(Original on kaizers.no, Text backup here)
(Photo: Geir Zahl. There has been a storm around Killmaster the last few days.- The weekend ended slightly differently than planned, yes!
Terje Winterstø Røthing has been the big talk after the 2011 Spellemann awards because of his now famous beer stunt against Plumbo singer Lars Erik Blokkhus. After Blokkhus delivered his clumsy "moccamann" comment to the Madcon duo Yosef and Tshawe, as the last thing that happened during the ceremony, the atmosphere was quite unpleasant when people shortly after came to the Spellemann afterparty. Many uttered their aversion towards Plumbo; social media went wild. So Terje decided to take it all one step further, and thus emptied his beer over Blokkhus' head, while Blokkhus was interviewed live by VG TV. What Terje had missed was that Blokkhus was apologizing, he repented and was very sorry that their joke had provoked people.
- We came out of the hall right after the awards, by the way a hall full of people who were strongly affected by what had just happened, and there's Plumbo being interviewed by VG TV. There and then I was just boiling with rage and I did what I did. I realize now that what I did was really stupid, and that I over-reacted strongly. Everybody makes mistakes; Lars Erik was apologizing. Of course I should have kept out of this and let him explain himself in peace.
- Everybody makes mistakes, you say, but it doesn't quite look like everyone sees it like this, looking at all the harassment you and Kaizers have been going through yesterday and today?
- Yes, this was quite an uproar, and I just have to bear it that people react like this after I acted like I did. And to clarify: the others in Kaizers Orchestra had absolutely nothing to do with this; it was me and Tore Renberg who stood for this, one and alone. I reacted to the moccamann joke, didn't think it was funny at all, but of course it wasn't my intention to humiliate a repentant sinner either, as people perceived it. I regret that I did that.
- You even called Blokkhus today and spoke with him.
- I did. It felt right to call him and chat about it. I have no problem to admit, now that the smoke has settled, that I was both stupid and cocky, both when I poured the beer over him and when I talked to Dagbladet shortly after. I said that to Blokkhus as well, we talked, it was just fine, and there are no hard feelings between us here. We both did something stupid, and we realize that. And anyway, this was never intended as a personal attack on my part. People understand that Lars Erik Blokkhus' intentions were not racist, and this is good, so now I hope that people understand that my intentions weren't intended to be bullying and humiliating.
Geir Kaizer, on behalf of Kaizers Orchestra, also got to know the mass suggestion forces through emails and facebook, but hopes now that people can calm down the level of uttering their aversion a bit.
- The parties involved have kissed and made up. It's all due to misunderstandings, a bad joke and a stupid act of Terje, but nothing that suggests that he should be a national scapegoat. This is definitely way beyond. Suddenly, so much symbolism has been put into all this; the innocent, slightly goofy guys from the village that come to Oslo to receive a Spellemann award and end up being bullied and humiliated by the established, basically the elite, and are treated unfairly and bad. Then the story escalates and eventually it starts living its own life, and people stir themselves up and the haters nourish on it. There must be something deeper here, a pretty bad city-country conflict or something, when people react THAT violently when a rock guitarist pours a little beer over a rock singer's head at an afterparty, because you can also choose to view it like that. What Terje did was stupid; we in the band agree with everyone on this, but he is not a bad guy because of it. Now it is time for people to gather themselves again and show him the same tolerance that they expected people to show Lars Erik Blokkhus. They aren't any better themselves if they keep up this kind of harassment, and why shouldn't his apology be as acceptable as others?