Bob Vylan ‘not regretful’ about IDF chant at Glastonbury: ‘I’d do it again tomorrow’ | Bob Vylan
Bob Vylan frontman Bobby Vylan said he “doesn’t regret” his “death, death to the IDF” chant at Glastonbury and that he would “do it again tomorrow, twice on Sunday.”
The outspoken punk duo caused controversy at the festival in June by chanting “death, death to the IDF”, a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. The chant was condemned by Glastonbury and UK prime minister Keir Starmer, who called it “an appalling piece of hate speech”.
Bob Vylan was dropped by his agency, UTA, and the US state department revoked the member’s visas, forcing them to cancel the North American tour.
Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast in his first interview since Glastonbury, Vylan, whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster, was asked if he would do it again.
He replied: “Oh yes. Like if I were to go to Glastonbury again tomorrow, yes I would do it again. I don’t regret it. I would do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays.”
He said the backlash the group faced was “minimal compared to what people in Palestine are experiencing.”
“I don’t want to exaggerate the importance of the hymn,” he added. “That’s not what I’m trying to do, but if I have their support, those are the people for whom I do this, the people for whom I speak out, then what is there to regret? Oh, because I angered some right-wing politicians or some right-wing media?”
Vylan’s meeting with Theroux was recorded on October 1. At the beginning of the programme, the presenter states that the incident took place before the Manchester synagogue attacks on 2 October, in which two people died and three were injured, and before the ceasefire in Gaza came into force on 10 October.
The musician said he was taken aback by the uproar caused by the chant and claimed BBC staff at Glastonbury that day told him the set was “fantastic”.
The corporation’s administrative complaints unit (ECU) has since found that the BBC’s coverage of the performance breached editorial standards regarding harm and offence.
Vylan told Theroux that there was no sign of an argument at that moment: “It wasn’t like we walked off stage and everyone was the same way. [gasps]. This is very normal. We’re getting off the stage. This is normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even the staff at the BBC said, ‘This was great! We love this!’”
Vylan also responded to Blur’s Damon Albarn; himself called the chant “one of the most spectacular misfires I’ve ever seen in my life” and described Vylan as “goose-stepping with tennis equipment”.
Vylan said Albarn’s response was “disappointing” and “lacking self-awareness”.
“I just want to say that classifying this as a ‘spectacular misfire’ somehow means that the group’s politics or our stance on the liberation of Palestine has not been thought through,” he said.
“I feel very uncomfortable with the use of the term ‘goose-stepping’ because it was only used in Nazi Germany,” he added. “That’s it. And I think it’s disgusting for him to use that language. I think his reaction is also disgusting.”
When asked what he meant by the slogan “Death to the IDF”, Vylan replied that the slogan itself was “insignificant”.
“What is important is that there are conditions that would even allow that hymn to be sung on that stage. I mean, the conditions that exist in Palestine. Where the Palestinian people are being killed at an alarming rate. Who cares about this hymn?” he said.
“Death to the IDF” rhymes, he added: “‘Death to the IDF, End to the IDF’ doesn’t rhyme, it was incomprehensible, right? … We’re there to entertain. We’re there to play music. I’m a songwriter. It rhymes ‘Death, Death to the IDF’. Perfect hymn.”
Vylan also rejected claims by the Community Security Trust (CST), a monitoring and Jewish community security organisation, that its groups contributed to a rise in antisemitic incidents reported two days later.
“I don’t think I created an unsafe environment for the Jewish community. If there were a lot of people coming out and going, ‘Bob Vylan made me do this.’ I could go, oh, I’ve created a negative impact here,” he said.
Theroux mentioned Irish band Kneecap, which has faced backlash for their approach to pro-Palestinian messaging, when Vylan said he thought the band had been criticized more heavily than others for speaking out about the conflict.
“It’s an interesting situation,” Vylan said, “because race, like everything else, plays a role in making us an easier villain, no pun intended, because we’re already the enemy.”
The Press Association contributed to this report.
