'Crazy' Numbers Rule Out Show by Vanilla Ice

There will be no Vanilla Ice concert in Austin this weekend after all. "This date has been canceled and will be rescheduled for another time," a representative for the rapper said Thursday, CNN reports. The outdoor performance was planned for Friday at Emerald Point Bar & Grill, but Texas is among the states having an even tougher time with the coronavirus now, with more than 8,000 new cases Wednesday. "I didn't know the numbers were so crazy in Austin," the performer said in a video Thursday, per the Los Angeles Times. The county that contains Austin had reported 597 new infections in one day, a jump of nearly 700%.

Just hours earlier Thursday, Vanilla Ice was defending the holiday weekend concert, in a tweet since removed. "I take the coronavirus serious. But we can't live in a bubble," he had posted. Fans would have had to wear masks—decided before the governor announced the requirement—and would have had their temperature checked upon arrival at the venue, which is on Lake Travis outside town. Earlier this week, he posted a video of a packed concert on Instagram with a caption beginning, "I can't wait to get back to this." (The concert was skirting the state mandate to close bars.)