Former WHITESNAKE guitarist Adrian Vandenberg has come under fire for sharing an unflattering meme of Melania Trump.

On Monday (October 19), the Dutch musician posted a side-by-side photo comparison of a space alien and America’s first lady, and he included the following caption: “THEY ARE AMONG US! Be careful and cautious guys! Unless you don’t mind getting abducted, probed and brainwashed of course. In that case: enjoy the ride! Have an out of this world day amigos!”

Not surprisingly, Vandenberg‘s attempt at humor wasn’t well received by many of his social media followers, particularly supporters of Donald Trump, who took issue with the fact that Adrian was seemingly belittling members of the president’s family.

In response to the criticism, Vandenberg shared another Instagram photo of Melania earlier today, and he included the following explanation: “ZINGGGG! To my surprise my light joke yesterday touched a sensitive nerve for a bunch of people apparently. Not a political statement, neither left wing, right wing or chicken wing, just a joke as we should be able to make at anytime, about anybody and/ or anything.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but to my knowledge Melania Trump is not Mother Theresa or a saint. She’s just an immigrant who happened to Bump into Trump, who happened to become president of the USA, apparently to his own surprise.

“Everybody who follows my posts knows that I like to joke about everything, anything and anybody, but these jokes are never meant to hurt, insult or demean anybody. Just kidding and regularly with a healthy dose of sarcasm. This is called ‘humor’. As we all know not everybody has the same sense of humor, but even that can create very funny situations quite often.

“We live in rather tempestuous times these days with the Covid pandemic, shaky economies and political tensions worldwide and all of us are dealing with this in our own way. I personally think that music and humor are a among the ingredients that make dealing with these situations more doable and hopefully a bit lighter.

“Judging by some of the reactions to my non political joke the tensions and polarization in the United States seems to be at such a boiling point these days that some people even have difficulty dealing with a light joke like the one I posted. And it wasn’t even a political one. For those who are interested to broaden their horizon on this subject it’s worth checking into the joking around our Dutch king and queen in short TV sketches. These are so hilarious that apparently our royals themselves are laughing their ass off about them.

“Come on guys, lighten up, it’s only rock’n roll.”

Vandenberg was a member of WHITESNAKE for 13 years at the height of the band’s fame, contributing the solo on its No. 1 hit “Here I Go Again”. He was also part of supergroup MANIC EDEN, and more recently released a number of albums with VANDENBERG’S MOONKINGS.

Vandenberg‘s namesake band released its comeback album, titled “2020”, in May via Mascot Records / Mascot Label Group.

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