James Taylor Speaks Out About Being Cut from 2024 Democratic National Convention: 'Sorry to Disappoint'

The singer-songwriter was scheduled to perform "You've Got a Friend" on the Chicago convention's opening night

James Taylor is speaking out after his scheduled performance at the 2024 Democratic National Convention was axed for time.

After he didn’t take the stage at the opening night of the convention — which was held at Chicago’s United Center on Monday, Aug. 19 — as planned, the legendary singer-songwriter, 76, addressed his absence from the program in a statement on Instagram.

“It was exciting to see and hear so many of the speakers at the opening night of the Democratic convention here in Chicago,” Taylor wrote. “And we had a great rehearsal with [Rickey Minor] and terrific singers, [Kenya Hathaway] and Mathew Johnson before the event.”

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The “Fire and Rain” singer went on to say that “it became clear, as the evening unfolded, that there wouldn’t be time for” his scheduled performance of “You’ve Got a Friend,” which he was seen sound-checking earlier in the day, per footage shared on X (formerly Twitter).

“Maybe the organizers couldn’t anticipate the wild response from the floor of the United Center…,” he continued. “Anyway, sorry to disappoint.”

Taylor did not express any outrage at his performance being scrapped, however, instead noting that the event’s opening night was “a great and inspirational, quintessentially American moment.”

“We were honored to be there…" he added.

Taylor’s canceled performance would not have been his first DNC rodeo — he opened the event in 2012 with a set including “Carolina in My Mind,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and, of course, “You’ve Got a Friend.”

Memorably, he also performed at Barack Obama’s Inaugural Concert in January 2009, welcoming the former president to the White House with a special rendition of his 1976 song “Shower the People.”

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“You’ve Got a Friend” was also not the only scheduled programming to be booted. House Representatives Grace Meng and Debbie Wasserman Schultz were also cut due to high levels of enthusiasm — or, in event officials’ words, lots of “raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker,” per The New York Times.

After opening night didn’t go to plan, DNC officials said that they decided to skip “elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people,” the newspaper reported.

President Joe Biden ultimately took the stage at about 10:30 p.m. local time for an emotional speech and hand-off to the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.

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