Pink Floyd mastermind Roger Waters doesn't think the NFL should escape off-the-field controversy at Super Bowl LIII this Sunday.
Despite steps the league has taken to quash the ongoing conversation about civil rights and racial profiling sparked by Colin Kaepernick, Waters points out that the league ultimately can't control what happens on the halftime show stage.
In an open letter, the bassist, composer and activist called upon halftime show performers Maroon 5, Travis Scott and Big Boi to consider the powerful statement they could make.
"I call upon them to 'take a knee' onstage in full sight. I call upon them to do it in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, to do it for every child shot to death on these mean streets, to do it for every bereaved mother and father and brother and sister."
Waters included the letter below a video of his band kneeling on stage at the end of a September 24, 2017, show in Hartford, Connecticut. It was just a matter of weeks into accusations that the NFL was blackballing Kaepernick.
Waters called the whole controversy a "defeat" for the NFL. He added that Kaepernick "is an American hero."
"If the USA is to have a future, it is the Colin Kaepernicks of this world who will lead you there, in fact, it is Colin Kaepernick who is leading you now."
He concluded with some words from his mother.
"'In any situation there is nearly always a right thing to do, just do it'," he quoted her as saying.
He acknowledged that making a political statement during such a transformative career opportunity as the Super Bowl halftime show is not an easy choice — and it will anger millions of people — but "it's the right thing to do."
Waters has been as politically active in recent years as he has been musically active. His latest album, Is This the Life We Really Want?, draws heavily from social and political questions facing the U.K. and the U.S.
Last week, Waters revealed that he had personally helped reunite two Trinidadian boys with their mother four years after they were kidnapped by ISIS and brought to Syria.
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