{"id":75814,"date":"2026-10-26T21:16:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T21:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/jack-antonoff-slams-ed-sheeran-for-handling-of-macklemore-tour-debacle\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T21:16:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T21:16:40","slug":"jack-antonoff-slams-ed-sheeran-for-handling-of-macklemore-tour-debacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/26\/jack-antonoff-slams-ed-sheeran-for-handling-of-macklemore-tour-debacle\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Antonoff Slams Ed Sheeran for Handling of Macklemore Tour Debacle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/jack-antonoff\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jack-antonoff\" data-tag=\"jack-antonoff\">Jack Antonoff<\/a> said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/ed-sheeran\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ed-sheeran\" data-tag=\"ed-sheeran\">Ed Sheeran<\/a> should have just canceled \u201cthe whole fucking tour\u201d instead of caving to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/macklemore-statement-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-1235626135\/\">pressure to boot<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-pro-palestine-statements-1235625967\/\">Macklemore<\/a> over the rapper\u2019s comments on the Israel-Gaza war.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSheeran \u201cmissed a massive, beautiful opportunity there,\u201d Antonoff told <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/oct\/25\/jack-antonoff-bleachers-interview-producer-kendrick-springsteen-taylor-swift\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">The Guardian<\/a> <\/em>in a new interview. \u201cJust cancel the whole fucking tour, then play for free outside each venue, raise a bunch of money, rather than let a fucking billionaire tell you what to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn September, Macklemore was dropped from the North American leg of Sheeran\u2019s Loop Tour after the owners of several stadiums said he would not be allowed to perform at their venues. At the first two shows of the tour at MetLife Stadium outside New York City, Macklemore called for a \u201cFree Palestine,\u201d expressed solidarity with people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, showed images of the devastation from Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, and performed his protest song, \u201cHind\u2019s Hall.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAfter being dropped, Macklemore released a statement saying Robert Kraft \u2014 the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots \u2014 had barred him from playing Gillette Stadium. Macklemore claimed Kraft also \u201crallied some of the other stadium owners\u201d to push Sheeran to drop him, or face having the shows canceled. Kraft, for his part, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-robert-kraft-statement-1235626352\/\">confirmed he barred<\/a> Macklemore from Gillette, but did not address the claim that he rallied the other owners.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSheeran\u2019s decision to drop Macklemore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/massive-attack-calls-out-ed-sheeran-over-macklemore-tour-1235627527\/\">caused a <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/macklemore-support-artists-ed-sheeran-tour-controversy-1235626898\/\">massive backlash<\/a>. The other openers for the North American leg of his Loop Tour <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/finneas-lukas-graham-leave-ed-sheeran-tour-macklemore-1235627181\/\">dropped off the trek, as did Finneas<\/a>, who was set to open the South American leg of the tour. The Irish folk band, Beoga, who had been performing a short set of songs with Sheeran each night also left the trek.\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAntonoff, who is Jewish, has also faced criticism for expressing solidarity with Palestinians and saying \u201cFree Palestine\u201d onstage. But he said the Macklemore\/Sheeran debacle has only made him feel \u201cway more emboldened to say it now, because it\u2019s not in any way a strange, uncomfortable, or controversial thing to say, it\u2019s a deeply human thing to say. If you think it is [controversial] you\u2019re lost in some other sauce that is so crazy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOf possible pushback from promoters or venue owners, Antonoff quipped, \u201cThey\u2019re going to let some fucking promoter tell me what I can say? Don\u2019t book me. I\u2019ll play for free outside.\u201d He then added, \u201cThe reason it\u2019s not an anomaly or niche issue is because we all live in a world where billionaires are constantly telling us what to do. So stand the fuck up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/jack-antonoff-ed-sheeran-macklemore-tour-1235648117\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jack Antonoff said Ed Sheeran should have just canceled \u201cthe whole fucking tour\u201d instead of caving to pressure to boot Macklemore over the rapper\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":75815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}