After throwing a hissy fit onstage, Royal Blood have explained why they flipped off the crowd at Radio 1's Big Weekend and called them "pathetic."
The Jeb Bush-ification of the British rockers began as they asked festival-goers to clap for them after claiming that nobody knew who they were. The pop-oriented audience gave a tepid response when bandleader Mike Kerr asked, "Who likes rock music?" which eventually led to him leaving the stage with both his middle fingers up.
Now, the band are on a press tour to apologize — kind of. After saying Kerr giving the bird was "stupid," drummer Ben Thatcher said, "It was a moment of madness that has gotten out of control, I think. And we actually love the gig. We love playing music, and we love doing what we do. So it's been a bit of a mad week to come out of this."
While the words "we're sorry" are never uttered, here's what Kerr had to say later in the interview: "I'm amazed, honestly, at how that escalated to that kind of size. I think walking off from that show I felt I was being entertaining in a way of trying to lighten the situation, perhaps. I was doing a performance where I felt a little out of place. I expected to be a little bit bemused and maybe confuse a few people, but not to that kind of scale. Yeah, pretty wild."
He continued later:
It was somewhat of a blip on my part because it would have taken me three minutes to think, "Oh, maybe these people don't know who you are." But I wasn't going through that thought process. I was, like, very pumped backstage. And I actually really enjoyed playing. I had a great time. The ending, to me, I felt like a sort of pro wrestler. I was sort of walking off like — I felt like a sort of pantomime villain. I didn't feel like I'd done anything morally wrong. I felt like a bit of a windup, honestly. That's how I felt.
Considering this PR run to save the band's reputation is the most attention they've gotten since the mid-2010s, it rings true that all publicity is good publicity. Watch the interview below.
The Jeb Bush-ification of the British rockers began as they asked festival-goers to clap for them after claiming that nobody knew who they were. The pop-oriented audience gave a tepid response when bandleader Mike Kerr asked, "Who likes rock music?" which eventually led to him leaving the stage with both his middle fingers up.
Now, the band are on a press tour to apologize — kind of. After saying Kerr giving the bird was "stupid," drummer Ben Thatcher said, "It was a moment of madness that has gotten out of control, I think. And we actually love the gig. We love playing music, and we love doing what we do. So it's been a bit of a mad week to come out of this."
While the words "we're sorry" are never uttered, here's what Kerr had to say later in the interview: "I'm amazed, honestly, at how that escalated to that kind of size. I think walking off from that show I felt I was being entertaining in a way of trying to lighten the situation, perhaps. I was doing a performance where I felt a little out of place. I expected to be a little bit bemused and maybe confuse a few people, but not to that kind of scale. Yeah, pretty wild."
He continued later:
It was somewhat of a blip on my part because it would have taken me three minutes to think, "Oh, maybe these people don't know who you are." But I wasn't going through that thought process. I was, like, very pumped backstage. And I actually really enjoyed playing. I had a great time. The ending, to me, I felt like a sort of pro wrestler. I was sort of walking off like — I felt like a sort of pantomime villain. I didn't feel like I'd done anything morally wrong. I felt like a bit of a windup, honestly. That's how I felt.
Considering this PR run to save the band's reputation is the most attention they've gotten since the mid-2010s, it rings true that all publicity is good publicity. Watch the interview below.
