{"id":50206,"date":"2026-11-09T10:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T09:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/u2-weigh-in-on-ed-sheeran-and-macklemore-tour-controversy\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T10:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T09:35:10","slug":"u2-weigh-in-on-ed-sheeran-and-macklemore-tour-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/u2-weigh-in-on-ed-sheeran-and-macklemore-tour-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"U2 Weigh In on Ed Sheeran and Macklemore Tour\u00a0Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. defended the rapper&#8217;s right to speak out, while the Edge said Sheeran &#8220;should not be vilified&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>U2 \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Michael Schwartz \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p> \t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/u2\/\">U2<\/a> have weighed in on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/macklemore\/\">Macklemore<\/a>\u2019s removal from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/ed-sheeran\/\">Ed Sheeran<\/a>\u2019s U.S. tour, backing the rapper\u2019s right to speak out while cautioning against blaming Sheeran.<\/p>\n<p> \t\u201cWe totally support <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/macklemore\/\" id=\"auto-tag_macklemore\" data-tag=\"macklemore\">Macklemore<\/a>\u2019s right as an artist to say what he wanted to say,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/the-edge\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-edge\" data-tag=\"the-edge\">the Edge<\/a> said in an interview with BBC News. \u201cI don\u2019t think Ed should be vilified,\u201d he added, acknowledging the difficult position Sheeran had been in. The guitarist also praised the artists who left Sheeran\u2019s tour in solidarity, framing the dispute as a matter of free expression.  \t<\/p>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t   \t \t \t\t \t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t \t  \t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<p> \tDrummer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/larry-mullen-jr\/\" id=\"auto-tag_larry-mullen-jr\" data-tag=\"larry-mullen-jr\">Larry Mullen Jr.<\/a> went further. \u201cArtists can choose whether they want to be politically active or not. It\u2019s a human right,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we as a band will fight for the right to speak your mind as long as it doesn\u2019t incite violence. And even if we disagree with it or don\u2019t like it,<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"echo_read_more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/music-news\/u2-macklemore-ed-sheeran-tour-censorship-comments-1236377026\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0More Info >>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. defended the rapper&#8217;s right to speak out, while the Edge said Sheeran &#8220;should not be vilified&#8221;. U2 Courtesy Michael Schwartz U2 have weighed in on Macklemore\u2019s removal from Ed Sheeran\u2019s U.S. tour, backing the rapper\u2019s right to speak out while cautioning against blaming Sheeran. \u201cWe totally support Macklemore\u2019s right<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":50207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","wpai_meta_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5497,7003,7004,7005,36,87,79,5859,7006,7007],"class_list":["post-50206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-360music","tag-billboard-uk","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-larry-mullen-jr","tag-macklemore","tag-mixtv","tag-music","tag-music-news","tag-rock","tag-the-edge","tag-u2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixtv1.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}