Zach Bryan dons ‘Free Palestine’ shirt at Gillette Stadium after Macklemore block

Country singer Zach Bryan wore a shirt with the words “Free Palestine” on it during a Friday concert at Gillette Stadium. This follows the stadium owner’s decision to block Macklemore from performing at the venue because of his pro-Palestine advocacy.

Last month, Macklemore said he was removed from Ed Sheeran’s tour after Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium, told the singer he could not perform at the stadium with the rapper.

Sheeran addressed the controversy during a Sept. 19 concert in Philadelphia and called the situation in Palestine “catastrophic and unjustifiable.”

This is not the first time that Bryan has weighed in on hot-button issues.

Bryan sparked criticism last October after he posted a snippet of a song on social media that contained lyrics critical of the Trump administration’s mass U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation operations.

“And ICE is gonna come, bust down your door / Try to build a house no one builds no more / But I got a telephone / Kids are all scared and all alone,” he sang.

The track, titled “Bad News,” was released earlier this year amid a massive immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minn. Federal agents shot and killed two people and injured a Venezuelan migrant during this operation.

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized the song as “completely disrespectful” during an interview last October with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.

The country artist pushed back on the criticism in an Instagram story at the time.

“This shows you how divisive a narrative can be when shoved down our throats through social media,” Bryan wrote. “This song is about how much I love this country and everyone in it more than anything.

“Everyone using this now as a weapon is only proving how devastatingly divided we all are,” he continued. “We need to find our way back.”