
Bob Geldof blasts 'sociopathic loser' Elon Musk in fiery rant at Live Aid musical
Bob Geldof has branded Elon Musk a "prime w*****" for disregarding empathy.
The 73-year-old musician and Live Aid pioneer spoke to the audience after the opening night of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical on London's West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and he took aim at the billionaire.
In a video shared by Theatre-News.com, he said: "A couple of weeks ago, that prime w***** Elon Musk said something seriously wrong. He said, 'The great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy'.
"The great weakness? ... You sociopathic loser. Empathy is the glue of civilisation. Empathy is the glue of humanity.
"It's how we do things together. It's how we sit here together and clap because we actually understand that this is the stuff that works."
During a recent interview with Joe Rogan in February, Musk insisted while "you should care about other people", empathy was being "weaponised".
He added: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit."
The musical - which started at The Old Vic in January 2024 before moving to the US and now returning to London - retells the events leading up to the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985, which raised money for the famine in Ethiopia.
Geldof - who also called out United States President Donald Trump, his vice president JD Vance, and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer - used his passionate speech to encourage people to help those in need.
He continued: "We need to be helped, we need to help the NHS, we need to re-arm because there's a thug currently invading our continent, but really?
"All that intellect, that's all you can do? Snatch it from those people? It can't work like that. It doesn't have to work like that.
"It began working like that in 1985, and we took it all the way 20 years later to Live 8. That really tipped the balance in the favour of those we wanted to help."
While he acknowledge that the West End show is high quality entertainment with a stellar cast and live band, Geldof also wants it to inspire someone to continue the spirit of Live Aid.
He said: "If there's somebody here who can take this idea and run with it in some other way that we're not capable, they can only do is.
"This is insane - by doing this every night of the week, these people [on stage] are giving 10 percent of everything this makes. The rest is usually taken up in costs.
"So far, these people here behind me have raised almost a million quid."
He revealed that the money they've raised is already going to a good cause.
He added: "The money these people have raised has already, in the place that was the epicenter of the famine in 1984, they've already built hospitals and schools and stuff like that with the money by doing their job tonight.
"That's what they've achieved."
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Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. 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