Country star Eric Church defends Bruce Springsteen amid feud with Donald Trump
Country singer Eric Church has defended Bruce Springsteen‘s right to express his political opinion and condemn President Donald Trump on his European tour.
Throughout his ongoing run of dates, Springsteen delivered a series of identical speeches during each performance against the current administration in the US, which caused a hostile reaction from Trump on social media.
Far Out was in attendance at Springsteen’s show in Liverpool at Anfield on June 4th, which included him telling those in the crowd before playing ‘Land of Hopes and Dreams’: “The America I’ve written about, and has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.”
His passionate speech continued: “Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voice and stand with us against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”
Church, who teamed up with Springsteen in 2018 on the song ‘Working on the Highway’, attended the Manchester concert, which kickstarted Springsteen’s latest tour. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Church said of his speech: “I was side stage when that was going on, and frankly, I couldn’t hear very well… I saw some of it after the fact.”
However, he believes Springsteen should have the right to speak freely about what matters most to him, adding, “Bruce, he’s earned the right to say and do what he wants. It could have been about hunger, it could have been apartheid. I respect the hell out of somebody having the balls to do something like that.”
Church continued: “If you’re Bruce Springsteen, at 75 years old, if that’s what floats your boat, then you should do that. I was just ready to hear ‘Chimes of Freedom.”
While Trump has not attacked Springsteen in several weeks, he took to Truth Social to write after footage emerged from the first Manchester concert: “Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK”.
He also suggested that Springsteen “ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare.’ Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Trump later ramped up the threat level by announcing plans to launch a “major investigation” into the singer’s support of the Democratic Party at the last election. However, he’s yet to mention the investigation again since the post.
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