The first and only time I saw Turnstile, they were opening for Blink-182. That came to mind when I read a comment about them declining an invitation to tour with Metallica. The suggestion was that Turnstile and Metallica had different worldviews, and that explained the decision. I understood “worldviews” to mean politics. But I wasn’t following the logic. Turnstile had already toured with Blink-182, a band better known for dick jokes than political statements. How much could we really infer about their touring decisions from the way another band approaches politics?
I started writing a reply. Then I read the rest of the comments and could see an evening of explaining the reply ahead of me. A blog post seemed like a better use of the evening.
Blink-182’s approach to politics is a choice. In a 2017 interview with NME, Mark Hoppus said the members had strong political beliefs but generally kept them out of their music. He described Blink as offering escapism, personal experiences, and stupid jokes. He also expressed respect for bands that made politics central to their work. That distinction matters. Musicians can care deeply about politics and choose to give their audience something else. A band’s public approach tells us how its members want to use that platform. It doesn’t tell us everything they believe.
Turnstile opening for Blink-182 doesn’t prove politics played no part in declining Metallica. It does show that different approaches to political expression can coexist on a tour. That was the point I was trying to get at in my reply.
Metallica complicates the assumption further. Treating the band as a single political position overlooks the people in it. In a 2016 interview, Lars Ulrich described four people with different backgrounds who came together through music. He said they had never been a band that sat down to establish a common view of the world. They’ve managed to make music together for decades without requiring that agreement. I find that more interesting than assigning the whole band a political identity based on one member.
I played guitar in Puppen, a hardcore band in Bandung, from 1992 to 2002. Politics was part of our music. During the final months of Suharto’s dictatorship, our vocalist and I argued about taking a political position. He wrote the lyrics, and I eventually backed his position. The circumstances we were living through gave that decision weight. For years afterward, I believed musicians should take political positions, including endorsing candidates who might improve conditions for musicians and their audiences. I’ve since become more concerned with what happens to the connection between an artist and the people listening.
In my earlier essay on musicians and political endorsements, I argued that musicians can reach people across political lines. A candidate endorsement can narrow that reach. In Six Questions from France, I returned to what artists can do with that connection: encourage people to think, consider an issue, or care about something they had previously ignored.
Sharing a stage raises a related question. Can musicians maintain their convictions while working with people who approach politics differently? I would like to think there is space for that. Otherwise, we start treating every collaboration as an endorsement of someone else’s entire set of beliefs. There are circumstances where a musician’s politics would be a sufficient reason to decline working with them. Artists decide where those limits are. A campaign appearance or benefit concert also gives participation a particular meaning. The purpose of the event matters.
But the explanation for this particular decision remains uncertain. In Hetfield’s reported account, Turnstile declined, he described them as doing well on their own, and he praised their live performances. That gives us very little basis for a political explanation.
Turnstile doesn’t owe anyone a Metallica tour. Declining the invitation doesn’t require a public defense. I’m equally uncomfortable with supplying them a political justification they haven’t given.
What stayed with me was Hetfield recommending that people see them live. The invitation hadn’t worked out. He still liked the band.