Sun Kil Moon Calls Inattentive Hopscotch Crowd “Fucking Hillbillies”

Taylor Hill

Sun Kil Moon Calls Inattentive Hopscotch Crowd “Fucking Hillbillies”

Taylor Hill

Sun Kil Moon mastermind Mark Kozelek has been in the game for decades, and he released what might be this year’s greatest album with Benji. He’s earned the right to be a little standoffish to audiences. (Playing Pitchfork’s SXSW showcase this year, he thanked the site for not assigning the Benji review to one particular critic who had written up a bunch of his albums in the past, and then chided them for not giving him the full 10.0.) But calling an entire crowd “fucking hillbillies” before you’ve played a note of music might be a bit beyond the pale. Sun Kil Moon played the Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina this past weekend, and Indy Week reports that there was a ton of tension between Kozelek and the chatty crowd. Kozelek, it would seem, was not out to win anyone over. He came onstage with these words: “Everybody, all you fucking hilbillies, shut the fuck up. I don’t give a fuck if I get paid or not, I’m gonna walk.” Check out audio of the outburst below.

I’m mostly just excited that someone still considers “hillbilly” to be a viable insult in 2014.

[Forecastle photo by Taylor Hill/Stereogum.]

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