UB40 Singer Responds To Alleged Incident Involving Kavanaugh After Concert: He ‘Didn’t Listen To Our Lyrics’
UB40 lead singer Ali Campbell said that he was caught off-guard when his wife came in to ask him a question on whether he knew Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“I first found out that my name was being dragged into the biggest news story of the year when I woke up and my wife came in and said: ‘What’s all this about you and Brett Kavanaugh?'” Campbell said, according to reporting from USA Today.
Confused, Campbell said that his wife explained the story about Kavanaugh starting a fight with another bar patron in 1985 over Kavanaugh believing that the other man was Campbell. According to previous reporting from Inquisitr, the other individual at the bar reportedly looked like Campbell.
According to a New Haven Police Department report from that year, Kavanaugh went to inquire with the man whether he was the British reggae singer or not, which caused the man to get upset. In turn, Kavanaugh threw his beer in the man’s face, which caused a scuffle between the man, Kavanaugh, and Kavanaugh’s friend Chris Dudley. Kavanaugh wasn’t charged by police, the report indicated.
The incident was brought forward by fellow Yale classmate Chad Ludington, who took issue with Kavanaugh for downplaying his drinking habits when he was younger during sworn testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
UB40 frontman Ali Campbell discussed his band's surprise role in the latest controversy surrounding Brett Kavanaugh https://t.co/IsWlWKK4vN pic.twitter.com/exqrcUOkHu
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) October 2, 2018
“I can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that he ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth,” Ludington said.
As far as Campbell is concerned, he wants people to know that he did not get into a fight with the current nominee. Since the incident was brought up, the singer has been asked many times to talk about the subject.
“My obvious comment is: ‘It wasn’t me!'” Campbell said.
He also noted that the night in question wasn’t one he could remember — UB40 performed many shows across the United States in the mid-80s — but that there’s no way it could have been him as it wasn’t his modus operandi at the time to go out after a show.
“The last thing I would do is go to the bar over the road after a show – I jump straight into a car and go back to the hotel.”
Campbell also took the opportunity to point out how glaringly opposite his views were to Kavanaugh’s, and how it was strange that a conservative college student would be interested in attending one of his band’s shows. “You don’t expect a right-wing Republican to follow a left-wing reggae socialist band from Birmingham,” Campbell said.
“Maybe he just loves reggae… and didn’t listen to our lyrics,” he added.
