Van Morrison has dedicated his pandemic downtime to becoming as embarrassing as humanly possible, and now he's being sued for it.
Morrison is being sued for defamation by Northern Ireland's health minister Robin Swann, after calling Swann "a fraud" and "very dangerous" for his alleged mishandling of pandemic restrictions. Morrison made the comments in June during a concert at the Europa Hotel in Belfast after several other concerts were cancelled because of restrictions.
Morrison has been incredibly vocal about his distrust of the media, distaste for COVID restrictions and his general dismissal of the pandemic — which has now killed more than five million people worldwide — airing his grievances with a string of songs like "They Run the Media," "No More Lockdown," and the Eric Clapton-featuring "Stand and Deliver."
Back in 2020, Swann wrote an op-ed for Rolling Stone in which he said Morrison's words "will give great comfort to the conspiracy theorists."
According to a statement provided to the New York Times by Swann's lawyer, a hearing for the case is expected to happen sometime in early 2022. A lawyer for Morrison told the Associated Press that his client would be contesting the claim, arguing that "the words used by him related to a matter of public interest and constituted fair comment."
Morrison's most recent dispatch from his imagined battlefront was this year's 28-track Latest Recording Project: Volume 1.
Morrison is being sued for defamation by Northern Ireland's health minister Robin Swann, after calling Swann "a fraud" and "very dangerous" for his alleged mishandling of pandemic restrictions. Morrison made the comments in June during a concert at the Europa Hotel in Belfast after several other concerts were cancelled because of restrictions.
Morrison has been incredibly vocal about his distrust of the media, distaste for COVID restrictions and his general dismissal of the pandemic — which has now killed more than five million people worldwide — airing his grievances with a string of songs like "They Run the Media," "No More Lockdown," and the Eric Clapton-featuring "Stand and Deliver."
Back in 2020, Swann wrote an op-ed for Rolling Stone in which he said Morrison's words "will give great comfort to the conspiracy theorists."
According to a statement provided to the New York Times by Swann's lawyer, a hearing for the case is expected to happen sometime in early 2022. A lawyer for Morrison told the Associated Press that his client would be contesting the claim, arguing that "the words used by him related to a matter of public interest and constituted fair comment."
Morrison's most recent dispatch from his imagined battlefront was this year's 28-track Latest Recording Project: Volume 1.
