DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Wolfgang vocalist Basti Artadi took to social media to explain the incident in their reunion concert in SMX Convention Center Davao last week where he asked security to throw out an audience member who was heckling him during his speech.
The incident was uploaded on social media and went viral, prompting Artadi to make a short video statement to explain what happened.
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“At that moment, I was paying tribute to… a very important person in our band who is no longer with us… to Mon Legaspi. And a couple of people chose that moment to try and separate people. That was bastos (rude). Simple as that. It was bastos,” he said in his video.
The viral video clip showed Artadi talking about their late bandmate, bassist Mon Legaspi, who died of cardiac arrest on October 3, 2022 at the age of 54.
Artadi was paying tribute to Legaspi before playing one of his compositions Anino, but was interrupted a couple of times by a heckler who shouted political slogans such as “F** you, BBM!”
The vocalist calmly responded: “We don’t give a s** about that tonight, man. We’re just here to make you forget about that s** tonight. You wanna do your freedom of speech? Go out in the hallway and do it there. Right here, it’s rock and roll country, man.” His remark was cheered by the audience.
But the heckler interrupted Artadi again, prompting him to ask security to throw the heckler out of the venue, saying “Get that f—- guy out of here”, drawing cheers from the audience who jeered at the heckler, “Uwi! Uwi! (Go home!)”
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The 52-year old Artadi also addressed the public to refrain from turning the video into their political views.
“Speaking of bastos, everybody that’s now spreading this and making it into something that it isn’t and whatever, and it’s a political thing now and this and that, you’re just separating us some more and you are making one bastos again, every time,” he said.
The Wolfgang frontman then explained his side on how social media is causing divide among the people.
“All this online sh** is designed to separate us and make us hate each other. We should love each other. Us. The people should love each other. Because at the end of the day, we are the ones who will help ourselves, not the politicos, because the politicos will take care of themselves,” he said.
Artadi ended his video message saying he will throw support to any candidate who “will put the Filipina people and the country above themselves and getting rich and all of that.”
Wolfgang is one of the top Filipino rock bands emerging from the surge of Pinoy Rock in the 1990s. They have won multiple awards, produced six albums, which include releases in Japan and the United States. The group split up in 2002, reformed in 2007 then went into hiatus before launching their reunion tour this year.(davaotoday.com)
