In 2001, Carlinhos Brown was involved in an incident that became a landmark in Rock in Rio . The musician's show was interrupted by boos and bottles thrown by the audience, mostly made up of rock fans waiting for Guns N' Roses , the headliner that day.
Two decades later, Brown reflects on the event as a form of cancellation motivated by various prejudices, including racial ones. “We need time to observe what things are. And cancellation is perhaps the synthesis [of that episode]. And within cancellation there is everything: there is racism , prejudice against the genre, against the music,” he stated in an interview with Folha de São Paulo .
The third edition of the mega-festival did not yet have the separation of acts by musical genre on different days, as is the case today. The musician performed on Sunday, January 14th, right after Patu Fu . The following acts were scheduled to be Ira! and Ultraje a Rigor, Papa Roach, Oasis , and Guns N' Roses.
Another issue was the boycott of the event by Brazilian artists due to low fees and lack of infrastructure for the performances, carried out by the bands O Rappa, Cidade Negra, Raimundos, Charlie Brown Jr, Skank and Jota Quest , as Folha .
“It’s good that there was that clash because we knew that, at Rock in Rio, the word rock, its four letters, was bigger than Rio. But we were also saying that Rio is enormous. Brazilian music needed to be showcased,” he argued. “I wanted to extend an invitation, I want to do that show [at the festival] again.”
On stage at Rock In Rio 2001, Brown interrupted the show to rebuke the audience's behavior, often portrayed as a reflection of the supposed intolerance of rock fans . "You who like rock have a lot to learn in life, learn to respect human beings, to say 'no' to violence and 'yes' to love, believe in life," the musician said at the time.
READ ALSO: The day Freddie Mercury trashed his dressing room at Rock In Rio after being called a "faggot"
