Army Bans Joan Baez from Singing at Walter Reed

Brian Zick

AP reports: In letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, [Baez] said rocker John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation. (…) Baez, 66, told the Post in a telephone interview Tuesday that she was not told why she was left off the program by the Army. "There might have been one, there might have been 50 (soldiers) that thought I was a traitor," she told the paper. The Post reported that Walter Reed officials did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday, but that in an e-mailed statement published Monday on RollingStone.com, spokesman Steve Sanderson said the medical center received the request for participation by Baez just two days before the concert. "These additional requirements were not in the agreement/contract and would have required a modification," Sanderson told the magazine's Web site. (…) But Mellencamp earlier told RollingStone.com: "They didn't give me a reason why she couldn't come. We asked why and they said, 'She can't fit here, period.'"

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