Garage pop combo the King Khan & BBQ Show performed at Montreal's Taverne Tour on Friday Night (February 10), and it didn't go well. Both Taverne Tour and King Khan have since issued statements, with the former banning the musician from the festival and the latter alleging that his CPAP machine was stolen.
UPDATE (2/24, 12:20 p.m. ET): Range has shared a more detailed account of what happened during show, including the musician telling the crowd, "All Québécois are racist and you're all pieces of shit." He also made racist comments toward a Black photographer, poured drinks on fans, and according to some present, flashed his testicles and threw a drink can at the sound engineer.
King Khan has since reached out to the festival with a more sincere apology than his initial social media post. A representative from Taverne Tour confirmed to Exlaim! that this apology did indeed happen.
It's not fully clear what happened during the set, but posts on Reddit and Twitter suggest that the mood in le Ministère was hostile.
In an Instagram Story, Taverne Tour apologized for the show and wrote, "King Khan disregarded [our] core values by exhibiting arrogant, irreverent and aggressive behavior." The statement accused him of making "inappropriate, borderline hateful remarks," and said that he would not be welcome at the festival again.
UPDATE (2/24, 12:20 p.m. ET): Range has shared a more detailed account of what happened during show, including the musician telling the crowd, "All Québécois are racist and you're all pieces of shit." He also made racist comments toward a Black photographer, poured drinks on fans, and according to some present, flashed his testicles and threw a drink can at the sound engineer.
King Khan has since reached out to the festival with a more sincere apology than his initial social media post. A representative from Taverne Tour confirmed to Exlaim! that this apology did indeed happen.
It's not fully clear what happened during the set, but posts on Reddit and Twitter suggest that the mood in le Ministère was hostile.
In an Instagram Story, Taverne Tour apologized for the show and wrote, "King Khan disregarded [our] core values by exhibiting arrogant, irreverent and aggressive behavior." The statement accused him of making "inappropriate, borderline hateful remarks," and said that he would not be welcome at the festival again.
In his own Instagram post, Khan acknowledged, "yes i crossed lines of morality." He claimed that someone stole his prescription CPAP machine (which people with sleep apnea use to help with breathing) from the backstage area, and alleged that the venue refused to file a police report. He wrote, "Everything i say on stage is from a bipolar mind, that is triggered easily, add layers of alcohol and what not and yes i can be volatile. So if you were really offended by me last night, please do us both a favour and stay home and watch a movie."
In a subsequent post, he said that he was barred from seeing the Sadies at la Sala Rossa on Saturday (February 11) due to the incident the night before.
Read his full statements below.
