NOFX have issued a full apology for a “shameful” joke they made about the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting during a recent show.
After telling fans they would apologise for the joke — in which they suggested it was better country music fans were killed (instead of punk fans) during the attack at last year’s Route 91 Harvest country music festival — the band have now apologised in a statement.
“There’s no place here to backpedal. What NOFX said in Vegas was shameful. We crossed the line of civility,” the band say.
“We can’t write songs about how people in this world need to be more decent, when we were clearly being indecent. Las Vegas has always been a welcoming city to our band, and to make light of the tragedy that occurred there was egregious.
“All members of the band would like to sincerely apologize to anyone who experienced loss from the Vegas shooting 8 months ago, and to anyone who was at our show who lost a loved one or a friend, or who had to witness the incredibly senseless violence that night.”
NOFX say they were asked why they didn’t apologise immediate when their controversial comments first made headlines.
“Well, we didn’t feel that we could write a sincere apology without reflecting on the actual damage we had done,” they say.
“No press agent was gonna write this for us. That’s why we have struggled with this for the past few days.
“We didn’t plan or intend on saying anything so insensitive. It was off the cuff, but just as hurtful. We won’t blame it on drugs or alcohol or Ambien. That’s too easy. NOFX said it, and we own it. We made a tasteless joke. But to be clear, NOFX does not condone violence against ANY group of people, period!”
Read the band’s statement in full, below.
The Route 91 Harvest shooting, which left 58 people dead and almost 500 people injured, was the deadliest mass shooting in US history.
NOFX Statement
There’s no place here to backpedal. What NOFX said in Vegas was shameful. We crossed the line of civility. We can’t write songs about how people in this world need to be more decent, when we were clearly being indecent. Las Vegas has always been a welcoming city to our band, and to make light of the tragedy that occurred there was egregious.
All members of the band would like to sincerely apologize to anyone who experienced loss from the Vegas shooting 8 months ago, and to anyone who was at our show who lost a loved one or a friend, or who had to witness the incredibly senseless violence that night.
We were asked why we didn’t release an immediate apology. Well, we didn’t feel that we could write a sincere apology without reflecting on the actual damage we had done. No press agent was gonna write this for us. That’s why we have struggled with this for the past few days.
We didn’t plan or intend on saying anything so insensitive. It was off the cuff, but just as hurtful. We won’t blame it on drugs or alcohol or Ambien. That’s too easy. NOFX said it, and we own it. We made a tasteless joke. But to be clear, NOFX does not condone violence against ANY group of people, period!
As sincere as we’ve ever been,
NOFX
