Elvis Costello responds to anti-woke backlash to him removing ‘Oliver’s Army’ from set: “Go fuck yourself”
Elvis Costello has responded to the anti-woke backlash he faced for removing ‘Oliver’s Army’ from his set due to it including a racial slur.
In 2022, Costello announced his intentions to remove the controversial track from his live performances going forward and also called upon radio stations to stop playing it on air.
At the time, he said, “I’ve decided I’m not going to play it. [Bleeping the word] is a mistake. They’re making it worse by bleeping it for sure. Because they’re highlighting it then. Just don’t play the record.”
Notably, the song features the line, “One more widow, one less white n***er,” which he has previously explained was a term used against Catholics in Northern Ireland.
In 2025, Costello reintegrated it into his sets, but removed the N-word from the song, instead opting to sing, “One more widow, another pallbearer”.
During a new interview with The Times, Costello explained why he has chosen to bring ‘Oliver’s Army’ back into his sets, albeit with new lyrics, as well as the backlash he faced for telling radio stations to stop playing the track.
He shared, “I no longer use words that go off like alarm clocks, because indignation about that word stops people hearing what the song is about.”
Costello continued, “That is my position. People went, ‘That’s woke.’ Well, go fuck yourself.”
Four years ago, when Costello, who by that point had not played the song since before the Covid-19 pandemic, went public with his issues with ‘Oliver’s Army‘, he admitted, “If I wrote that song today, maybe I’d think twice about it.”
He added of the context behind the use of the slur, “That’s what my grandfather was called in the British army – it’s historically a fact – but people hear that word go off like a bell and accuse me of something that I didn’t intend.”
This week, Costello’s latest tour with The Imposters is set to travel through the UK, beginning in Brighton on June 12th, before stopping off at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Barbican in York, plus further dates in Manchester, Portsmouth, and a homecoming show at the Olympia in Liverpool.
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