| | | Jason Isbell talks support for Dem Senate candidate, says 'Jesus would not have voted' for Trump
BY ARIS FOLLEY - 09/29/18 04:09 PM EDT
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Country singer Jason Isbell did not mince words about President Trump in an interview with the Guardian published Saturday in which he discussed using his platform to speak up politically.
In the interview, the Alabama native also touched on previous comments he made in a Rolling Stone interview about conservative Christians who voted for Trump, in which he said: “God is gone from those people.”
“In hindsight,” Isbell said, “it sounds like something a preacher would say in a Southern Baptist church on a Sunday morning. ‘If you can look the other way because you think the economy’s doing better, you can ignore the fact that this man is obviously not a Christian, then you’re not behaving in a way that Jesus would have behaved.’ ”
“So I meant that, and I still mean it,” the country music star continued. “The whole point of Christianity is to behave as Jesus would have behaved — and Jesus would not have voted for Donald Trump, no matter what his pay was going to do as a result of that.”
Isbell recently played at a rally in support of former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and touted his support for the Democrat now running for the Senate in the state.
He also responded to being recently branded as part of the “unhinged left” by Republicans in light of his support for Bredesen.
“I got a kick out of that because it was such a disaster on their part,” Isbell said in the interview.
“The music I have made that has given me some success in this business is all pretty much about becoming, and staying, hinged,” Isbell, a recovering alcoholic who says he has been sober for over six years, told the publication. “So whoever called me unhinged hasn’t paid attention to the last three albums I’ve put out.”
“Phil’s ahead by 2 points in that race right now,” Isbell continued. “I’m not going to say that that had anything to do with that, but there might have been a few people who thought: ‘OK, well if these people are stupid enough to call this recovering addict, who's pretty much probably too preachy in all honesty, if they are going to call him unhinged, then they don’t have any idea what people are thinking.’ ”
Isbell shocked some of his more conservative fans last year when he stumped for Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) against Roy Moore in the state's Senate race.
In the interview, Isbell said although his “job is to write songs,” if he feels like he needs to “say something political between the songs, then I’ll do that.”
“But normally, if it doesn’t rhyme and it doesn’t involve me introducing my band, I’m not gonna say it, because I’m not a stand-up comedian, I’m not a lecturer and I don’t give TED Talks,” Isbell said. “If there’s not a melody and some rhyme there then you probably won’t hear it from me. But I think the songs speak enough.”
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