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Damien Rice Blasts Bush

Irish singer-songwriter leads protest concert

June 17, 2004 12:00 AM ET
Singer-songwriter Damien Rice and Irish folk legend Christy Moore will perform at When Bush Comes to Shove, an anti-war gig in their native country. The June 19th show at Dublin's Point Depot will benefit the Stop Bush Campaign and the Irish Anti-War movement. The U.S. president plans to visit Ireland next week.

"I've noticed that George Bush's administration has done a number of things that weren't very popular throughout the world," Rice told Rolling Stone. "The United Nations exists, ideally, in my understanding, to keep nations together, in communication, in a democratic way. Going against the wish of the United Nations is not a very popular thing to do and doesn't inspire a good feeling."

Rice and Moore plan to perform Rice's "Lonely Soldier," a song the two recently recorded as a duet.

"It was a spontaneous decision to record and release the song with Christy," Rice says. "I called him up, sang him the song over the phone and we recorded it the following day. So much trouble has been caused recently and so many of the people causing the trouble are throwing around the word 'God' a lot. But I can't imagine a God of love ever wanting to shoot someone. That's where I got the line 'Good eyes see nothin' to shoot,' and it flows on from there."

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