Former Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall, who left the band in June 2021 due to underlying tensions based on mutual disagreements following the backlash received by Marshall’s praise of the controversial novel “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy,” has since criticized the music industry, admonishing the capitalistic biases that plague the institution by allowing “a lot of self-censorship” to go on (NME). 

Upon finally leaving Mumford and Sons, Marshall said in an interview with The Times conducted earlier this year that he “got his soul back.” He continued, saying that “I felt I could sleep again, it’s amazing the effect that had on me. It has been completely liberating. I feel like it was the right decision.” 

The former artist then went on to discuss his thoughts on self-censorship in the music industry in that same interview: “Obviously, artists have a right to boycott. The difference now is that it’s ‘silence him or I’m out. This feels so bizarre, and I don’t think it ends well. Musicians’ careers are all about self-expression, so how can they think that’s going to work if they’re not up for people expressing themselves?” 

Marshall has now recently expanded on these thoughts in a new interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Marshall said: “The music industry is a small industry, and it’s not entirely clear to me whether there is a chokehold by progressives on the industry or whether there is a minority of progressives that have a chokehold on the majority.

“But there’s certainly a lot of self-censorship going on. People who are too scared to say the truth and I think that’s because there is a professional and social repercussions if you do speak the truth and that’s a serious issue. 

“When it comes to the business side, some of them are scared to say the truth and others believe, many are progressive as well who believe that, so there’s a real split there. When I say believe, they believe in those progressive ideas and those ideologies and they’re part of the echo chamber. There’s a mixture.”

Meanwhile, Marcus Mumford, cofounder of Mumford and Sons, recently proclaimed that he “actually really begged” Marshall not to leave the band, going on to say that “I think you can disagree and work together. I just don’t think it’s the job of musicians to have all those thoughts. And I think Win probably agrees. I don’t know. But I should think he probably agrees. Which is part of the reason why he wanted to quit. Because he felt like his priorities couldn’t align in the way he wanted to speak about things and live life.

“He wanted to do a different thing. And that’s why I support him doing a different thing. Even though we disagree on a lot. A lot. And more now.”

Check out this article for more information on why Winston Marshall left Mumford and Sons’.

Mumford and Sons also performed at the inaugural 2019 Agora Del Mar Festival.

Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz