W.A.S.P. made the controversial decision to turn the final song of their November 16 show at Hammerstein Ballroom At Manhattan Center into a pro-Donald Trump rally (footage here). Prior to playing "Blind In Texas", W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless gave a lengthy pro-Trump speech before putting up photos of the president elect alongside unveiling Trump banners on both sides of the stage.
Lawless explained his decision to do so during a November 19 Q&A session, as captured by Blabbermouth. Lawless said the pro-Trump speech was also "about America" and seemed to be a full band decision. Lawless then compared "Big Tech censorship" to the 1985 Parents' Music Resource Center censorship, which is odd considering "Big Tech" is private business and the PMRC was government censorship. It's also a strange comment because… what tech is censoring who? X is run by someone who is closely aligned with Trump, and Trump has his own Truth Social network.
"When we did what we did Saturday night, it wasn't just about him. It was about America. And we knew before we did it, 'cause we weighed the idea back and forth for a week before we did it, what would we do if there was gonna be fallout? And I said, well, it doesn't matter if there's fallout, because when you see Big Tech censorship, it's the same thing we were going through 40 years ago; it's just that it's got a different name on it now — that's all. So, the first thing any government does when they seize power is they seize the airwaves, because we know that if you can censor speech, you can control thought eventually. We see it time after time. Or even if you don't control the thought to the degree you like, you cower people so they're like little rabbits hiding in the corner. They're afraid to speak out."
He continued: "So, that was the big reason behind it. But looking at someone who's willing to go through what the guy did, well, I mean… I heard somebody say yesterday, he said he's got big brass wings. And I thought, yep, that's very true, because Thomas Jefferson said, the tree of liberty must be replaced from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. And I see him as a patriot. And when I was saying what I was saying the other night — there's two things I was interested in, which was censorship and patriotism. So, if somebody's willing to die for what they believe in, I gotta stand there with them."
