Billie Eilish and Peter Gabriel join music coalition against gun violence

Billie Eilish and Peter Gabriel have joined a new music coalition to tackle gun violence.

Artist For Action To Prevent Gun Violence, which also features Sheryl Crow and Nile Rodgers, describes itself as a “non-political” organisation which asks Americans to volunteer and vote to eradicate gun violence in the country.

Eilish said in a statement: “As a community of artists, we need to band together to make common sense change.”

Gabriel added: “This needs to stop. So many needless deaths. So much suffering. It just needs a little common sense.”

Others to take part in the organisation include Rufus Wainwright, Pixies, Sofi Tukker and Bush, the latter of whom will play a launch event for the organisation in New York on September 22.

The band’s Gavin Rossdale said: “As a father, I am staggered by the gun violence in America, and as a musician, I am fortunate enough to be able to take a stand against it.

“This is a human rights crisis out of control. There have been more than 400 mass shootings in the US in 2023 – from stores to football games to parades to schools. Every person, especially children, deserves the right to be and feel safe.”

Artist For Action To Prevent Gun Violence is the brainchild of musician Mark Barden, whose son was murdered in the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2021.

“After my son Daniel was murdered at Sandy Hook elementary school, I put my career as a professional guitarist on hold to devote myself to preventing gun violence,” he said in a statement.

“Please join me and hundreds of other artists, musicians, actors, athletes and people like you to finally end this senseless violence.”

Elsewhere, Eilish recently brought her ‘Overheated’ climate change conference back to London for a day of panels and discussions.

This was the second time Eilish and her collaborators have hosted Overheated in the capital, after the platform debuted during the singer’s run of shows at The O2 in June 2022 – a move that saw one of the world’s most popular indoor concert venues go vegan during the artist’s residency.

Read NME‘s interview with Eilish’s mother Maggie Baird at the event here.

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