U2 have defended Macklemore’s right to speak out after he was removed from Ed Sheeran’s US tour. In a November 7 interview, The Edge said Sheeran was in a difficult position and urged people to avoid blaming him personally. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. argued that promoters and venue owners should respect an artist’s choice about whether to speak about politics.
The Edge spoke about the position of two musicians when U2 were asked about Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s US tour. The guitarist backed Macklemore’s right to use the stage to say what he believed and said Sheeran should be spared personal condemnation. His account began with the difficult circumstances in which Sheeran found himself and the freedom he believed the opening performer should have had.
Larry Mullen Jr. approached the subject through the people who have power over a concert. He said artists should be free to decide whether they want to make political statements and that a promoter, venue owner or wealthy individual should have no authority to silence them. He identified incitement to violence as a limit. His comments were about what U2 believe ought to happen when someone in the industry objects to a performer’s views.
The dispute began in September at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where Macklemore was opening dates on Sheeran’s Loop Tour. The rapper spoke about Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and performed his protest song “Hind’s Hall.” His remarks prompted objections, including from the Israeli-American Council and Robert Kraft, the owner of Gillette Stadium. The promoters then removed him from upcoming shows.
Sheeran has said the decision was made by others. He has described wanting his concerts to feel safe and welcoming for the people who come to them, and expressed reservations about the stage becoming a site for political confrontation. That position is part of the context The Edge was acknowledging in the interview. U2’s guitarist said he understood the difficulty Sheeran faced and kept his emphasis on Macklemore’s ability to speak as an artist.
Several other performers left the tour after the removal. Finneas, Lukas Graham and Beoga were among those who announced that they would withdraw. The Edge praised the younger artists who had made that choice. Their decision meant giving up their own places on the bill in response to what had happened to somebody else. To him, it was a practical statement about the freedom of a fellow musician.
The November interview follows earlier comments from Bono. In October he recalled Sheeran’s reservations about getting drawn into a political discussion during their work on “Yours Eternally.” That account described a conversation within a collaboration. The latest remarks from U2 address what happens after a musician has made a public statement and the people responsible for booking shows are deciding how to respond.
Macklemore went on to organise his Free Palestine benefit tour in Europe. It played Dublin, Paris and London, with guests including Hozier, Kneecap and AURORA. He later said nine US venues had declined to host similar events. Madison Square Garden’s operator cited limited availability and questioned whether he could draw an arena audience. That exchange concerns another set of bookings, separate from his removal from Sheeran’s tour.
For Mullen, the question of personal choice applies to musicians who want to make political statements and to musicians who prefer to keep their performances focused elsewhere. He said U2 would defend the ability to speak even when the band disagreed with the view being expressed. The point is relevant to the situation The Edge described, in which two performers with different ideas about their stages had been placed on the same bill.
The subject has particular weight for U2, whose career has included a long record of public engagement with political and social questions. The band members’ latest comments give the issue a specific setting within the concert business. A performer can be invited onto a stage through a decision involving several parties. If a dispute follows, the headliner, the promoter and the people who own or operate the venue can each be seen by the audience as responsible for the result.
The Edge’s remarks place those responsibilities in view without treating every person on the tour as having made the same choice. He talked about the artists who left, the artist who was removed and the headliner who said the decision lay elsewhere. Mullen placed more of his attention on who has the practical power to keep a musician from performing once a disagreement has arisen.
The two musicians were speaking about a sequence in which a disagreement had already changed the lineup. U2’s intervention puts the emphasis on the people affected by that choice and on the freedom they should have in deciding how to use their time on stage. For The Edge, defending that freedom included listening to what Sheeran had said about his own role in the decision.
