Rolling Stones agreed to Super Bowl censorship Mon Feb 6, 2006 1:19 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Veteran rockers the Rolling Stones agreed to be censored at Sunday's U.S. Super Bowl halftime show, a National Football League spokesman said on Monday.
The Super Bowl football game is America's top rated broadcast event but it has been the subject of controversy ever since 2004 when there was an outcry about indecency after Janet Jackson bared her breast during the half-time show in what was famously described as a "wardrobe malfunction." ... But during "Start Me Up," the line "you make a dead man come" was cut short and a barnyard reference to "cocks" in the new song "Rough Justice" also disappeared.
"The Rolling Stones were aware of our plan which was to simply lower the volume on his microphone at those two appropriate moments," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told Reuters. "We had agreed to that plan earlier in the week. The Stones were aware of it and they were fine with it."
ABC, which broadcast the Super Bowl, said it had a 5-second delay in place but it was not used to censor anything during the broadcast. "If there were any alterations of lyrics it was done by the NFL," said Mark Mandel of ABC Sports.