Bloodhound Gang Attacked After Russian Flag Desecrated (Video)

The American rock band the Bloodhound Gang was banned from a European music festival and assaulted over the weekend after one of its members desecrated the Russian flag onstage during a performance last week.

During a show in the Ukrainian town of Odessa Wednesday, the band's bassist, 42-year-old Jared Hasselhoff (stage name: "Evil"), stuffed a Russian flag down the front of his pants and pulled it out the back.

"Don't tell (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," he told the jeering crowd.

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Bloodhound Gang front man Jimmy Pop, seemingly trying to win back the audience, came to the country's defense.

"Russia is better than America, so I disapprove of that," he said.

A video of the onstage stunt quickly went viral and the band was banned from performing at the Kubana music festival in the southern Russian territory of Krasnodar Krai over the weekend.

"Bloodhound Gang packing suitcases. These idiots won't perform in Kubana," Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky tweeted Friday, according to Rolling Stone.

Angered by the anti-Russian sentiment, locals pelted the Bloodhound Gang's van with tomatoes and eggs Saturday as it made its way out of the town of Anapa, The New York Times reported.

Then, on Sunday, the band members were attacked in an airport lounge by a group of Russian nationalists who attempted to smother one of them with an American flag. Police eventually broke up the fight and the band was able to catch a flight out.

Hasselhoff apologized publicly during a news conference Friday and explained that he had meant no offense. He said it is a band tradition for everything thrown from the stage first to be passed through his pants. Hasselhoff said he decided to throw the flag because some fans had seemed disturbed to see it hanging on the stage.

WARNING: The video below contains strong language.





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