Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has dubbed Ed Sheeran a “p****” who has “done the wrong thing” amid the ongoing controversy over Macklemore being pulled as a support act from Sheeran’s tour after expressing solidarity with Palestinians on stage.
Ahead of Sheeran’s main performances on 3 and 4 September in New Jersey, Macklemore – the US rapper best known for his 2012 hit “Thrift Shop” – called for a “free Palestine” and told the gathered crowds he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten amid the conflict with Israel.
Within days, Macklemore announced that he had been dropped from the rest of the tour, and claimed that the decision came after an intervention from the billionaire Robert Kraft, who owns one of the concert venues that Sheeran is next scheduled to play at.
Sheeran has since denied he is “complicit” in the outcome, but did confirm that venue owners had threatened to pull the tour entirely if Macklemore wasn’t dropped from the bill. He said that the decision to pull Macklemore came from Messina Touring Group, the promoter of the US leg of Sheeran’s tour.
Kraft himself, a prominent donor to Israel, said that the decision was made as the stadium he owns does not “provide a platform for hate speech”.
On X, Waters – a longtime advocate for Palestinians – said in a video: “This is a little message for Ed Sheeran.”
He then showed to the camera a number of artworks and photographs placed behind him, including one of the human rights expert and United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has been a target of the Trump administration and numerous pro-Israel organisations for reporting to the UN Human Rights Council that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Waters also showed a picture of an unnamed Gazan woman with tears in her eyes.
“Anyway, never mind all that,” Waters said. “I just have a little message for [Sheeran]. There’s two kinds of people in this world. There’s people who do the right thing. The rapper Macklemore would be one of those people. And there’s people – many of them, sadly – little f... excuse me, I nearly used the F-word then… p****s like you who do the wrong thing.”
Waters then signed off with a brusque “goodbye”.
A message to @edsheeran regarding @macklemore . pic.twitter.com/1bi8OsVPWd
— Roger Waters ✊ (@rogerwaters) September 16, 2026
Sheeran has drawn significant blowback for his involvement in the Macklemore controversy, which was ignited in a lengthy statement by Macklemore announcing that he would no longer be participating in Sheeran’s Loop tour.
Macklemore claimed that the British musician had told him that he had spoken with people who were hurt by the rapper’s use of the words “Free Palestine” on stage and also his use of the Palestinian flag as a backdrop to some of his performance. “[Sheeran] couldn’t get past his public facing ‘I don’t take sides’, and I get why people don’t,” Macklemore wrote.
In his own statement yesterday (15 September), Sheeran defended himself against the growing backlash against Macklemore’s dismissal, writing: “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose to not speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.
“I choose to use my fame and platform to be a place of safety and sanctuary, to maintain diplomacy and keep conversations open, not closed. If we only focus on shouting the loudest, nothing will ever change. There are different approaches to being an advocate for change.”
He also wrote that he chose to acquiesce to Kraft and other venue owners so as to not “let down [his] fans” or “abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living”. Awkwardly, Sheeran’s support acts and his own backing band have since pulled out of the tour in solidarity with Macklemore.
Kraft himself previously released a statement saying that his stadium “has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech”.
He continued: “Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line.”
In his original speeches at Sheeran’s shows, Macklemore expressed solidarity with college students protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza, including the groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace.
He said: “To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality. So I say Free Palestine, I say Free Lebanon, I say Free Cuba, I say Free Congo, Free Sudan, I say free all people in America living in fear of this terrorist organisation, ICE. None of us will be free until we are all free.”
After his comments, the Israeli-American Council launched a petition asking Sheeran and his management to remove Macklemore from the tour. The group stated that the rapper had used a “global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda” and added: “This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event.”
Soon after, the singer Pink reposted a message criticising Macklemore’s stage comments to her Instagram page before following it up with an essay. She reiterated her 2023 stance that “Palestinians deserve a future that honours their humanity and their aspirations”, before saying that she disagreed with Macklemore sharing “violent images from a war on the screens” and telling “all of the Jews is the stadium that it wasn’t about them”.
Overnight, and hours after Sheeran said he would not be drawn into a public debate about the Gaza war, Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, the Danish band Lukas Graham, and Finneas announced on Instagram that they were withdrawing from the tour.
“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” wrote Finneas. “I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people.”
It is currently unclear who will replace the departing musicians on Sheeran’s tour, which is scheduled to play Philadelphia on 19 September.
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