Ace of Base's Ulf Ekberg Speaks Out About Alleged Past Nazi Ties

Musician under fire after a report surfaced claiming has was a member of a pro-Nazi band before he helped form the hitmaking Swedish pop quartet

By Holly Passalaqua, Alexis L. Loinaz Apr 25, 2013 2:33 PMTags
Ulf Ekberg Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage

Ace of Base's Ulf Ekberg wants to set the record straight.

Speaking exclusively with E! News, the musician addressed the public firestorm over his alleged past Nazi ties after a report surfaced Tuesday claiming that has was a member of a pro-Nazi band before he helped form the hitmaking Swedish pop quartet that would eventually churn out hits like "All That She Wants" and "The Sign."

And although Ekberg  admits that he is regretful about "some of my thoughts from those days," which he calls "nauseating," he insists that the band in question, Commit Suicide, did not write the controversial songs supposedly attributed to them, which popped up in a demo tape that's reportedly been making the rounds for some time now.

"I have seen this demo of six songs that began floating around in 1996 claiming that Commit Suicide had written those songs. I did have a synth band called Commit Suicide between 1984-1986 with two gentlemen called Jens Andersson and Jens Svensson, and two of the songs on this demo where written and performed by us," Ekberg tells E! News.

"The problem is that the other four songs [are] skinhead music with very racist lyrics," he explains. "These songs have absolutely nothing to do with Commit Suicide. We did not write or perform those songs that were attributed to us."

According to music site Noisey.com, which reported on Ekberg's purported Nazi connection, one of those songs includes lyrics—which the site translated—as: "Men in white hoods march down the road, we enjoy ourselves when we're sawing off n-----s' heads / Immigrant, we hate you! Out, out, out, out! Nordic people, wake up now! Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot!"

Even more damning, the site also published a photograph allegedly of Ekberg doing the Nazi salute.

"Commit Suicide was a New Wave music band creating and performing electronic music on synthesizers without any political touch or agenda," Ekberg continued. "The racist songs on this demo were not by us, but our potential association with such groups is a matter I truly regret."

The 42-year-old also denied reports that he was affiliated with the far-right political group Swedish Democrats, which has, in the past, been lobbed with accusations of racism.

"I want to point out that I never been a member of Swedish Democrats. That is a factual error, whereas mine was an error more serious than that," he says.

"I have always been deeply regretful of that period in my life, as I strive to bring happiness to people, and during that period I did not live up to that standard," the musician explains, referring to "my behavior and my mindset" in the 1980s. "I have not been involved in violence or political activism in the past 25 years. However, I find some of my thoughts from those days nauseating to myself today."

And although he cops to having had right-wing opinions as a teenager, Ekberg also says that "those opinions where based on poor judgment and ignorance."

"I'm truly deeply sorry for any hurt and disappointment this has caused for our fans, and I really hope that we clearly have stated that Ace of Base never shared any of these opinions and strongly oppose all extremist opinions on both the right and left wing," he says. "My past is my own, and only I can own up to it."

Per Noisey, only about a thousand copies of the Commit Suicide album, which was reportedly titled Uffe Was a Nazi!, were produced. Purportedly, its song list included the tracks "Don't Touch Our Country" and "White Power, Black Skull Slaughter."