Justin Vernon Discusses Controversial Eminem Tweets & Kanye West in Zane Lowe Interview

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon recently sat down with Apple Music‘s Zane Lowe to discuss a variety of topics from the release of his latest i,I album, to collaborating with Kanye West to even discussing his controversial Eminem tweets that were critical of the rapper’s use of homophobic slurs on his latest album, Kamikaze. As is expected from Lowe, the latest interview might be Vernon’s most expansive yet, with the interview video clocking in at over 45-minutes.

Most notably from the interview is Vernon and Lowe’s discussion surrounding Eminem, and the tweets the singer-songwriter posted last year in regards to the rapper’s use of homophobic slurs in reference to Tyler, The Creator on their collaborative track “Fall.” In the original tweet, Vernon wrote that he was “not a fan of the message,” going on to state that he had “asked them to change the track” but “wouldn’t do it.” Vernon shared how the tweet was mustered up: “I made that huge mess out of the Eminem song. I was just in a car wash, and I just tweeted. It’s like, what was I doing? I should’ve just probably chilled out and actually just said, ‘Please don’t put this song out.’” Lowe noted that Vernon could have kept his opinion private, which prompted Vernon to agree, believing the tweet to be “really rude” and that he felt “really bad” for putting it out there.

On top of discussing the tweets, Vernon also shared his thoughts on working with Kanye West:

If you’re like Kanye, you can wait and there’s going to be cooks in all sorts of kitchens and they’re going to show you all sorts of stuff and you get to react to a lot of things. You get to say no to a lot of things until you’re very sure you like something. That was very stunning to watch him just A: hear it all, and like have the bandwidth to communicate that well with that many folks. There’s such a thing as too many folks, I remember in Wyoming, we were out there and there was one time where it was really just four of us, and then there was another time where there has to be 45 of us, like in multiple houses. I remember we had a small conversation, he’s like, “I don’t know who’s even here.” You know, like I think there may be too many people here. So there’s all sorts of drawbacks there, but…He cares about music a lot. You don’t get to have made the music he’s made if you don’t, and he puts it very high up.

More topics include him working alongside Francis and The Lights, Chance The Rapper, and BJ Burton, and much more. You can watch the entire interview above. Bon Iver is currently embarking on their Autumn tour – dates can be found here.

For more related news, Vernon recently shared why he doesn’t plan on working with Kanye in the future.