Macklemore Says Pressure from Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Led to Him Being Booted from Ed Sheeran’s Tour

Macklemore says he was dropped as an opener from Ed Sheeran’s stadium tour after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft threatened to block him from performing at Gillette Stadium and rallied other stadium owners to do the same, effectively forcing Sheeran to choose between keeping Macklemore on the tour and losing access to multiple venues. The Seattle rapper detailed his removal from the tour in a lengthy statement posted to Instagram on Monday, shortly after Rolling Stone broke the news. In the statement, Macklemore also recounted his conversations with Sheeran, who he said “was in a fucked up position” but ultimately chose to maintain an “apolitical” stance. “[Sheeran] told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with,” Macklemore said. “I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides.'” While opening for Macklemore during a pair of concerts at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford...