Country music legend Toby Keith defends decision to sing at Trump's inauguration

Country music star Toby Keith is one of the few musicians that has agreed to perform at a concert during President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration festivities this week.

Last week, the Trump transition team announced that Keith, along with others like Broadway superstar Jennifer Holliday and 3 Doors Down would also perform at a concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday, one day before the inauguration.

Ever since the transition team began inauguration week plans, Hollywood celebrities and A-list musicians have turned down the opportunity to perform at any Trump inauguration event, choosing to put their politics in front of the spirit of American democracy.

And for the musicians who agreed to perform, people have called for boycotts of their music and work. This has led many musicians to back out of performing, including Holliday and opera singer Andrea Bocelli. Both singers said they received harsh criticisms from fans, including death threats.

However, Keith is not backing down. He told Entertainment Weekly in a statement over the weekend that he's proud to perform for Americans at Trump's inauguration.

"I don’t apologize for performing for our country or military,” Keith said in his statement to EW. "I performed at events for previous presidents [George W.] Bush and [Barack] Obama and over 200 shows in Iraq and Afghanistan for the USO."

Still, people continue to bash Keith for his decision to not back out like others:

For the record, Keith is not a Republican. In fact, he is a self-described independent. Also, despite the jokes about Keith's standing the music community, Keith has had 20 #1 singles, in addition to earning dozens of awards.