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Justin Vernon would rather you didn’t take money from Pepsi (this is a message mainly for Beyonce)

By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 26 September 2016

Justin Vernon has said that he plans to depart from traditional touring as much as possible while promoting new album ’22, A Million’, tailoring smaller shows specifically to individual towns and cities where possible. And in some small way, it’s a kick back against the big bucks sponsorship deals that the likes of Beyonce do on their stadium tours.

Saying that he doesn’t want to “just be ‘Hello Cleveland-ing’ through our lives”, he tells The Guardian: “You can never be self-righteous, but it’s okay to be a little righteous. You have to believe in something. Like, I’d prefer Beyonce didn’t do a Pepsi tour. Do not take $2 million dollars from Pepsi and be a role model for young girls. Do not do that. That stuff does anger me. And I feel like I am not afraid to talk about that stuff”.

Not that Vernon hasn’t taken the big bucks in the past. There was that Bushmills whiskey advertising campaign he featured in. Though he did describe that as a “mistake” to Grantland last year, saying: “The problem is that it isn’t just Bushmills. It’s run by a corporation, and you kind of forget that they’re not interested in you or really what you’re doing. They’re interested in your popularity and your reach, and it felt really sickening after a while. Not badmouthing Bushmills the company, but I regret it. I regret it because it wasn’t us and they put my face on a fucking billboard … I missed the mark on that one and I let it all kind of get to me”.

So, yeah, money is nice, but will it make you happy? I am willing to test this out if anyone fancies writing me a cheque. While you do that, I’m going to listen to ’22 (Over S∞∞n)’ by Bon Iver again, cos it’s dead good: