1 of 3 | From left, musicians Michael Clifford, Calum Hood, Luke Hemmings and Ashton Irwin of 5 Seconds of Summer arrive for the 43rd annual American Music Awards held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on November 22, 2015. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
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NEW YORK, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Michael Clifford of the band 5 Seconds of Summer is attempting to save face on behalf of his group after a controversial Rolling Stone article spoke of raucous partying and an unwarranted Justin Bieber anecdote.
On Twitter over the weekend, Clifford -- described by Rolling Stone as the band's "most punk-rock member" -- responded to since-deleted tweets from Bieber prompted by the article. "Done nothing but praise ur album," he wrote Sunday, "no idea why that's even in the article. big fan since the start man, take care."
The bandmate revealed to the magazine, which published the article Saturday, a seemingly self-absorbed detail about Bieber from his after-party for the American Music Awards. "I think he hates us," Clifford said. "I probably shouldn't say this, but he had his own album on loop for, like, two or three hours."
Some Twitter users saved Bieber's reaction tweets, which reportedly read, "Sometimes I wonder... What the hell do I have to do with that? Lol." In direct-response to Clifford, the "Sorry" singer specifically asked him not to use "my name for headlines. U are already on the cover. U don't need it. Just be honest. Big hugs bud."
An additional tweet apologized to Clifford: "sorry guy," Bieber is said to have written. "Don't hate you. Don't even know u. And are u sure u came to our party because my album wasn't on loop? Strange."
The Australian band is also in hot water for describing their goals to be considered a "real band," and not just "for girls," as well as candidly describing their sex-capades with female fans during their most recent tour.
"I'm already seeing a few male fans start to pop up, and that's cool," bandmate Ashton Irwin told the magazine during the interview. "If the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and all those guys can do it, we can do it, too."
The line prompted backlash from the band's female fans on social media. "5sos basically said girls are not worthy of their music and they'd rather want boys to listen to them aaaaaaaah this is all so problematic," said one Twitter user, echoing many others.
In response to that point, Clifford tweeted, "i hate when people include everything in an article EXCEPT the reason we're a band," he wrote, "the fans."
