Brian May has branded Eric Clapton and other anti-vaxxers "fruitcakes".
Brian May
The Queen guitarist insisted the 'Wonderful Tonight' hitmaker is still his "hero" but admitted their views on many issues differ, such as the 76-year-old musician's anti-lockdown stance and recent pledge not to perform at gigs where proof of immunisation against coronavirus is required to attend.
Asked about Eric's view and anti-vaxxers as a whole, Brian told The Independent: “I love Eric Clapton, he’s my hero, but he has very different views from me in many ways.
"He’s a person who thinks it’s OK to shoot animals for fun, so we have our disagreements, but I would never stop respecting the man.
“Anti-vax people, I’m sorry, I think they’re fruitcakes. There’s plenty of evidence to show that vaccination helps. On the whole they’ve been very safe. There’s always going to be some side effect in any drug you take, but to go around saying vaccines are a plot to kill you, I’m sorry, that goes in the fruitcake jar for me.”
The 74-year-old rocker also blasted UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his decision-making during the pandemic and insisted some of his antics have been "completely unacceptable".
He fumed: "I think it would have been impossible for anyone to make worse decisions than Boris.
“At every point he did too little, too late. Hundreds, if not thousands of our relatives died because of bad advice and because of the bad decisions that Boris made with Hancock and those other people.
"If he’d taken the precautions of shutting down the borders a year earlier, we wouldn’t have been in the situation we were. And the fact that he’s willing to trade lives quite openly for economic gain, I find horrific… completely unacceptable.
"It’s like Winston Churchill going out in his garden and seeing the planes overhead and the bodies and going ‘the bombs are dropping! The bombs are dropping! Should we hide? No, actually let’s think of the economic consequences of hiding…’”
Meanwhile, last month the UK government confirmed proof of vaccination would be a legal requirement at venues from the end of September.
In response, Eric said in a statement: “Following the PM’s announcement on Monday the 19th of July 2021, I feel honour bound to make an announcement of my own: I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present. Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show.”
Tagged in Brian May Eric Clapton