Eric Clapton helped raise $1 million for Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign at a private fundraiser on Monday night, Kennedy’s campaign announced Tuesday. Clapton an…

Eric Clapton helped raise $1 million for Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign at a private fundraiser on Monday night, Kennedy’s campaign announced Tuesday.

Clapton and his band performed at an event, which raised a total of $2.2 million, including $1 million for Kennedy’s campaign and $1.2 million for a political action committee supporting him.

“I am deeply grateful to Eric Clapton for bringing his musical artistry and rebellious spirit to my gathering in Los Angeles last night,” Kennedy said in the press release, which described the Monday night event as a “once-in-a-lifetime musical performance.”

Kennedy’s campaign announced in late August that Clapton would perform at the private fundraiser, which reportedly offered tickets starting at $3,300, up to a maximum of $6,600.

Kennedy and Clapton have both been outspoken about their skepticism of vaccines, which has resulted in fierce blowback from the public.

In the statement Tuesday, Kennedy praised Clapton but did not mention their shared skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines.

“I sometimes think that in our divided society, it is music rather than any kind of intellectual agreement that has the most potential to bring us together again,” Kennedy said in the press release.

“Eric sings from the depths of the human condition. If he sees in me the possibility of bringing unity to our country, it is only possible because artists like him invoke a buried faith in the limitless power of human beings to overcome any obstacle,” he added.

Kennedy is one of two long-shot Democratic presidential bids to challenge incumbent President Biden for the Democratic nomination. While neither Kennedy nor author Marianne Williamson have made any significant headway against the president, Kennedy has been critical of efforts of establishment Democrats to block any serious threat to Biden’s campaign.

    • fiat_lux@kbin.social
      1011·
      1 year ago

      Always has been. Here’s his drunk on-stage rant from 1976 in Birmingham.

      ** Content warning: Racism and racist slurs. **

      “Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands. So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country. I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should vote for Enoch Powell. Enoch’s our man. I think Enoch’s right, I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white. I used to be into dope, now I’m into racism. It’s much heavier, man. Fucking wogs, man. Fucking Saudis taking over London. Bastard wogs. Britain is becoming overcrowded and Enoch will stop it and send them all back. The black wogs and coons and Arabs and fucking Jamaicans don’t belong here, we don’t want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don’t want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man. This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for fuck’s sake? Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!” - Eric Clapton

      Enoch Powell was a conservative party politician running for election, incidentally.

      Clapton has always been truly awful and this is completely in character for him.

      • macarthur_park@lemmy.world
        39·
        1 year ago

        "Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands.

        This reads like a cover of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but with messed up lyrics.

        • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
          22·
          1 year ago

          Except In The Flesh is meant to be satire.

          The character, Pink, imagines himself as a fascist dictator as he struggles to keep his sanity. The whole scene echoes the power he wields over his fans and in turn how blindly they will follow him, not at all unlike Hitler and the nazi regime. It echoes his hatred for his authoritarian teacher, his overbearing mother, the war that killed his father, and his inability to cope with who he is, his stardom, his isolation, any of it.

          There’s a cool analysis of it here.

          Clapton is just being a PoS. Brilliant musician, but a trash heap of a human.

          • xantoxis@lemmy.world
            9·
            1 year ago

            Even though I knew about both of these things, I’m just now realizing that Pink Floyd released The Wall in 1979–three years after Clapton’s rant. Suddenly I’m thinking these are not unrelated. What’s more, Roger Waters himself says the idea for the album was inspired in 1977, only 1 year following.

            • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
              8·
              1 year ago

              There was a large xenophobic movement going on at the time. This forbidden site post has several points about the similarities too. There were a few others when I searched Google too. Clapton’s speech spurred the creation of the “Rock Against Racism” movement. I’d say it’s very possible. Definitely makes sense when you put it in the same perspective as Pink’s character. Rock legend gets a little too drunk with power, and a little too drunk and high in general, uses his platform to spew out his beliefs, knowing his fans will soak it up because they love him and would do anything for him.

              Ironically, Waters and Clapton played the song together back in 84!

        • sin_free_for_00_days
          10·
          1 year ago

          🎶 Are there any queers in the theater tonight?

          Get 'em up against the wall ('gainst the wall)

          Now there’s one in the spotlight, he don’t look right to me

          Get him up against the wall ('gainst the-)🎶