UNITED STATES
Yahoo Music
By Chris Willman
Yahoo Music
Tom Petty doesn’t have a reputation for being a political activist in his music, but with a song set to be released next week, he implicitly takes on the Catholic Church for “covering up” the clergy sex abuse scandals, according to a new cover story in Billboard.
“Playing Dumb,” which appears as a bonus track on the Blu-ray and two-LP vinyl editions of his new album, Hypnotic Eye, includes such lyrics as: “For every confession that wasn’t on the level/For every man of God that lives with hidden devils.”
Billboard writer Fred Schruers notes that Petty “arches an eyebrow at the digital recorder before him,” when asked about “Playing Dumb.” But the singer didn’t hold back.
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“Catholics, don’t write me,” Petty tells the magazine. “I’m fine with whatever religion you want to have, but it can’t tell anybody it’s OK to kill people, and it can’t abuse children systematically for God knows how many years… If I was in a club, and I found out that there had been generations of people abusing children, and then that club was covering that up, I would quit the club.” He says he “felt that I was being asked to play dumb” and believe “that ‘OK, well, they paid some money, so it’s all over.’ I don’t trust that.”
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