Texas city to pay Ted Nugent $16,000 to stay away from their 4th of July celebration | The Raw Story http://t.co/N8bf4P5vMp

— Kragar (@Kragar_LGF) March 21, 2014

Preparing to hold its second annual Fourth of July festival at the Maude Cobb Convention Center, event organizers contacted several artists in hopes of booking them for the date. One of those artists was rocker Ted Nugent with whom the event planners had reached a verbal agreement

However, Nugent has become increasingly more controversial during his stint campaigning for Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott, causing the organizers to reconsider the performer’s appearance.

Faced with a guaranteed performance fee of $32,000, the City of Longview instead agreed to pay Nugent $16,000 out of the Maude Cobb annual budget to not appear.