(CelebrityAccess) — Guitar legend Eric Clapton said that he will not perform at any venue that requires audience members to show proof that they have been vaccinated.
“Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show,” Clapton apparently said in a social media post shared by Italian architect and COVID-19 vaccine sceptic Robin Monotti.
Clapton’s position appears to be a response to the British government’s announcement that vaccines will be required to attend shows at concert venues and nightclubs in the UK starting in September.
The post was also accompanied by a link to “Stand & Deliver” Clapton’s anti-lockdown collaboration with Van Morrison.
As well, in May, Clapton claimed that he suffered a ‘severe’ reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine that at the time he said left him in doubt if he would ever play guitar again. Fortunately, he seems to have recovered enough to where boycotting shows over vaccine requirements is still a viable alternative for him.
It is not entirely clear why Clapton shared the link through Robin Monotti’s Telegram account. Monotti shares a wide collection of ill-considered information through Telegram, including links to anti-vaccination sites, and reports suggesting that the COVID-19 vaccine makes recipients magnetic, that vaccines implant ‘neuroelectronics’ in recipients, and that breakthrough infections are evidence that vaccines are useless.
This isn’t Clapton’s first visit to the world of controversial comments. Let us not forget that noxious moment in 1976 when Clapton, supporting British conservative politician Enoch Powell, reportedly treated an audience in Birmingham to an extended and particularly vile racist rant. The moment provided, in part, the impetus for the founding of the political and cultural movement Rock Against Racism.
