Bob Vylan say decision to revoke their US visas was “a scare tactic”
Bob Vylan has said the decision to revoke their US visas was used as “a scare tactic”.
During their performance at Glastonbury Festival in June, the duo’s frontman chanted “Death to the IDF”, which led to an ongoing police investigation, as well as their US visas being revoked and being dropped by their agents, UTA.
In the aftermath of their performance, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau took to X to publicly reveal that they have “revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants.”
During the latest episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, Vylan said of the incident being dealt with publicly, “When the State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce was questioned about it, and the journalist that asked a question, he said, ‘for years and years, decades, in fact, the mantra has been, visa records are confidential’. She didn’t have an answer as to why in this specific instance, the visa was removed publicly.”
He continued, “My point is that they have done that specifically seeing the media attention and the discourse that it created and have sought to suppress that from happening any further. For any other artist doing a similar thing. It’s a scare tactic.”
Vylan then claimed that it was done to prevent other bands from defending them, adding, “And also, possibly to make us persona non grata, don’t stand next to this band. It might hurt your chances of getting your visa. It might show that you know you’re supporting somebody that they deem a pariah.”
However, Vylan is not upset about losing his visa, stating, “I should make it clear that we do not enjoy being in that country, we never have.”
The political climate in the US is the major reason why Bob Vylan aren’t devastated to not return to the country. Vylan revealed, “I think the politics of that country have just really made it an extremely ugly place to be. When we got the visa taken away, I called Little Bob and I was like, yo, they’ve just sent me an email. My visa has been taken away. And then there was a slight moment of silence and then a unified sigh of relief and he just said, ‘well, at least we ain’t gotta go there anymore’.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Vylan defended chanting “Death to the IDF” at Glastonbury, telling Theroux, “Like what if I was to go on Glastonbury again tomorrow, yes I would do it again. I’m not regretful of it. I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays. I’m not regretful of it at all, like the subsequent backlash that I’ve faced. It’s minimal. It’s minimal compared to what people in Palestine are going through.”
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