Rod Stewart Apologizes for Mock Execution Video: We Were Playing Out ‘Game of Thrones’

The British rocker sparks outrage after footage of him re-enacting an ISIS-style beheading is posted on Instagram

Rod Stewart
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Sir Rod Stewart offered his “deepest apologies” on Friday for causing upset by re-enacting an ISIS-style beheading, claiming he was merely copying “Game of Thrones.”

The now-deleted video clip that was posted on Instagram was filmed in the Abu Dhabi desert before a show in the United Arab Emirates.

It showed the British rocker with his friends trekking through the sand, before Stewart, 72, made a cutting motion across the throat of a man kneeling in front of him.

Watch the video that was preserved on YouTube below.

The footage sparked outrage on Twitter and across global media, with former hostage John McCarthy (who was kidnapped in Lebanon in 1986) telling BBC Radio Scotland that the singer had turned “a grotesque thing into a kind of pantomime.”

However, Stewart claims was just “larking around” and that his actions were misinterpreted.

“From re-enacting the Beatles’ Abbey Road crossing to spontaneously playing out ‘Game Of Thrones,’ we were simply larking about pre-show,” he wrote in an apology on Twitter.

“Understandably, this has been misinterpreted and I send my deepest apologies to those who have been offended.”

Sandy Afternoon

A post shared by Penny Lancaster (@penny.lancaster) on

See some of the tweets criticizing the “Blondes Have More Fun” singer below … some more seriously than others.

https://twitter.com/LeeMares/status/837715363240476673

https://twitter.com/PrisonUK/status/837685908904226817

https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/837667045990858756

https://twitter.com/kidd_kong78/status/837606213022019584

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