Petty writes in Rolling Stone about his concern over the meaning behind the flag:
“The Confederate flag was the wallpaper of the South when I was a kid growing up in Gainesville, Florida. I always knew it had to do with the Civil War, but the South had adopted it as its logo. I was pretty ignorant of what it actually meant. It was on a flagpole in front of the courthouse and I often saw it in Western movies. I just honestly didn’t give it much thought, though I should have.”
Petty copped to using the flag in his work, though he realized very quickly why it was such a problem:
“I used it onstage during [Rebels], and I regretted it pretty quickly. When we toured two years later, I noticed people in the audience wearing Confederate flag bandanas and things like that. One night, someone threw one onstage. I stopped everything and gave a speech about it. I said, ‘Look, this was to illustrate a character. This is not who we are. Having gone through this, I would prefer it if no one would ever bring a Confederate flag to our shows again because this isn’t who we are.’”
Then, Petty dropped some knowledge about how ridiculous the flag itself is in 2015, considering the Civil War ended 150 years ago:
“Lowering the flag from the statehouse grounds was the right decision. That flag shouldn’t have any part in our government. It shouldn’t represent us in any way. The war is over. You know, it’s a bit ironic: It’s the only time that I know of where we defeated a country in a war and then flew their flag.”
Petty is such a hypocrite. I have been sitting in the audience with the flag and its not bandanas its people with flags wrapped around themselves. Give me a Break. The guy was totally OK with it until this. He’s afraid it will hurt his concerts going forward. I don’t know why its not like there are any blacks there. LOL!