BLACK STONE CHERRY bassist Jon Lawhon has told MisplacedStraws.com that he and his bandmates make a conscious effort to not get involved in politics when it comes to their music and public statements. “We try our absolute best to stay non-political,” he said. “We, of course, all have our political views. Every person in the world does.
“I’ll be honest with you — as of right now, this is the first time — and I’m not gonna tell you which way or the other; I won’t — but this is the first time in the band’s career that we’ve all been on the same pages as to who we feel should be voted for,” he continued. “First time in our career. It’s never been, like, ‘I’m gonna beat you up if you like this guy,’ and, ‘I like this…’ We’re not like that.
“Neither one of us are far left or far right — we’re all kind of, like, more centralized. We’re close to that line. We’re more independent than anything.
“A lot of the songs that we’ve released over the years have had political underlying statements and messages, with military and all kinds of stuff,” Jon added. “I mean, ‘Lonely Train’, our first single, that’s about war. ‘Long Sleeves’ is another one that’s about war. We’ve had several songs like that. ‘Peace Is Free’ is a general message to the globe — not saying that freedom is free, ’cause it’s not; freedom is fought and died for. But the possibility of peace being freely given and accepted globally is not a far-fetched idea. The whole point of writing that song is if everybody would just basically shut up, mind their own business and appreciate the other person that they’re standing next to’s opinion, then everything would be fine. It’s the same thing with the political climate that we’re living in right now with [Donald] Trump and [Joe] Biden. Just appreciate the other person’s viewpoint and discuss. Discuss all you want, for sure. You might be able to teach somebody something or you yourself might be able to learn something… If everybody would spend a little bit more time listening and a little less time yelling, we would get a lot farther.”
In a March 2016 interview with U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine, BLACK STONE CHERRY drummer John Fred Young said that he was exhausted with and disenchanted by the state of U.S. politics in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
“I hate to say it, but I can’t trust a lot of those people that are running for president, especially Donald Trump,” he said. “What the fuck, dude? I don’t consider myself an intelligent person when it comes to politics, but I do know that you can’t have corporations backing people in office because there’s always an underlying motive or agenda. And I don’t watch CNN or Fox because it’s all programmed and bought out media.
“The way I feel, if America wanted a great person in office, then they should put in somebody that’s really going to fight for every class and human equality.
“I know that things aren’t perfect in the U.K., but I was watching a debate in the House of Commons on TV the other day and it’s just so different over here. People stand up and ask the Prime Minister questions, and then he’ll stand up and literally say off the top of his head what he thinks about the idea or the problem, how he thinks the situation can be fixed, and what he and the government is doing about it. People were hollering and everything in there. As an American watching that, it was really eye opening to see how different that process is from ours. In the U.S., it’s all so controlled and regulated, but over here it seemed like an open debate, like they’re actually trying to get to the bottom of things.”
BLACK STONE CHERRY will release its seventh studio album, “The Human Condition”, on October 30 via Mascot Label Group.
