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Jun 30, 2014 Kurt Vile By Mike Hilleary

The cover art of Kurt Vile‘s 2013 album Wakin on a Pretty Daze features a giant mural in the songwriter’s hometown of Philadelphia, created by artist Steve “ESPO” Powers. WXPN reports that over the weekend the mural was defaced. The man responsible, since identified as a local DJ named Lee Mayjahs, has now apologized to both Vile and Powers for his actions and wishes to pay for the mural’s restoration.

In an interview with Philly reporter Leah R. Kauffman, who described him as “not well,” Mayjahs said, “I got home and started doing research on my computer. I can’t believe what I had done ad I wrote a letter to Kurt Vile apologizing. And I wrote a letter to the artist Espo apologizing, telling them that I would pay Espo to come down and repaint it. I also wrote a letter to the mural arts apologizing. Apparently it wasn’t official. Even though it wasn’t official I’m sorry for everything I did. I would do whatever I could do to make it right. I really am sorry. I don’t know what I was doing. I literally lost my mind and took it out which was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life ... I was obviously not thinking. I didn’t think anything through and acted false pretense. I didn’t think about the consequences of my actions. I’m sorry about that, I love Philadelphia, I love my neighborhood and I love the arts. I’m a big supporter of the arts and so for me to do something that offends all of these people is completely out of character for me. Anybody who knows me will tell you the exact same thing. I’m sorry about it.”

(www.kurtvile.com)