Staind’s Aaron Lewis has been on the receiving end of some harsh criticism lately, with fans hitting back at his onstage comments during his Texas performance.
As long as music has existed, musicians have fought the battle to be heard amongst the audience. While most crowds are respectful towards a performing artist, we occasionally hear about artists who give up, walking offstage after their rude audience refuses to let up.
As The Monitor reports, this is exactly what happened at a show by Staind frontman Aaron Lewis on Saturday night.
Over the weekend, Lewis found himself performing in Pharr, a Texas city only ten miles from the Mexican border.
As he neared the end of his set, Lewis began to plead with the audience for some silence so that he could perform one of his acoustic songs.
“I need you to be quieter than you’ve been all night or else you’re not going to hear it,” he stated. “You’re not going to hear it if you’re not quiet.”
Check out footage of Aaron Lewis’ onstage incident:
After noting he needed his audience to be as quiet as they would be in church, Aaron Lewis remarked that he was not only confused as to why people couldn’t understand him, but that he would leave the stage if he didn’t receive some semblance of silence.
Soon, an audience member urged Lewis to “tell them in Spanish”, while another noted he should say it “in Español.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to speak Spanish. I’m American,” Lewis responded, only to receive a widespread mixture of cheers and boos.
While fans wondered if the show would indeed go on, Lewis soon put his guitar down before approaching the mic to farewell his audience before leaving the stage.
Check out reactions to Aaron Lewis’ onstage comments:
https://twitter.com/gothrissa/status/1092118816040079361
Lmfaooo I love Aaron Lewis' music but fuck that guy, man. Fucken prick
— Mel Mata (@mdrizzle_3) February 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/tessasterone/status/1091933970428821506
https://twitter.com/CarmonaCarrie/status/1091947153054990336
Almost immediately, the backlash was rather immense, with commenters on Facebook and Twitter noting that Lewis’ language was completely inappropriate, especially in a city with a population that is made of 93.7% Hispanic residents.
Of course, while it would be easy to assume he was making an ironic remark, referring to how a number of Americans are unable to speak Spanish despite a large Hispanic population, Lewis’ previous remarks don’t exactly inspire much confidence in this hope.
In fact, as Blabbermouth notes, Aaron Lewis is often considered to be one of the more conservative American musicians, having made disparaging remarks towards US President Barrack Obama back in 2016.
“Barack Obama should have been impeached a long fucking time ago,” Lewis stated during a 2016 concert in North Carola. “Every fucking decision he makes is against the Constitution, it’s against what’s good for our fucking country, and he is truly the worst fucking president that we have ever had in the history of this fucking country.”
At this stage, Aaron Lewis hasn’t responded to the backlash.
Check out Staind’s ‘Outside’:
