LL Cool J; Miranda Lambert.Photo:Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
LL Cool JwantsMiranda Lambertto let her fans have a good time at her shows.
After a video of the country starscolding a group of fans for taking a photoduring one of her Las Vegas residency performances went viral last week, the rapper chimed in on the matter in a new interview on Audacy’sMercedes in the Morningradio show.
“Your job as an artist is to create art,” said the rapper. “The way people choose to interact with that art or engage it or appreciate it is up to them.”
The “Mama Said Knock You Out” performer then extended an invitation for his fans to do as they please during his concerts: “If you want to come to my show and you want to sit there and eat a bowl of potato salad with a baseball hat down to your nose, that’s what you choose to do.”
LL Cool J continued, “You gotta let the fans do what they want to do. What about the thousands of people who aren’t doing that? What, you got rules? No yellow shirts!”
He urged that he “can’t speak for” Lambert, 39, and won’t “judge” the country star. “I have nothing unkind to say about her. I wish her the best. She has the right to her feelings. But to me, I let the fans be the fans and do what they want to do,” said theNCIS: Los Angelesactor.
LL Cool J in May 2023.FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
“You guys come to the show, enjoy yourself,” LL Cool J joked about his own fans. “If you want to take selfies. If you want to bring the old Polaroids from the early 1800s, that’s up to you.”
At the recent show, Lambert stopped as she was starting to play her 2016 single “Tin Man” to address the crowd. “I’m gonna stop right here for a second, I’m sorry,” she said. “These girls are worried about their selfie and not listening to the song.”
“It’s pissing me off a little bit,” continued thePalominosinger. “Sorry, I don’t like it. At all. We’re here to hear some country music tonight. I’m singing some country damn music.”
Miranda Lambert.Terry Wyatt/WireImage
Some fans could be heard leaving the concert after Lambert made her statement to the crowd in aTikTok videothat also captured the moment.
“Let’s go — you don’t do that to fans,” one person said, before leaving their seats.
“It was 30 seconds at most,” she said. “We took the picture quickly and were going to sit back down.”
Miranda Lambert in September 2022.John Shearer/Getty for Miranda Lambert
Calin told the outlet that she and her friends had tried to take photos before the Las Vegas show had kicked off Saturday night, but “the lighting wasn’t great.” Instead, she asked a fan behind the group to take a photo of them before it ended.
“We just couldn’t get one good picture,” Calin said. “We were so excited because I think we had the best seats in the house in the whole theater.”
Earlier this week, she shared thephotos to her Instagram, writing in the caption, “These are the 2 pictures we were [taking] when Miranda Lambert stopped her concert and told us to sit down and not take selfies.”
Calin also spoke toGood Morning Americawhere she claimed that the concert “was not the same” after the “Kerosene” singer addressed the group.
“I thought, I feel like I’m being back in school and me and my friends did something that annoyed the teacher and she scolded us so she told us to sit down,” Calin said.
She continued, “Everybody was having such a great time. We would stand up at times and dance. It was great energy. But after that happened it was just, um, it was not the same.”
John Katsilometes of theLas Vegas Review-Journalhad adifferent take on the situation.
“Six women, taking multiple selfies, with flash, VIP section, backs to the stage,” he captioned a video he took of the incident. “I get her frustration. This is ridiculous.”
source: people.com
