On Tuesday night, Third Eye Blind played a charity concert at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. Coincidently, the Republican National Convention is in town this week and many GOP supporters went to the show. Third Eye Blind did not welcome the conservative guests with open arms and out of the blue surprised them with a symphony of trolling.
The band played their obscure songs. No “Semi-Charmed Life.” Not even “Graduate.” Until the last number when they jammed out to “Jumper.” That was done on purpose since the song is about “a friend who’s gay, jumping off a bridge and killing themselves.”
3EB lead singer Stephan Jenkins introed the song by saying that he wished that the Republican Party would welcome people “like my cousins who are gay into the American fabric. To love this song is to take into your heart the message and to actually have a feeling to arrive and move forward and not live your life in fear and imposing that fear on other people.”
Third Eye Blind tonite at #RNCinCLE event: We believe in tolerance, acceptance 🙌🙌 (Followed by boos) pic.twitter.com/WPRIEMZmEp
— Tina (@tinpant) July 20, 2016
He also mocked other socially conservative positions held by the majority of the GOP including climate change. After playing “Jumper,” Jenkins punked the crowd by saying, “Raise your hand if you believe in science.”
Epic @ThirdEyeBlind troll of RNC event. Played none of the hits, bashed GOP platform, asked "Who here believes in science?" So much booing.
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) July 20, 2016
When the crowd became furious with his antics and started booing, Jenkins responded by saying, “You can boo all you want, but I’m the motherfucking artist up here.”
.@ThirdEyeBlind trolls #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/zXIKWdO5Hj
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 20, 2016
Third Eye Blind playing RIAA event in CLE & trashing @RNC platform to loud boos from Republicans. Then they play Jumper & everyone cheers.
— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) July 20, 2016
One woman voiced her displeasure on Twitter and the band replied.
Coincidentally, this is not Third Eye Blind’s first encounter with the Republican National Convention. The band was invited to play at the RNC four years ago and they declined. Jenkins wrote an op-ed in Huffington Post explaining why.
The Republican party is on the wrong side of Lilly Ledbetter, fiscal responsibility, unions, civil rights, climate change, evolution, the Big Bang theory, stem cells, Medicare, and me, and that’s why we will let them be, in their government-funded event center, to sell their song and dance without me.
So don’t expect Third Eye Blind to be playing at the RNC in 2020.
[TheHill]