Matty Healy thought he was “going to prison” after The 1975’s protest in Malaysia
In July, British indie pop band The 1975 were banned from Malaysia following lead singer Matty Healy’s on-stage rant about the country’s LGBT laws, culminating in him kissing his male bandmate.
Now, Healy has addressed the incident while performing in Hawaii on August 6th, stating that he and his bandmates thought they were going to prison.
He said: “All I’ll say is that I don’t give a fuck about any white saviour complex bullshit. What I’ll say is that doing the right thing often requires quite a lot of sacrifice and very little reward.”
Healy continued: “And being seen to do the right thing requires very little sacrifice, and that’s when you get all the rewards. And me and Ross [MacDonald] nearly shaved our heads because we thought we were going to prison for being f*gs.”
The initial incident occurred at Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibrations Festival on July 21st. Homosexuality is a crime in Malaysia, leading Healy to speak out against the country’s government between songs.
He said: “When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it. I don’t see the fucking point, right, I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”
“Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m fucking furious. And that’s not fair on you, because you’re not representative of your government. You are young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive,” he told the crowd before kissing bassist Ross MacDonald.
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