John Hinckley Redemption Tour

About

The John Hinckley Redemption Tour refers to a series of music events and concerts starring John Hinckley Jr. who's best known for attempting to assassinate former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981. A venue in New York City called Market Hotel canceled Hinckley's show in June 2022 due to controversy and backlash. Many memes and reactions ensued on social media as Hinckley's online presence on Twitter and YouTube grew after being freed from jail. Additionally, Hinckley was featured in a CBS interview about his tour and being released from prison.

History

On October 19th, 2021, a Twitter account with the handle @JohnHinckley20 posted a tweet^[1] reading, "Hello everybody, this is the real John Hinckley. I’m now a singer/songwriter." The post went on to state, "I have 10 original songs on Spotify and the other streaming sites. Check them out. Also, check out my YouTube channel." Over the course of eight months, the tweet received roughly 7,600 likes (shown below).

The tweet referenced the YouTube channel of convicted felon John Hinckley who attempted to assassinate former U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 30th, 1981.^[2] He was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21st, 1982.^[2] On September 10th, 2016, Hinckley was permitted to permanently leave the hospital to live with his mother full-time.^[2]

This allowed him to be online and he started posting videos on YouTube of himself playing the guitar and singing original songs. His first video was uploaded on December 11th, 2020, and featured his song “Majesty of Love." Over the course of two years, the video received roughly 309,100 views (shown below, left). On the same day as his October 19th, 2021 tweet,^[1] Hinckley posted a YouTube video titled, "John Hinckley is now on Spotify and Twitter," earning roughly 20,900 views in eight months (shown below, right).

After he posted his announcement tweet on October 19th, 2021, Twitter users started reacting to the strange update from the man who tried to assassinate Reagan. For instance, on October 19th, Twitter^[3] user RacismFactory posted a reply that attached the video of Hinckley's assassination attempt with the King of the Hill theme song. The reply received over 380 likes in eight months.

On December 30th, 2021, Hinckley posted a tweet^[4] that announced the start of his new record label Emporia Records. On December 31st, 2021, he posted a tweet^[5] that included an image of himself holding a guitar, again reiterating his new record label. Over the course of six months, the tweet received roughly 2,800 likes (shown below).

Going into 2022, Hinckley started to list his original paintings for sale on eBay. His eBay^[6] account called kingsmgoods has sold 15 paintings as of June 2022.

Redemption Tour at Market Hotel is Canceled

On April 6th, 2022, Hinckley posted a tweet^[7] that announced he wanted to do live shows in the summer and fall of 2022. He included his email in the tweet so that venues could book him accordingly. On April 8th, 2022, he posted another tweet^[8] that announced, "Big news!! I will be performing on July 8 at the Market Hotel in Brooklyn, NY. Get your tickets while you can." The tweet received roughly 1,900 likes in two months (shown below, left).

Market Hotel^[9] is a music venue in Brooklyn, New York that predominantly hosts alt-spheres of music such as electronic, techno, drum and bass and noise music, among other, fringe genres. After Hinckley's tweet on April 8th, the venue started receiving mentionings on Twitter regarding their decision to host the event. Its social media manager started replying to users that levied both earnest and humorous backlash. For instance, one Twitter user replied, "Lol they didn’t let ariel pink play there," to which Market Hotel replied, "Hinckley served 40 years in prison /mental health treatment, paid his debt to society, acknowledged and expressed contrition for his crimes, and was suffering mental health issues that affected his reasoning and consciousness of his own actions. Whereas Ariel Pink is an asshole." The reply^[10] received three likes (shown below, right).

Hinckley was able to do live performances in July 2022 because he was released from imprisonment on June 15th, 2022, after 41 years.^[11] On June 15th, Hinckley posted a tweet^[12] that celebrated his own freedom, earning roughly 37,800 likes in 13 days (shown below, left). However, also that same day, Market Hotel uploaded an Instagram^[13] post that announced it would no longer be hosting Hinckley's July 8th show. The venue's reasoning centered on whether or not Hinckley's music "transcended the infamy" but in the end, it did not according to them. The backlash and attention were ultimately too abrasive for the venue. Their Instagram post received over 860 likes in 13 days (shown below, right).

On June 22nd, 2022, Hinckley tweeted,^[14] "I’m looking for a music venue that won’t cave when there’s backlash," earning roughly 10,600 likes in six days (shown below, left). On June 24th, 2022, Hinckely posted another tweet^[15] that announced he'd possibly found a venue in Texas that "won't cave," earning roughly 2,900 likes in four days (shown below, right).

CBS Interview

On June 27th, 2022, Hinckley announced via a tweet^[16] that he was going to have an on-camera interview with CBS. On June 28th, 2022, CBS had Hinckley on their morning show for an interview, uploading a snippet to YouTube and leading with the fact that it was his first TV interview. The video received roughly 2,200 views in one hour (shown below).

Search Interest

External References