One of the most amusing and most reposted stories I’ve seen on Facebook this week (although it’s been a great week for gossip overall) involves a charity concert in Cleveland given by Third Eye Blind (“Semi-Charmed Life,” “Jumper,” “Deep Inside of You“). The band was playing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on behalf of Musicians on Call, which brings music artists to visit hospital patients. It wasn’t an official RNC event, but there were of course many RNC attendees there. Third Eye Blind refused to play any of their hits except “Jumper,” which is about the suicide of lead singer Stephan Jenkins’s gay cousin. Jenkins introduced the song by talking about gay rights and it was awesome. He also asked the crowd if they believed in science. When he got booed he told them he was the artist. It was incredible. Jenkins has been outspoken about his political beliefs and told Rolling Stone last September that he was embarrassed on behalf of Republican candidate Marco Rubio’s lack of understanding of climate change. Rolling Stone explains it better than I can.

Third Eye Blind trolled an audience filled with Republican National Convention attendees during a charity concert at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Tuesday night, with singer Stephan Jenkins continually blasting the GOP and antagonizing the crowd with remarks like, “Raise your hand if you believe in science…”

Knowing his audience, Jenkins used the microphone to condemn Republican ideology and perform a set list that refrained from playing any Third Eye Blind hits. At one point, after someone in the audience loudly booed the band, Jenkins responded, “You can boo all you want, but I’m the motherf-king artist up here,” Cleveland.com reports.

The one Nineties hit Third Eye Blind did play was “Jumper,” a song inspired by the suicide of Jenkins’ gay friend. The singer prefaced the performance by telling the crowd, “To love this song is to take into your heart the message and to actually have the feeling to arrive and move forward and not live your life in fear [not] imposing that fear on other people.”

After the concert, Third Eye Blind’s Twitter continued to prod Republicans. When one fan tweeted their disappointment regarding Tuesday’s show, the band responded “Good.” Another tweet asked whether the band was concerned that their actions would hurt the charity, to which the group replied, “Great question. We were not, as Musicians on Call were well aware of who we are and our take on things (like science and rights!)”

[From Rolling Stone]

Not only did Jenkins cleverly troll the Republicans at the event, he’s also given follow up interviews explaining his position. He told Rolling Stone that “The fact that I’m onstage 19 years after I wrote [“Jumper”] and we’re still talking about equal dignity for the LGBTQ community is absurd. But we are. And to yell ‘Who believes in science?’ and have half the room boo is [laughs] … their ideology is crumbling.” Hear hear! He also said that it was antithetical that the Republican party rejects Black Lives Matter. “Black Lives Matter is saying that people are unduly under threat, which is right down the middle of Republican framework. It’s a pro-police idea, meaning that we want good police … who aren’t going to imprison people on racist grounds. There’s nothing more Republican. I’m pro-police and so is Black Lives Matter.”

Jenkins called into TMZ live yesterday, where he explained that he didn’t know ahead of time that the benefit gig would have so many people from the convention. He said “My mother is a Republican… we love Republicans [and] believe in the gathering power of music. What we don’t believe in is the RNC and the grotesque who they have made their nominee.” He also answered “Yeah” when Harvey Levin asked if not playing “Semi-charmed Life” was punishment. I think I’m about to go listen to Third Eye Blind’s new album on Spotify. It’s called Dopamine.

Here’s Jenkins introducing “Jumper”:

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