Moby Plugs 'Columbine' At Billboards

12/11/2002 7:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Mark Armstrong

(12/11/02, 7 a.m. ET) -- Close observers of Monday's (December 9) Billboard Music Awards might have noticed Moby mentioning the Michael Moore gun-culture documentary film, Bowling For Columbine, as he introduced Annie Lennox as the winner of the program's Century Award. Moby admitted, "That was me shamelessly editorializing."

"I don't want to sound like a curmudgeon or sound jaded," Moby said afterward, but "awards shows like this...when the only exercise of fame is self-promotion it just seems gratuitous and kind of a waste of time."

The ever-outspoken artist continued, "If for a brief moment I'm a public figure and people are paying attention I should try and, in some small way, do something good with it. If the only way that I use being a public figure is just to increase my own fame and make a little bit of money, that just seems like a waste of potential. And, you know, if someone like Michael Moore can make such a remarkable film as Bowling For Columbine and I'm presenting an award and there are a hundred million people watching, if I can draw attention to such an important film, then I'm certainly happy to do so."

Moby collected two awards: electronic artist of the year and electronic album of the year for his latest release, 18.

-- Neal Weiss, Las Vegas

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