Slipknot percussionist Clown recently spoke to Metal Hammer about Gojira’s recent Olympics performance.
“I got goosebumps,” the rocker said of the performance. “I know this is going to sound stupid, but I’m just so proud of them. I know the word ‘proud’ probably sounds weird coming from me but that band is so incredible, and they’re friends of ours, and Mario [Duplantier] is one of my favorite drummers in hard rock.”
Gojira performed in the opening ceremony of Olympics 2024 on July 26. They performed the French Revolutionary song ‘Ah! Ça Ira,’ teaming up with opera singer Marina Viotti, and used beheaded figures to represent Queen Marie Antoinette. Though fans and many rockers loved the performance, this didn’t sit well with certain Christians online. They even called it a ‘satanic’ performance.
“Satanists control the west and they show you that they worship the devil,” Andrew Tate said of the performance in a social media post. “It’s not a conspiracy theory. They literally show you. Are you blind?”
“I’m genuinely enraged by this Olympic opening. These evil scum have absolutely zero respect. They mock us so openly. When will people WAKE UP,” he added in another.
Similar to Clown, Avenged Sevenfold’s Johnny Christ also defended the performance. “It was so cool,” Christ said of the performance. “And they did a cool job of — it didn’t feel like it was, ‘Oh, now we’re just gonna go to metal and it’s gonna feel completely out of place at the rest of the ceremony.’ No, they still kept it. And with them hanging off the side of it, getting that shot, showing everything, going to the different windows and stuff, I thought it was really well done.”
Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier later explained that it wasn’t a satanic performance and that it was about history and facts rather than religion.
After their performance at the Olympics, Gojira’s monthly Spotify listeners shot up from 1.8 million to 2.7 million in just a week.