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, adding, “The promoter is not what the people come to see.” He gave an example: during the band’s Rocklahoma Festival in Oklahoma, the band was outspoken about the Trump administration.
Kraft responded with a statement and claimed that Sheeran called him and asked him to “to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis.” A rep for Sheeran did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment about the statement.
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