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Visit the JN’s Facebook page
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the chance to win a pair of
tickets to see Matisyahu at
St. Andrew’s Hall.

JN: Back when you were
dressing as a chasid, were
you concerned people
focused more on your reli-
gious outlook than on your
music?
M: When I started, my focus
was completely on just myself.
My thought wasn’t that I was
going to get boxed in as this
thing. I just said, “This is what
I’m into.” I’m into reggae music,
I got really into Judaism. I’ve
been on this journey, and I put
it into my music. It’s all very
real to me. And I knew there
would be a surprise element
that would catch people and
they would be like, “Oh, shit, I
didn’t realize that ‘this’ could
do ‘this,’” and I knew that
would work to my benefit, but
it was all very real to me. I was
coming right out of yeshivah
and studying Tanya on the
plane to L.A. and going right to
the rabbi’s house.
It wasn’t until later on when
I shaved and the internet was
more of a thing that I began to
read comments and I was like,
“Wow, this whole thing became
the beard itself.” The reason I
grew the beard was to get away
from this whole materialistic
way of being, and then I real-
ized my whole identity had
formed around the beard and it
was the idol — and, therefore, I
realized I needed to get rid of it.
JN: How has your music
changed as your religious
observance has changed?
When you were more obser-
vant, religious Jews looked
at you as somewhat of an
icon. Do you think that as

your observance has changed
you’ve become an icon for
those who are more progres-
sive about their religion?
M: My music has connected
to people going through all dif-
ferent types of things. I think
there are people who have
been boxed in or thought they
were trapped in something —
religion or some other aspect
of their life — and my Akeda
album was about breaking
out. It seems like people con-
nected to that in a big way. At
some point, it’s about how deep
it connects rather than how
widely it connects.
JN: Your song “One Day”
became an anthem for
Jewish summer camps and
Birthright Israel groups.
Do you consider yourself a
Jewish leader?
M: I don’t think of myself
in those terms. I think about
just living my life and what I’m
going through and trying to
put it into my music as purely
and authentically as possible.
Everything else, in terms of
politics and being a leader —
or not being a leader — is not
really something I have too
much control over, so I don’t
really think about it.
JN: In “One Day,” you sing
about what the world could
become in a very hopeful,
optimistic message of peace.
Is that your theology coming
through? Is that a song about
the messianic hope?
M: Well, at the time, yeah.
The idea of [singing about]
prayer [as] an anthem for
peace for the world and hav-

ing it backed by my religion
— because there is that mes-
sianic concept in Judaism and
certainly in the circles I ran in
— that was a big deal. At this
point, it’s less about the mes-
sianic message and more about
me trying to pass some positiv-
ity into the world.
JN: What do you love about
coming to Detroit, a city that
like Matisyahu, has been on
a transformative journey
lately?
M: I have a song on the new
album called “Back to the
Old” — I think Detroit is one
of those cities where young
people who left the city have a
real pride in it and return when
they’re older. And my first paid
gig ever was in Detroit — at
the Detroit Auto Show for
Volkswagen. Every hour on the
hour, I would play music at the
Volkswagen display.
JN: Do any of your four
kids have your musical tal-
ents?
M: My oldest son [age 12]
has a strong voice and he loves
recording stuff. All my kids love
music though.
JN: Tell me about the mis-
hap at the Maccabi Games in
Alabama this past summer,
in which Jewish teens posted
cellphone video footage of
you pushing kids off the
stage. It seemed like there
wasn’t ample security. What’s
your impression of what hap-
pened?
M: I literally haven’t spoken
about this once before. When
it first happened, I didn’t want
to comment; I just wanted to

stay away from it. That was an
acoustic show and there were a
lot of people there. There were
thousands of teenagers there
and they were ready to party.
I don’t know if people heard
Matisyahu’s coming and they
think it’s going to be a rock
show, and we’ll get to jump
on stage and stage dive. These
teenagers, I mean, I don’t know
how many of them actually
follow my music. They might
have sung “One Day” at sum-
mer camp or seen a video of me
going crazy on stage. The real-
ity of the situation was there
were two 40-year-old guys on
stage on stools — me and my
guitar player. It was not a rock
show. If [the organizers of the
event] know there’s going to
be a bunch of raging hormonal
teenagers there, they should
have had a rock band — or paid
for me to have my rock band
there.
People started getting up on
stage, [acting] totally entitled.
In this situation, a girl got up
on stage and started taking
selfies with me in the middle
of the show. I take my art seri-
ously and … I always try to
get into that zone and create
something real. It’s not my job
to throw them off the stage, but
no one was doing it. These kids
don’t know what they’re doing.
I could have just stopped, I
guess. Then basically when I
saw someone about to crush
hundreds of dollars’ worth of
[my guitar player’s] pedals,
I was like all right, that’s the
limit, and I just tried to stop it.
It’s a learning experience.

jn

JN: What have been the
high points of your career?
M: There’ve been some great
moments. The time I got to go
on stage at Bonnaroo [Music
and Arts Festival] 2005 with
Trey [Anastasio of Phish] sing-
ing “No Woman No Cry.” That
was a definite high point. I
also got to sing “Roxanne” with
Sting at Ramat Gan Stadium in
Tel Aviv. That was incredible.
Those are probably the two big-
gest artists that I got to sit in
with in big stadiums.
One of the memories just
popping into my head was after
the whole BDS thing in Spain
[he was uninvited to the 2015
Tototom Sunsplash reggae fes-
tival after refusing to publicly
endorse Palestinian statehood].
Coming to Israel a month later
and the warm feeling I got from
everyone in Israel was very spe-
cial for me.
JN: Where are you 30 years
down the road?
M: Hopefully I will have
stayed on top of my health and
I’ll still have a voice and still be
singing and writing music. I’ll
still, God willing, be doing what
I’m doing right now. But I don’t
even know what I’ll be doing
after Dec. 15 when I get home
from tour. •

details

Matisyahu, with guests Common
Kings, brings his Broken Crown
Tour to St. Andrew’s Hall in
Detroit Tuesday, Dec. 12. All
ages. $27.50/advance; $33/door.
Ticketmaster.com.

December 7 • 2017

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