Bono said that when U2 was working with Ed Sheeran on “Yours Eternally,” the singer asked, “You’re not going to get me into politics, are you?”

U2 are legendary for speaking their minds, advocating for change, and unapologetically speaking out for the causes they believe in. But it’s their bag, according to singer Bono. Asked by Rolling stone United Kingdom Weighing in on the controversy surrounding Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour and the dropping of rapper Macklemore over his singing of “Free Palestine” during the first two slots of the North American leg, Bono said Sheeran’s official statement about the incident was related to his position during the recording of “Yours Eternally” with U2 for this year’s surprise show. Days of Ashes EP.

“I would say with Ed and Macklemore that we shouldn’t personalize what’s going on,” Bono said of the fallout from Macklemore’s statements, which resulted in the departure of the rest of the tour’s opening acts, as well as Sheeran’s onstage backing band. “(Producer) Brian Eno said today that pop stars are like little fish in a big ocean of huge forces and religion and politics…And so I don’t want to dwell on Ed and Macklemore and that incident.”

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After calls for Macklemore’s withdrawal reached a fever pitch, Sheeran released a statement in which he said that while he was “dismayed by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and the suffering and pain on both sides, having spoken to venues hosting the shows in an attempt to “build a bridge”, Macklemore’s withdrawal was the promoter’s decision, not his.

Saying his shows aim to bring people together in “unity, joy, escape (and) love,” Sheeran added: “I’m not complicit. I have my personal opinions on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

This choice to let his music do the talking fits with Bono’s experience also working with Sheeran on “Yours Eternally,” which featured Ukrainian soldier-turned-musician Tara Topolia on the song written from the perspective of a letter written by an active-duty soldier on the front lines of the war.

Bono said Sheeran asked him, “‘You’re not going to get me into politics, are you?'” Bono told the magazine he responded, “‘That soldier that inspired us, he loved you Ed, and you worked on that song,'” to which Sheeran replied, “‘Yeah, but I just want to keep my thing free.'”

The U2 singer and human rights advocate emphasized that “you can’t push people around,” with drummer Larren Mullen Jr. adding that “artists (can) choose whether they want to be involved, and they have the right to choose whether they want to be involved or not…And it’s not our job to criticize that, no matter how we feel.”

Calling the situation “complicated” or not, Bono stressed that while the group believes everyone is entitled to their own opinion, they have no patience for billionaires who flex their muscles to suppress speech they disagree with. The latter was an apparent allusion to billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who helped lead the effort to have Macklemore removed from Sheeran’s tour.

“We’re very clear about billionaire promoters or owners and the idea that they might have some influence over what you say or what you do on stage,” said Mullen Jr. “We talked about it, and (if) you applied that logic to U2, we would have gone bankrupt on ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday,'” he added of the opening track from the band’s 1983 album. War which tackles the thorny issue of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in one of the band’s most clearly political songs.

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