Bigots Begat Boycotts

HOT: Bigots Begat Boycotts

Officials who recently passed anti-LGBTQ bills are harming the states they’ve been elected to represent. Some companies are pulling back plans to do business in Mississippi (where it’s now legal for businesses to discriminate if God says it’s cool) and North Carolina (where transgender people must use the public bathrooms that coordinate with the sex listed on their birth certificate) in response to the new laws. In music, Bruce Springsteen canceled his North Carolina show in protest, leading North Carolina Congressman Mark Walker to ironically call him a “bully,” while Bryan Adams axed a gig in Mississippi as a

result of the state’s “Religious Liberty” bill.

WARM: Mess Hall

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s annual induction-ceremony controversies started before the April 8 event, when members of inductees Deep Purple and Chicago couldn’t make nice and perform with notable members Ritchie Blackmore and Peter Cetera. The night of the ceremony, Ice Cube of inductees N.W.A. eloquently destroyed the ongoing argument that Hip Hop doesn’t belong in a “Rock & Roll” institution (for the record, N.W.A. is 95 percent more “Rock & Roll” than Chicago), while Steve Miller used his post-induction comments to chastise the whole process, complaining about having to buy tickets beyond his two freebies and the lack of a licensing agreement to use certain footage and music (oh, and Miller kept going and going; even The Black Keys said they regretted giving his induction introduction after all of Miller’s comments).

COLD: Sit Happens

Some fans who spent $250 to attend Guns N’ Roses’ first concert on its first tour in many years to feature three original members instead of just one had to feel a little cheated that one of Rock & Roll’s greatest frontmen spent the entire show sitting down. After breaking his foot during a warm-up gig, Axl Rose performed GNR’s April 8 Vegas gig mostly sitting on the same “throne” Dave Grohl used under similar circumstances with Foo Fighters. Fans the following night did get to see a mobile frontman — alas, it was Sebastian Bach of Skid Row fame, guesting on GNR’s “My Michelle.”