David Byrne lashes out at US involvement in Iran: “It’s completely illegal”
Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne has lashed out at the US government’s involvement in the conflict in the Middle East, brandishing their latest attacks on Iran as “completely illegal.”
During an interview on the March 11th edition of BBC current affairs programme Newsnight, Byrne sat down with host Faisal Islam to discuss a range of topics, with the musician being grilled on his views about artificial intelligence as well as his political stance.
Given Byrne’s history of incorporating political messages into his work in the past, Islam felt compelled to ask the singer-songwriter for his views on the current escalation of the war in the Middle East, which the US has become increasingly involved in through a series of air strikes, and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“I think it’s completely illegal,” Byrne responded, before clarifying his stance on the controversial political regime in Iran. “I’m certainly not a supporter of the Iran government, but we have no right to just start bombing them.”
Byrne, who holds both US and UK citizenship having been born in Scotland before moving to New York as a child, continued: “No-one voted for it, no-one decided it, the public did not endorse it, it’s just a small group of maniacs who decided they were going to do it, and I think Britain should be very careful following down that path.”
The singer added his own perspective on the debate over whether politics have a place in art, which was recently fuelled by protests surrounding the ownership of the Berlin Film Festival, which several guests boycotted due to their ties with the Israeli government.
“It’s very difficult for artists to convince people that way,” he said of musicians trying to convey specific political messages. “I think what we do is we bring people together, we create a sense of community. They’re brought together by a shared enjoyment of some music, but they also realise that they’re a community that shares a lot of values […] that’s a strength right there.”
Byrne is currently on tour in the UK and Ireland in support of his latest album, 2025’s Who Is The Sky?, and will return to the UK this summer to perform an exclusive headline show at Latitude Festival in July.
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