Tobias Sammet, the frontman of EDGUY and AVANTASIA, has expressed his disappointment over the “cancelation” of Alice Cooper in the wake of certain controversial comments. Cooper, a renowned legend in the music industry, was recently cut off from a collaboration for his remarks, considering gender reassignment as “a fad.”
Tobias took to his Instagram page to write: “On a personal note I just read what my RadioBob colleague and AVANTASIA ‘toy master’ Alice Cooper had to go through last week, about his cancellation and it really makes me sad. I am not saying I know whether to agree or disagree with what he said, I simply know too little about the issue. But as far as I understand, he replied to a question in an interview, regarding gender identity and phrased concerns about how to deal with it as parents of kids for example. It was not a radical, hate-spewing view, it was ‘what I’m afraid of…'”
“It’s a delicate topic and the best answers would be given by people who are affected, who struggle themselves or who help and support those affected. But I also believe every person willing to be a respectful part of society should have the right to respectfully voice their personal concerns or reservations on any topic without being shredded to pieces. I am sure even Alice wants everyone to live their lives in freedom and peace and safety, whatever your sexual orientation, gender, nationality. That’s common sense for a loving, caring, respectful person. To rip him apart and call him the arch fiend because he voiced his concerns about how to deal with certain aspects of a complex topic… I guess it won’t result in better understanding, empathy and dialogue. It will just divide further. I think this cancellation reflex is way more counter productive than what Alice could ever say, rightfully or not.
“Whether one agrees or not with what he said, if we cancel someone like him, we might have to cancel big parts of the world’s population and that will lead to Armageddon. Peace everyone, T“.
The exact context of the “cancellation” Tobias mentioned is ambiguous; however, it might be in reference to the recent discontinuation of Alice Cooper‘s partnership with the cosmetics brand, Vampyre Cosmetics. This move came after Cooper labeled gender-affirming care as merely a “fad” and criticized the ongoing discussions about the trans community.
Merely days after the 75-year-old singer had entered a business arrangement with Vampyre Cosmetics – a brand recognized for its unique, eerie, and gothic-themed beauty products like makeup, lipsticks, palettes, and lashes – Cooper found himself dismissed by the company due to his controversial remarks during an interview with Stereogum.
In an interview in question, Cooper was asked about his thoughts on comments made by his “theatrical” rock peers about gender identity, to which he said at one point: “I find it wrong when you’ve got a six-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you’re confusing him telling him, ‘Yeah, you’re a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be’.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he said: “A lot of times, I look at it this way, the logical way: If you have these genitals, you’re a boy. If you have those genitals, you’re a girl. There’s a difference between ‘I am a male who is a female, or I’m a female that’s a male’ and wanting to be a female. You were born a male. Okay, so that’s a fact. You have these things here.”
