Dave Rowntree has thrown Blur's future into doubt by declaring he won't tour with the band if he is elected as an MP.
Dave Rowntree won't tour with Blur if he's elected as an MP
The drummer has been a member of the group since 1988 but he has ventured into politics in recent years and he's preparing to take another shot at Parliament by standing for the Labour party in the constituency of Mid Sussex at the UK's upcoming general election - and Dave insists he will devote himself full-time to the job if he wins the seat even if it means walking away from Blur.
He told The Times magazine: "If I’m a full-time MP, I’m a full-time MP. I won’t be taking time off to do a world tour with Blur."
Dave previously missed out on the chance to become an MP when he stood for Labour at the 2010 general election for the Cities of London and Westminster constituency, but failed to unseat the Conservative Party candidate.
He went on to be elected as a county councillor in the city of Norwich from 2017 until 2021 and is now hoping to finally achieve his dream of entering Parliament as an MP when the UK goes to the polls again later this year.
When asked why he's decided to swap music for politics, Dave insisted he wants to give back because so many years in a bad was turning him into a "rather odd person".
He told the publication: "It [being in a band] can be a recipe for becoming a very unpleasant person. The more successful you get, the more isolated you become from the real world, because everything is secondary to the gig you have just sold 10,000 tickets for.
"That leads to you being increasingly mollycoddled, which is dangerous if there is nobody to keep you grounded. After a while, I realised I would never be happy unless I could be helpful to others in a practical sense ...
"It turned out, as I started becoming this rather odd person the music industry can make you, that one of the things I was missing in life was looking people in the eye and trying to help them deal with their problems. I think it is a fundamental need of humanity. Once I discovered it, I never looked back."
Dave went on to admit he's made plenty of mistakes during his time in the band, but he hopes voters will appreciate him as a candidate with life experience.
He added: "I’ve made some catastrophic mistakes. I’m also not someone who studied politics at university, worked their way up to being a special adviser and was parachuted into a safe seat.
"So I’ll say, ‘Do people want members of parliament to have some life experience or not?’ I’ve done a whole other job. I don’t think that’s a bad thing."