From Eric Clapton to Mick Jagger, the Covid-19 vaccine also divides rockers



Vaccine “propaganda” for Eric Clapton, the Covid-19 comparable to a simple “cold” for Ian Brown, the singer of the Stones Roses … How did rockers with well-established careers come to wish they did not want to play in rooms where the vaccine is required?

If the phenomenon is not limited to English rock (James Hetfield, of Metallica, says he is “skeptical” on coronavirus vaccines, and rapper MIA
let know very early on that she did not want to be vaccinated), these artists have an important platform because of their long career.

From YouTube to Telegram

These declarations, moreover, cost them. Eric Clapton explains that his phone “doesn’t ring very often”. Ian brown withdrew of a festival where it was to occur in September. And fans are saying they’ll just listen to the CDs of their teenage idols.

In an interview given in June, Eric Clapton Told how he came to find content opposed to vaccination: it all started with a YouTube video containing allegations of “the Great Barrington declaration”, which advocated alternative management of the pandemic by ruling out any generalized containment. Allegations
then denied. After the first injection, Eric Clapton meets someone who tells him about a Telegram channel: “He told me about a channel where I could find a lot of information and a lot of support”.

The guitarist felt isolated

The guitarist then confides feeling isolated, including within his family, because of his positions. “I really couldn’t talk to my family and my kids, my teenagers, it was like they had been brainwashed. “

After receiving his second dose, Eric Clapton, who also suffers from a disease of the nerves that affects his hands, is invited by the creator of this channel to tell his experience of vaccination. On July 21, the 76-year-old singer then made known his desire to no longer perform in venues that would demand the vaccine, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced two days earlier that he planned to return compulsory full vaccination to enter places receiving a large number of people.

Eric Clapton doesn’t shoot much anymore

“Anyway, Eric Clapton turns very little, ten dates a year or so,” recalls with 20 minutes Jean-Sylvain Cabot, author of a biography of the musician. The days of endless, exhausting touring are over.

In November 2020, Eric Clapton took part in an anti-containment song by Van Morrison. The single was to come to the aid of artists hard hit by the economic consequences of the pandemic. The title was mostly talked about for its lyrics: “Do you want to be a free man or do you want to be a slave?” / Do you want to carry these chains to the grave? “.

Ian Brown, for his part, took to Twitter to express his distrust of the pandemic. In February, he said he didn’t want to perform in a room asking for proof of vaccination. A statement “mocked” by fans, report the Manchester Evening News. He previously said the pandemic was “planned, designed and executed to make us digital slaves.” He has since deleted that tweet.

Eric Clapton and Ian Brown “remain exceptions”

Are Eric Clapton and Ian Brown representative of a movement of musicians? “Their examples remain exceptions – notable exceptions, because they are very well-known musicians,” says Guillaume Clément, lecturer in British civilization at the University of Rennes 1.

In the spring, “English groups volunteered to take part in pilot events, like the first concert without masks or social distancing in Liverpool in May (with the group Blossoms), then allowing authorities and researchers to assess the spread. of the virus in such a public ”, recalls the researcher.

Other groups have performed in support of the NHS, the UK healthcare system, and its staff. Mick Jagger even went so far as to write a song with Dave Grohl, of the Foo Fighters, in which he laughs nicely of our confined lives and conspiracy theories. A song that has no surprises
displeased to Ian Brown.





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