Dedicates Song to ‘The Soldiers in the LGBT Community’
Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder told his audience Monday night “there is nothing like the immense power of boycotting.” Hours earlier the group announced they were canceling a show in North Carolina in protest of HB2, an anti-LGBT law that has led to an immense backlash for Gov. Pat McCrory, who signed it into law last month.
“We thought we could take the money and give it to them and still play the show,” Vedder said, according to Rolling Stone, “but the reality is there is nothing like the immense power of boycotting and putting a strain and it’s a shame because people are going to affected that don’t deserve it but it could be the way that ultimately is gonna affect change.”
“So again, we just couldn’t find it in ourselves in good conscience to cross a picket line when there was a movement,” he told fans in Hampton, Virginia.
“We apologize to those in Raleigh, we apologize to those who are going to Raleigh, we apologize to the locals who probably believe in the same things that we do. They have a reason to be pissed, and we’re pissed off too. But we gotta be pissed off at the right people and get them to change their minds because they made a mistake, a big mistake and they can fix it.”
Vedder called making the decision “a hard process,” and said they wanted to “fortify all the people on the ground working to repeal this despicable law.”
He then dedicated a cover of Steven Van Zandt’s “I Am a Patriot” to “all the soldiers in the LGBT community.”
Pearl Jam joins the group Boston, who earlier Monday canceled their North Carolina concerts, and Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Cirque du Soleil, and Ani DiFranco, who are all boycotting the state.
A group of more than 160 CEO and business leaders signed a letter urging Gov. Pat McCrory to repeal HB2.
And Deutsche Bank, Paypal, and many others have either frozen or canceled plans to add hundreds of jobs to the state.Â
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