Pharrell Williams has shared his opinion on musicians and their political endorsements revealing that he sometimes gets annoyed by them.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary musician and producer discussed his upcoming biopic Piece By Piece and opened up about his aversion to politics and his views on music playing a big role in the upcoming presidential election.
The ‘Get Lucky’ hitmaker shared that he is “much more of a federal employee. I believe in merited civil service,” and explained: “I’m more of a humanitarian. I like people trying to help people. Not sure I’ll ever vote far right. (Laughs.) I won’t do that.”
After being asked if he would allow either party to use his music in their campaigns, Williams told the publication: “I don’t do politics. In fact, I get annoyed sometimes when I see celebrities trying to tell you [who to vote for]. There are celebrities that I respect that have an opinion, but not all of them.”
He continued: “I’m one of them people [who says], ‘What the heck? Shut up. Nobody asked you.’ When people get out there and get self-righteous and they roll up their sleeves and shit, and they are out there walking around with a placard: ‘Shut up!’ So, no, I would rather stay out of the way, and obviously, I’m going to vote how I’m going to vote. I care about my people and I care about the country, but I feel there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and I’m really about the action.”
Williams’ comments come shortly after Taylor Swift’s endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris‘ presidential candidacy.
The pop star shared an Instagram post in which she championed Harris as a “steady-handed, gifted leader”, and that Swift believes “we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos”. Swift also said Harris “fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them”.
Swift also urged voters to do their own research to make an informed decision on who they should vote for, and recommended first-time voters to register ahead of time. She also included a link to registration site Vote.gov to her Instagram account.
The ‘Bejeweled’ singer’s push for fans to register to vote led to nearly half a million people to visit the site directly from the link she shared within 24 hours of her post – up from around 30,000 site visitors a day.
Following Swift’s footsteps, Stevie Nicks also shared her endorsement for Harris, sharing: “Now is the time to research and choose the candidate that speaks to you and your beliefs. Only 54 days left until the election. Make sure you are registered to vote! Your vote in this election may be one of the most important things you ever do.”
Elsewhere, The White Stripes revealed that they are suing former president Donald Trump over his unauthorised use of ‘Seven Nation Army’ in a social media post.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan, the band “vehemently oppose the policies adopted and actions taken by Defendant Trump when he was President and those he has proposed for the second term he seeks” (per Pitchfork).
Recently, Bright Eyes‘ frontman Conor Oberst spoke to NME about their new album and opened up about the upcoming election.
“I mean, knock on wood, but I think that Vice President Harris would make a great president. She’s incredibly smart. She seems empathetic and very, very qualified. I don’t want to say that it’s a done deal, people need to show up, and there are some hurdles as far as being the first woman of colour [to run for president],” he said.
He continued: “For progressive leaning friends of mine it felt that when Biden was still in the race, it was like everyone had resigned to the fact that he was probably going to lose, and that it was gonna be horrible. Now it feels like we might actually be able to pull this thing off, if everyone gets together and agrees that, sadly, we have a binary option, and given the two options, one is clearly much better than the other. I hope that carries us across the finish line.”
In other Pharrell news, the musician recently responded to a PETA protester who invaded a screening of his upcoming biopic, Piece By Piece.
Piece By Piece is set to hit cinemas on October 11 in the US, and the UK on November 8. The film was directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville and will have cameos from Daft Punk, Gwen Stefani, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, and more.
In an interview with NME this summer, Williams explained how the movie was an “amazing experience of history for me”.
He also praised Neville for executing his vision: “I can’t tell you how humbled I am to have this masterful storyteller really make sense of my life. It has always been all over the place and made sense to me but not to most. He was able to do it in colour, vividly – brick by brick, piece by piece.”
Williams recently shared the first song from the Piece By Piece soundtrack. The funky jazz-inspired track features the Princess Anne High School Fabulous Marching Cavaliers – from the high school Williams himself attended.
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