Dropkick Murphys‘ frontman Ken Casey has spoken up about Macklemore being forced off Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour after the rapper made onstage comments in support of Palestinians and criticized Israel’s war in Gaza.
In an interview with Boston Public Radio, Casey said, “I know that, as a musician for 30 years, anytime we’ve gone on tour we’ve selected the bands that have opened for us — that’s brotherhood, sisterhood, that’s family. You live or die with the people you bring on the road. They’re your people.”
He added: “And the fact that Ed Sheeran took the knee, no matter what the cause is, and not stood with his fellow tour partner, just doesn’t, you know, sit right with me. And that’s not how Dropkick Murphys would operate.” Casey comments garnered applause during the taping.
Casey said that the promoter is not the entity that should dictate what happens at a show. “The promoter is not what the people come to see.” He gave an example: during the band’s Rocklahoma Festival in Oklahoma. “We said what we have to say onstage every night, and probably about 50 percent of the audience walked away.” The band is outspoken about the Trump administration. (Sheeran said the decision to remove Macklemore was not his, but that of the promoter Messina Touring Group, combined with pressure from venues as orchestrated by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.)
“And I was told immediately afterwards that angered the owner of the site, and I’m sure we won’t get invited back,” Casey continued.
But he insisted it’s important to stand up for your beliefs. “All the artists I loved as a kid, no matter what, it was that they stand by what they sing about,” he said. “Once you let that go, then you don’t have any worth in your music if you ask me.”
Macklemore appears to hold a similar mindset; he doubled down on his stance after his removal from the tour, pledging to donate $1 million to Palestinian support groups and challenged Kraft “to match” him. Kraft responded with a statement that included a $2 million comittment “to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis,” claiming it was a match to a donation from Sheeran. A rep for Sheeran did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment about the statement.
