Filter’s Richard Patrick: BP Oil Spill ‘A Crime Against the Planet’

Filter are one of the bands joining Korn's boycott of BP products, alongside Disturbed, Lady Gaga and the Backstreet Boys. "It's an absolute atrocity, a crime against the planet," Patrick told Noisecreep. "People are volunteering, but I don't think anyone should."

While that might seem like an outrageous statement for the singer/guitarist to make, he says civilians and common folk should not clean up the mess because BP should dip into their deep, bottomless corporate pockets and do it themselves. "It's their fault, and they should pay for it," Patrick said. "I don't care if it bankrupts the company. If you do it, be safe or pay up. If you learn to drill oil wells, you need to drill relief wells on either side." Patrick also mused, "How many more ways can we f--- up this planet? I am starting to think we can really destroy the earth, with two wars and pollution."

Patrick also reminded us that eight presidents have been trying to wean our culture off oil. "If you go all the way back to Nixon, they've been talking about getting off oil," he said. "We are an amazing species, but we are greedy. We want fast cars, a huge house for only four people. There are mansions everywhere. None of them run on solar power, so why not retrofit the house? The guys that run major oil companies have the money to do that. It is horrible and keeps on getting worse. 11 men died. Don't forget that. It was the oil rig guys who said, 'Do you really want to cut these corners on this stuff?' and BP execs said, 'Yes, this is our procedure.'"

Filter's latest, 'The Trouble With Angels,' is out in August.