Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon says he made “a huge mess” of Eminem, Tyler, The Creator incident

Vernon distanced himself from a 2018 song he contributed to in which Eminem used a homophobic slur.

August 20, 2019
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon says he made “a huge mess” of Eminem, Tyler, The Creator incident Zane Lowe (L) and Justin Vernon (R).   Beats 1

Justin Vernon isn't the most ubiquitous musician but he's been getting his face out there to promote new Bon Iver album i,i following its release earlier this month. Just last week he was chatting about Kanye West and his politics and today sees the arrival of an in-depth chat with Beats 1's Zane Lowe.

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The whole 48-minute interview can be seen below but one interesting area the conversation led to is Vernon's opinons on social media and Eminem. These two unlikely subjects are linked by Vernon's belief that he acted hastily when he tweeted his disapproval at ending up on an 2018 Eminem song in which the rapper used homophobic language to insult Tyler, The Creator. Vernon told Lowe that he stands by his opinion, but that he wishes he hadn't made it known via Twitter.

"I made that huge mess out of the Eminem song," Vernon said. "I was just in a carwash, and I just tweeted. It's like, what was I doing? I should've just probably chilled out and actually just said, 'Please don't put this song out.' And it was very rude and I felt really bad about it. I think people have not figured out how to calculate how easy it is to say something on there [Twitter] with how much you should say it."

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Vernon also talked a little about Bon Iver song titles, which have become increasingly unorthodox in recent years, many involving symbols and numbers. "Well, the last couple of records, it's been kind of a game, you know?" Vernon explained. "Some songs are like, 'I don't know if this song is supposed to be called a number, but we're going to just stick with it anyways.' I like the themes, and this one being all people's names. Probably done with the themed naming now. I think I spent a little too much time thinking about it, but it's just fun."

Check out the full Beats 1 x Bon Iver interview below.

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Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon says he made “a huge mess” of Eminem, Tyler, The Creator incident