Thomas Stein rows back after the “hard but fair” statement

When the longtime music manager Thomas Stein – who, among other things, was on the jury for the casting show “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” – was supposed to comment on the ARD talk show “Hart aber Fair” on Monday evening (June 19) about the Causa Till Lindemann , he defended the Rammstein singer and said: “How he works out on stage, how he runs across the stage at the age of 60, should he suddenly go down and make someone else happy?”

This sentence, and in particular the verb “make happy”, which the 74-year-old used in this context, triggered a gigantic shitstorm on social media overnight. The fact that a successful music manager, in numerous reports of alleged sexual abuse, drug abuse and abuse of power at Rammstein concerts and parties, only mentions the extent to which sexual performance at an older age is still possible, caused many people to be dismayed and angry.

Although Thomas Stein has not revised his statements, he has backtracked at one point. At the request of “t-online” the music manager said on Tuesday (20 June): “I readily agree with the critics that the word ‘delighted’ can be misconstrued. I wouldn’t use it again.” As a reason for the incorrectly used term, the manager gave the “framework of the live broadcast” in which “something like this could happen”.

more on the subject