Press Play with Madeleine Brand
New film asks: ‘What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat, & Tears?’
The band Blood, Sweat, & Tears says the State Department blackmailed them into touring communist Yugoslavia, Romania, and Poland in 1970. A new film tells the story.
By Madeleine Brand • • 16m ListenIn 1970, Blood, Sweat, & Tears was one of the biggest acts around, but its lead singer David Clayton-Thomas faced deportation. So their manager came up with an idea: If the band agreed to a tour through communist Yugoslavia, Romania, and Poland for the State Department, they would make Clayton-Thomas’ immigration problems go away. That tour behind the Iron Curtain went off the rails and the band’s career never recovered. Their story is chronicled in the documentary called “What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat, & Tears?”
