Stone Brewing Co., who backed NOFX's Punk in Drublic beer and music festivals, has announced they are cutting all ties with the band after the members joked about the Las Vegas shooting.
- Jun 1, 2018
AceShowbiz - Punk rockers NOFX have been dropped by the sponsor of their beer and music festival over comments they made about the Las Vegas shootings.
The band played at Punk Rock Bowling & Music Festival on Sunday, May 27, in Las Vegas and reportedly made jokes about the tragic killings at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in the city, when 58 people were killed and 851 left injured after Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertogers from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel last October (17).
Editors at Billboard magazine claim that guitarist Eric Melvin said, "I guess you only get shot in Vegas if you're in a country band," with frontman Fat Mike responding, "At least they were country fans and not punk rock fans."
NOFX thought it would be "hilarious" to joke about the October 1 shootings while on stage in Las Vegas. They said "at least they were country fans and not punk rock fans". This is disgusting and callous. We will never support anything involving this band ever again. pic.twitter.com/am3R8QJIE6
— Dave and Mahoney (@DaveAndMahoney) 30 May 2018
On Wednesday, bosses at Stone Brewing Co., the brewery who back NOFX's Punk in Drublic beer and music festivals, announced they were cutting all ties with the band. The latest edition of the festival, Camp Punk in Drublic, is due to get underway in Thornville, Ohio on Friday.
"We at Stone Brewing are aware of NOFX's insensitive and indefensible statements this past weekend," a company spokesperson told The Blast. "As a result, we are severing all our ties with NOFX, including festival sponsorship and the production of our collaboration beer.
"We respect punk rock, and the DIY ethos for which it stands. To us, it means standing up for things you believe in, and fearlessly committing to what's right. And it is for that reason that Stone Brewing is immediately disassociating ourselves from the band NOFX."
Brewery chiefs also said they would donate all the profits made from their NOFX beer, also called Punk in Drublic, to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation, which provides counselling for first responders who tended to victims of the shooting.
The band are yet to publicly address their comments.
