After quitting the tour, Aaron Rowe chose to defend Ed Sheeran first before pointing the finger elsewhere.
The Irish singer was among the artists who collectively walked away from Sheeran's "Loop" tour last week, after Macklemore was cut from the tour following his "Free Palestine" remarks at a show at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Both Pink and the Israeli American Council had publicly called for Macklemore to be replaced, and Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft later said Macklemore's comments left him "deeply offended and hurt the Jewish community." Sheeran, for his part, has maintained that the final decision to drop Macklemore was made by tour promoter Messina Touring Group after multiple venues objected. The controversy also led FINNEAS, Lukas Graham, and Beoga to follow Rowe in quitting the tour.
On September 18, Rowe addressed his followers directly in an Instagram Story: "Honestly, I think you're all missing the point. All I keep hearing is Ed Sheeran this, Ed Sheeran that, but the people you really need to be looking at are people like Robert Kraft." He continued: "The people you really need to be looking at are the Zionist lobbies trying to silence people who talk about genocide." The remarks spread online after being reposted by the social media account Oli London.
Still, Rowe didn't let Sheeran off the hook entirely—he explicitly came to his defense. "I know Ed's statement could've been better, and I do think Macklemore shouldn't have been dropped," Rowe said, "but I fully believe it was pure panic behind the scenes, they made a rushed decision because pressure was coming from every direction at once, and they had no idea what to do." He said he hadn't had much chance to talk with Sheeran recently, but "I fully believe he knows it was a mistake," adding that if Sheeran had genuinely opposed the political stances of Macklemore, Beoga, BIIRD and others, he wouldn't have invited them to share the stage in the first place. "He's kind at his core," Rowe said. "That's who Ed Sheeran is. And he makes mistakes just like everyone else." He argued protesters should direct their energy elsewhere: "Plaster Robert Kraft's face everywhere—this is a man trying to block free speech, trying to make voices that talk about genocide disappear."
The day after Rowe's post, Sheeran addressed the controversy head-on during a resumed show at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, admitting he'd made a "mistake" and saying the ensuing backlash had made him question "whether I even want to be an artist anymore." That night, he also told the audience he had removed the B-stage originally set up in the middle of the crowd, saying he was "worried about what might happen" standing in the middle of the audience. Macklemore later pledged to donate the tour's entire $1 million in earnings to six organizations supporting Palestine, while Kraft said Sheeran had asked him to match that with an additional $2 million in humanitarian aid.
Sheeran's handling of the situation hasn't quieted the criticism. Billy Bragg first said Sheeran risked "tarnishing" his reputation and becoming "persona non grata," then later said he wasn't "buying" Sheeran's attempt to "deflect this storm of criticism." Massive Attack issued a statement saying that "in the face of over twenty thousand children being killed, 'neutrality' has never been neutral," while Roger Waters bluntly called Sheeran a "nasty little shit" and praised Macklemore for doing "the right thing." More recently, Dropkick Murphys' Ken Casey said there was "no way to spin" how Sheeran treated Macklemore, and Hayley Williams added all four acts who quit the tour to her own opening set playlist as a show of support.
