John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan back in 1981, recently complained that he was a “victim of cancel culture” because his concerts continue to get canceled, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Hinckley, now 68, discussed his struggle as a “victim of cancel culture” during a recent interview with the New York Post.
According to the attempted assassin-turned-musician, his most recent concert – which was scheduled for March 30 at the Huxley Hotel in Naugatuck, Connecticut – was abruptly postponed after his scheduled appearance brought significant backlash to the venue.
“You Guessed It: Postponed Until Further Notice (They’re killin us here),” the venue announced on Instagram last week.
Hinckley blamed “cancel culture” for the sudden cancelation and revealed that this was far from the first time one of his performances were canceled just days before the scheduled show.
“I think that’s fair to say: I’m a victim of cancel culture,” Hinckley told the Post this week. “It keeps happening over and over again.”
“They book me and then the show gets announced and then the venue starts getting backlash,” he continued. “The owners always cave, they cancel.”
“It’s happened so many times it’s kind of what I expect,” Reagan’s shooter acknowledged. “I don’t really get upset.”
Hinckley also revealed that roughly one dozen concerts were canceled since he started performing in public two years ago.
His debut performance, which was scheduled for July 2022 at Brooklyn’s Market Hotel venue, was canceled following safety concerns. It was set to be a sold-out show before the performance was abruptly nixed.
“It is not worth a gamble on the safety of our vulnerable communities to give a guy a microphone and a paycheck from his art who hasn’t had to earn it, who we don’t care about on an artistic level,” a spokesperson for the Market Hotel said at the time.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Hinckley was arrested on March 30, 1981 when he attempted to assassinate then-President Reagan in Washington, D.C.
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Hinckley, then only 25, struck then-President Reagan, Reagan’s press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and a police officer named Thomas Delahanty.
Reagan’s almost-assassin was later found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982. He then spent roughly 30 years in a mental facility before being released under supervision in 2016.
Although Hinckley refused to talk about his assassination attempt on then-President Reagan’s life 43 years ago, he did insist that he was “no longer the person [he] used to be” during his interview with the Post.
“I’m just not the person I used to be,” he told the outlet this week. “I have a different mindset than I did long, long ago.”
“I don’t want to dwell on the past,” Hinckley continued. “Let’s stay in the present.”
Hinckley now hopes to open his own music venue – preferably in New York City – to combat the possibility of his performances being canceled.
“I’m just caught up in the cancel culture, I guess,” he explained. “It would be a venue for new artists, distinguished artists and they wouldn’t get canceled last minute like I’m getting canceled.”
