(CelebrityAccess) — Winston Marshall, a founding member, banjoist, and lead guitarist of the band Mumford & Sons, announced that he is making his hiatus from the band permanent.
Marshall announced in March that he was stepping back from his role in the band after sparking a furor on social media by tweeting his support for controversial writer Andy Ngo’s book “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.”
At the time, Marshall faced criticism for tweeting his support of Ngo’s book and later announced he was stepping back from an active role in Mumford & Sons to reflect on his “blindspots.”
Now, in an article published in Medium, Marshall shared some insight into the situation from his point of view.
“At the beginning of March, I tweeted to American journalist Andy Ngo, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Unmasked. “Congratulations @MrAndyNgo. Finally had the time to read your important book. You’re a brave man”. Posting about books had been a theme of my social media throughout the pandemic. I believed this tweet to be as innocuous as the others. How wrong I turned out to be.”
“Over the course of 24 hours it was trending with tens of thousands of angry retweets and comments. I failed to foresee that my commenting on a book critical of the Far-Left could be interpreted as approval of the equally abhorrent Far-Right.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth. Thirteen members of my family were murdered in the concentration camps of the Holocaust. My Grandma, unlike her cousins, aunts and uncles, survived. She and I were close. My family knows the evils of fascism painfully well. To say the least. To call me “fascist” was ludicrous beyond belief.”
Now, despite what Marshall says was an overture from the other members of the band to continue performing with them, he’s announced he plans to step away from the group permanently in order to be able to exercise his free speech.
“The only way forward for me is to leave the band. I hope in distancing myself from them I am able to speak my mind without them suffering the consequences. I leave with love in my heart and I wish those three boys nothing but the best. I have no doubt that their stars will shine long into the future. I will continue my work with Hong Kong Link Up and I look forward to new creative projects as well as speaking and writing on a variety of issues, challenging as they may be.”
In a post to their social media, the remaining members of Mumford & Sons posted a group photo of the band and bid farewell to their former boon companion.
“We wish you all the best for the future, Win, and we love you man. M, B & T.”
