98: Winston Marshall: Mumford's Wise Son

Mumford and Sons were huge. Over 14 glorious years, Winston Marshall and his friends rocked stadia in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans and headlined Glastonbury! If you remember all the bearded hipsters and the tweed the kids were rocking, it’s likely they were listening to the Mumfords on their AirPods. But Winston left the band in 2021 after tweeting about Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, a book written by American journalist Andy Ngo. At first, Winston apologised for praising the book and decided he’d take a break from the band "to examine his blindspots". But a few months on, he then defended his support for Andy Ngo, and wrote about the reaction to his apology for the tweet. He then announced he was leaving Mumford & Sons permanently to exercise free speech without involving his former bandmates. It was a moment of sadness as he expected he’d be playing with the guys he grew up with until retirement age. So now he’s cast as a culture warrior, a description he’s in direct conflict with, as he likes to create culture - not go to war on it! Winston now produces an excellent podcast and he’s a magnet for guests including Douglas Murray, Jordan Peterson, David Baddiel, Graham Linehan and Candace Owens, who came out in defence of “Death Con 3” chump, Kanye West. Winston has a busy solo career - both in the studio and as a live performer around the world and our frank discussion is punctuated by his broad, infectious laugh. Given my delightful first couple of hours with him, he might just be better without them. Listen and enjoy Winston Marshall! This is episode of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by both Dangoor Education and UK Toremet, promoting philanthropy. You can support Jonny's podcast work by looking at the all the episodes and buying him a coffee here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices