UCLA announced on Monday that it was rescinding the award they’d planned to bestow on singer-songwriter Don McLean, after learning of his domestic violence conviction. UCLA’s Student Alumni Association had announced they would no longer be giving the 2019 George and Ira Gershwin award to McLean, and he was vocally unhappy about it. “Maybe I need to give you some bribe money to grease the college wheels,†McLean wrote in a Facebook post he has since deleted, according to Variety. “You awarded me your George and Ira Gershwin life time achievement award and then took it back because you found out about my squabble with my ex-wife. This has been all over the internet for 3 years. Are you people morons? This is settled law.â€
McLean was arrested in 2016 for misdemeanor domestic violence. He was later convicted of domestic violence criminal threatening, criminal restraint, and criminal mischief. His ex-wife got an order of protection against him in 2017. McLean’s publicist, Jeremy Westby, said in an email to UCLA that the announcement of and then sudden rescinding of the award was “publicly disrespectful and grossly humiliating to Mr. McLean.â€