Christopher Cross apologized to Canadian fans for the latest round of trade-war measures taken by the U.S. against its northern neighbor, and jokingly predicted his comments might get him kicked out of his home country.
The guitarist was performing in Toronto on August 30 when he paused the show to speak out on Donald Trump’s introduction of new tariffs and his presidential signing order to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” Canada has responded by announcing its own new tariffs, meaning that citizens of both nations could pay more for products as leaders Trump and Mark Carney continue to disagree.
“I want to tell you how much we love your country and appreciate your country very much,” Cross told the crowd at the RBC Amphitheatre. “I’m just very sorry and embarrassed that we have an asshole for a president.”
Cross then urged Canadians not to give up on America.
“We have an election coming up, and we’re gonna do our best to fix it,” he continued. “Then we’ll be buying all your shit again and you’ll be buying all our shit. We can be victims of corporate greed together!”
“Enough of my preaching here,” he said, wrapping up. “I’m sure you’ll be reading in the paper where I’ve been ejected from my country. But that’s okay — I wanted to say what I had to say.”
Cross — who once filled in for Ritchie Blackmore on Deep Purple’s first U.S. tour in 1970 — isn’t the first artist to speak out on the latest trade war escalation. In a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, guest host Jelly Roll noted that toilet paper was included in the list of products subject to tariffs.
“You have to admit, there is something poetic about it being so expensive to wipe our ass just because the president’s full of shit,” he said.
Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson made his own point during the band’s August 29 concert in Toronto, referring to Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario and his previous rebadging of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
“We got here, we crossed Lake Ontario, we will be crossing the Gulf of Mexico,” Dickinson told fans in Toronto. “It’s a ridiculous state of the world.”
