Blackie Lawless praised Donald Trump and defended free speech at W.A.S.P.’s New York City concert.
“Our founding fathers were genius enough to know that if you can control speech, you can control thought,” the singer said. “And these men knew this. These were great men. Fast forward a couple hundred years, 250 almost, now we have a situation in the last six, eight years, we find censorship again rearing its ugly, ugly head. Now, this time it’s on the Internet, and it’s affecting every single one of us.”
Lawless then mentioned Trump’s return to Madison Square Garden for a UFC event on Saturday night, “Tonight, you may not be aware, but right next door to us over here in the Garden, there is a man who has undergone attempt after attempt, assassinations on his life, and this man has stood up for this country. He’s right next door right now at the Garden.”
“Now, I got two things that I’m passionate about the most. One of them is that freedom of speech. And the other one is about being a patriot. Because I’m here to tell you, I don’t care if you’re Republican, Democrat, Independent, you need to be a patriot of this country. I am willing to die for this country. I believe in it that much. And that man next door, he believes in it too,” the rocker added.
During W.A.S.P.’s ‘Blind In Texas’ song, a photo of Trump was shown on the screen, with ‘Trump 2024’ signs on the stage. The photo showed Trump surrounded by Secret Service agents, with his fist raised and blood on his cheek, taken right after he was shot last July.
Lawless talked about the importance of free speech in an October 2023 interview with Metalshop. He discussed, “This country was built as a republic and a republic, contrary to what a lot of people don’t understand, is not a democracy. But what you have to do to create a republic, you have to have a certain amount of faith in the people.”
“So, in other words, if you have a guy that’s spewing a bunch of hatred on a street corner or in a soapbox, you have to have faith in your fellow Americans that this guy is a lunatic and the vast majority of people are gonna find him out and not follow him,” the vocalist went on.
Blackie concluded, “But what happens is when you start limiting that speech, then, like I said, you take away the ability of the people to decide for themselves, number one, who’s crazy and who isn’t. But even more dangerous than that, you start appointing these umpires that tell you what you can and cannot say.”
W.A.S.P.’s next show will be on November 19 in Cleveland, Ohio. They will be performing in the States in December, too.