‘I’d rather f**king stab my eyes out with a pencil than accept an OBE’ says Manic Street Preachers’ Nicky Wire

MSP Nicky — (Image credit: Simone Joyner/Getty Images)

Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire has called out ‘supposedly left-leaning’ musicians and actors who accept honours from The Queen.

Speaking in MOJO magazine, the 52-year-old bassist responds to a question from writer Keith Cameron about holding on to his working class values, and admits, “I’m so riddled with doubts and contradictions now, even though I still kept to those principles. My kids have been through comprehensive education, I still believe in high taxation and all those kind of things, I stay close to my roots… I haven’t abandoned any of those things at all. But I don’t know if they’re relevant to modern life.”

“You see supposedly left-leaning actors and pop star queuing up to get MBEs and OBEs - and I’d rather f**king stab my eyes out with a pencil than do that. What was it, [Paul] Weller and David Bowie turned down knighthoods? That’s good enough for me.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Wire hails Ronnie James Dio’s contributions to Black Sabbath. Revealing that the first single he bought with his older brother Patrick was Sabbath’s Neon Knights, Wire hails it as an “amazing song” and says “Dio’s phase in Black Sabbath is really under-rated.”

The new Manic Street Preachers album, The Ultra Vivid Lament, is set for release on September 3 via Columbia/Sony.

1.Still Snowing In Sapporo
2. Orwellian
3. The Secret He Had Missed
4. Quest For Ancient Colour
5. Don’t Let the Night Divide Us
6. Diapause
7. Complicated Illusions
8. Into The Waves of Love
9. Blank Diary Entry
10. Happy Bored Alone
11. Afterending

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