Comedian Kathy Griffin says Ed Sheeran should have told Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft to “go f*** yourself” instead of dropping Macklemore over an anti-Israel stage rant.
The 65-year-old comic unloaded on the British pop star during a Wednesday appearance on Queerty, arguing Sheeran's team made a bad call when rapper Macklemore was pulled as an opening act. Breitbart News reported her remarks after the axing tied to Macklemore’s on-stage tirade against Israel.
Griffin did not hide her target. She cast Kraft, owner of Gillette Stadium, as the pressure point and said Sheeran should have refused him.
“I wish that Ed Sheeran had not taken the advice of the ones who told him to fire Macklemore,” Griffin said.
“First of all, let’s not be listening to f***ing Robert Kraft, okay?”
Griffin went further. She claimed Kraft told Sheeran other stadium owners would block the show if Macklemore stayed on the bill, and she scripted the reply she wanted from the “Shape of You” singer.
“When Robert Kraft says, ‘I’ve called all the other stadium owners and they’re not gonna let you do the show with Macklemore either,’ then Ed Sheeran should’ve said, ‘Go f*** yourself, I can go to Brazil and perform for 250,000 people.’”
In her telling, Sheeran held more leverage than he used. Macklemore had been set for eight more U.S. dates on the tour before the drop. Griffin said the episode left Macklemore unwilling to blame Sheeran because of the heat on him.
“But in my humble opinion, Ed had more power than he was aware of. And I think he made a bad call on this.”
Sheeran’s side framed the move differently. He described dropping Macklemore as “the promoter’s decision,” not his own choice.
The Israeli-American Council took the opposite view of Griffin’s. The group praised Kraft and other stadium owners for refusing to give Macklemore a platform after the rant.
IAC credited “Robert Kraft and his fellow stadium owners for their moral leadership in expelling rapper Macklemore from the concert stage rather than allow him to promote antisemitism.”
“Robert Kraft’s moral leadership establishes what should be an obvious principle: a performer who traffics in antisemitism should not be given a stage.”
The council added that Macklemore would “no longer be allowed to subject audiences to his hateful rants.”
Griffin waved the First Amendment over Macklemore’s remarks. That amendment restrains government. It does not force a private stadium owner, a promoter, or a headliner to keep an opening act who uses the mic for anti-Israel attacks.
Sheeran's Friday and Saturday concerts at Gillette Stadium were canceled as a nor’easter moved in. Anti-Israel protesters had planned to gather outside for the show. With the dates scrubbed, that plan went nowhere.
Macklemore was already off the bill. The cancellations simply ended the weekend before the argument could follow Sheeran back to Kraft’s venue.
Griffin’s complaint is plain: she wanted a global pop star to face down a stadium owner so a rapper fresh off an anti-Israel rant could keep the stage. Kraft and fellow owners chose not to host it. Private venues do not owe a microphone to hatred, and fans do not have to underwrite it.
