Steven Van Zandt Calls Decision to Cancel Concert Difficult but Necessary
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Version 0 of 1. Steven Van Zandt, a veteran member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, said on Friday that the group’s decision to cancel a concert in North Carolina in protest of a new law there on gay and transgender rights was not an easy one, because it punishes fans. “Boycotts are not something to be taken lightly,” Mr. Van Zandt, the guitarist known as Little Steven, said backstage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Brooklyn, just hours after Mr. Springsteen announced that he would not play the concert scheduled for Sunday in Greensboro, N.C. (“Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them,” Mr. Springsteen wrote in a statement on his website.) Mr. Van Zandt backed up his bandleader’s statement, calling it a “tough decision, obviously.” “You never want to disappoint the fans who were expecting to see a show,” Mr. Van Zandt said. “We just felt the issue was just too important. This really vile and evil discrimination is starting to spread state to state, and we thought we better take a stand right now and catch it early and try to stop it.” Mr. Van Zandt added, “Unfortunately it’s the only way people understand — you have to hurt them economically to have them do the right thing morally.” The law, which passed last month and was followed by similar legislation in Mississippi, requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that match their sex at birth. The bills’ passage has drawn rebukes from the Obama administration, as well as executives from Apple, Lionsgate, Facebook and more. Mr. Springsteen, the most prominent cultural figure to oppose the law publicly, said that canceling a concert “is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.” In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Representative Mark Walker, Republican of North Carolina, called Mr. Springsteen a representative of the “radical left” and said the cancellation was a “bully tactic.” |