Many artists turned down the opportunity to play arguably the biggest gig in the world — the half-time Super Bowl show — to show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and other players who kneel during the national anthem.
After it was announced that Maroon 5 had agreed to play, 113,000 fans signed a petition demanding that the band
Frontman Adam Levine issued a statement saying:
‘They will be [heard] – that’s all I want to say because I don’t want to spoil anything.’ ‘To make people understand, we got you,’ he added. ‘We got you.’
However, to head off questions about playing the Super Bowl Maroon 5 has cancelled the traditional pre-game press conference on Wednesday.
‘I’m not in the right profession if I can’t handle a little bit of controversy. It is what it is, we expected it,’ Levine said.
‘We’d like to move on with it, and
Joining Maroon 5 will be Atlanta-based rapper Big Boi and Travis Scott and Gladys Knight will sing the national anthem.