It seems the Rolling Stones pulled "Brown Sugar" from their current setlists due to a group of female activists that infiltrated a fan message board, according to The Daily Mail. The band's 2021 dates mark the first time since the tune's release in 1971 that the Stones have omitted the chart-topper from their shows.
The popular online fan site and message board IORR — named after the band's 1974 classic "It's Only Rock N' Roll (But I Like It)" — was besieged by an "organized group of woke activists systematically targeted hundreds of thousands of devotees around the world by infiltrating their online fan club. . . and relentlessly hammering fans and discussion threads with angry political trolling posts slamming the song's reference to slavery."
IORR founder, Norwegian Bjornulf Vik revealed: "IORR has been spammed by political posts related to 'Brown Sugar' lately. Like many other things, some people do make this a highly political discussion. It seems like it is impossible for some to discuss 'Brown Sugar' without getting highly political and offensive."
Earlier this month, co-writer Keith Richards touched upon the recent wave of "cancel culture," telling The Los Angeles Times the 1971 classic's banishment was racially motivated: "You picked up on that, huh? I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they’re trying to bury it. At the moment I don’t want to get into conflicts with all of this s***. But I’m hoping that we’ll be able to resurrect the babe in her glory somewhere along the track."
Mick Jagger — who wrote the tune with Richards back in 1969 — was less specific about the song not being included: "We’ve played ‘Brown Sugar’ every night since 1970, so sometimes you think, 'We’ll take that one out for now and see how it goes.'"
