 hits with “Lover, Lover” and “Drink to That All Night” took time to weigh in on the current controversy surrounding NFL players who opt to take a knee during “The Star-Spangled Banner,” as a way to address racial injustice.
“You’ll never see me not standing for the national anthem,” Jerrod tells ABC Radio. “I absolutely do respect people’s right to protest, and I know that that’s where those football players have their loudest voice is right then and there. So I see that. But one thing no one’s brought up is: If you’re gonna protest, you shouldn’t do it while you’re clocked in. You know, they’re at work, they’re clocked in.”
During his career, Jerrod’s gone on USO tours and frequently raised money to support America’s military and veterans. But the Kansas native says he sees the other side too.
“I agree that everybody deserves to have a happy life, you know, with no racial injustice,” he says. “But, just as a football fan, and obviously a fan of our military and stuff, I just feel like that wouldn’t be my particular place to protest, but that’s their right if they want to. But, like I said, just being a fan of all the people that have given their lives for us over time… I’ll be standing during the national anthem.”
Jerrod celebrated the release of his fourth studio album — which happens to be his first for Curb Records — with a party Tuesday afternoon at Hemingway’s Bar & Hideaway in Nashville.
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