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Bob Vylan frontman Bobby Vylan has said he is "not regretful" of his Glastonbury chant and would "do it again tomorrow." The outspoken punk duo sparked outrage in June after leading the crowd in chants of "death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)" during their Glastonbury Festival set. Speaking on The Louis Theroux Podcast in his first interview since the incident, Vylan, whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster, was asked whether he stands by the chant and if he would do it again. He replied: "Oh yeah. Like what if I was to go on Glastonbury again tomorrow, yes I would do it again. I’m not regretful of it. I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays. "I’m not regretful of it at all, like the subsequent backlash that I’ve faced. It’s minimal. He went on to explain: "It’s minimal compared to what people in Palestine are going through. If that can be my contribution and if I can have my Palestinian friends and people that I meet from Palestine, that have had to flee, that have lost members in double digits of their family and they can say, yo, your chant, I love it. Or it gave me a breath of fresh air or whatever. “And I don’t want to overstate the importance of the chant. That’s not what I’m trying to do, but if I have their support, they’re the people that I’m doing it for, they’re the people that I’m being vocal for, then what is there to regret. Oh, because I’ve upset some right-wing politician or some right-wing media?” Vylan's conversation with Theroux was recorded on October 1. At the start of the episode, Theroux noted it took place before the Manchester synagogue attacks on October 2, in which two people were killed and three others injured, and before the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on October 10. The musician said he was surprised by the uproar following the chant, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as "appalling hate speech." Vylan added that BBC staff members had praised the set, telling him it was "fantastic." He said: "I had no expectations. I honestly hadn’t heard it (the reaction). I hadn’t seen it. Because obviously there was a lot happening at the time. Do you know what I mean? "It wasn’t like we came off stage, and everybody was like (gasps). It’s just normal. We come off stage. It’s normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like “That was fantastic! We loved that!" The BBC's Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) has since ruled that the corporation's broadcast of the performance breached editorial standards in regards to harm and offence. Vylan also hit back at Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who criticised the chant as "one of the most spectacular misfires I’ve seen in my life, especially when he started goose-stepping in tennis gear." He said of Albarn: “It was disappointing. Because it lacked self-awareness, I think, his response. “I just want to say that categorising it as a 'spectacular misfire' implies that somehow the politics of the band or our stance on Palestinian liberation is not thought out. “And as a more senior, experienced, veteran artist – he’s been in this industry for a long time – I think that there were other ways that he could have handled that question being fielded to him. “I take great issue with the phrase ‘goose-stepping’ being used because it’s only used around Nazi Germany. That’s it. And for him to use that language, I think is disgusting. I think his response was disgusting," he stated. Vylan was asked by Theroux what he meant by the chant "Death to the IDF," to which he said the phrase itself was being blown out of proportion. He said: "My whole issue with this thing is that the chant is so unimportant. It’s so unimportant, and the response to it was so disproportionate. “What is important is the conditions that exist to allow that chant to even take place on that stage. And I mean, the conditions that exist in Palestine. Where the Palestinian people are being killed at an alarming rate. “Who cares about the chant? It’s like, what is it that is allowing for that chant to even exist? That’s what the focus should have always been on it.” He contined: “An end to the oppression that Palestinian people are facing. An end to the apartheid regime that has been created, an end to that. “End, End the IDF” does not rhyme, wouldn’t have caught on, would it? You know what I mean?" “Because that is what we are up there to do. We are there to entertain. We are there to play music. I am a lyricist. “Death, Death to IDF” rhymes. Perfect chant.” Additionally, Vylan rejected claims that the performance led to a rise in antisemitic incidents reported two days later. "I don’t think I have created an unsafe atmosphere for the Jewish community. If there were large numbers of people going out and going like 'Bob Vylan made me do this'. I might go, oof, I’ve had a negative impact here," he said. He also said the band has faced harsher criticism than others who have spoken out on the conflict. He stated: "Maybe I’m being naive or maybe I’m kind of focusing too much on ‘self’ there, but I think we’ve been attacked to a degree that I haven’t really seen anybody else attacked for speaking up about this issue." When Theroux suggested that Irish band Kneecap had faced similar backlash for speaking out, Vylan - who is of Jamaican heritage - pointed to race as a factor. He stated: "That’s an interesting one." Before going on to explain: "It’s an interesting one because as with everything race comes to play a part in that we are an easier villain, no pun intended, than they are because we are already the enemy. "So, you don’t really need to give much context as to why the British public should hate us. That’s tricky." The Louis Theroux Podcast is available on Spotify now.
