Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters urged Super Bowl halftime show performers to take knees on stage in support of Colin Kaepernick in a message posted to his social media page Wednesday.
“Colin Kaepernick is an American hero. If the USA is to have a future, it is the Colin Kaepernicks of this world who will lead you there, in fact, it is Colin Kaepernick who is leading you now,” Roger Waters said in the statement.
“My colleagues Maroon 5, Travis Scott and Big Boi are performing during the halftime show at the Super-bowl this coming Sunday, I call upon them to ‘take a knee’ on stage in full sight,” the 75-year-old rocker said.
“I call upon them to do it in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, to do it for every child shot to death on these mean streets, to do it for every bereaved mother and father and brother and sister.”
Roger Waters and band take a knee
There is a petition on Change.org/takeaknee aimed at persuading Maroon 5, Travis Scott and Big Boi to take a knee at halftime on Sunday:This is my band taking a knee at the end of a gig in Hartford, Connecticut on Sunday 24th of September 2017. We did it in solidarity with San Francisco Quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s gesture of protest against the endemic racism and often deadly force meted out by police departments across this land. It was the third Sunday of Colin Kaepernick’s lock out by the NFL. The message was clear, “Shut your mouth, boy!" Next Sunday will be the 36th Sunday he has been locked out of your national game. This is not a victory for the NFL, it is a defeat, you have denied football fans everywhere the pleasure and the honor of watching one of the greatest quarterbacks who ever played the game, and you have shown your true colors. You can sit in your boardrooms and huff and puff on your cigars in your glass boxes, but your action is a poke in the eye for everything that is decent in America. Colin Kaepernick is an American hero. If the USA is to have a future, it is the Colin Kaepernicks of this world who will lead you there, in fact, it is Colin Kaepernick who is leading you now. My colleagues Maroon 5, Travis Scott and Big Boi are performing during the halftime show at the Super-bowl this coming Sunday, I call upon them to “take a knee” on stage in full sight. I call upon them to do it in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, to do it for every child shot to death on these mean streets, to do it for every bereaved mother and father and brother and sister. My mother used to say to me, “In any situation there is nearly always a right thing to do, just do it.” So, there you go my brothers, you are faced with a choice, I’m not saying it will be easy, all the Presidents men, all the huffers and puffers, will be royally pissed off, but, $#@%’em, I call upon you to do it because it’s the right thing to do and because somewhere inside you know it.LoveRoger Waters
Posted by Roger Waters on Wednesday, January 30, 2019
The “Brick in the Wall” singer’s statement continued with him saying that taking a knee would upset “all the Presidents (sic) men.” He also included a video of him and his band kneeling during a performance in 2017.
“My mother used to say to me, ‘In any situation there is nearly always a right thing to do, just do it.’ So, there you go my brothers, you are faced with a choice, I’m not saying it will be easy, all the Presidents men, all the huffers and puffers, will be royally pissed off, but, $#@%’em, I call upon you to do it because it’s the right thing to do and because somewhere inside you know it,” the “Money” musician said.
In 2016, the British crooner performed with anti-Trump messages appearing him behind him, such as “Trump is a pig.”
Roger Waters performs onstage during Desert Trip at the Empire Polo Field on October 9, 2016 in Indio, California. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
He defended the use of anti-Trump imagery in 2017, saying, “What we need is to survive his presidency because it’s totally unpredictable. I don’t think he knows what he’s going to do.”
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