On Sunday, the World Cup will begin in Qatar. The Middle Eastern nation has a horrifying record of human rights abuses, especially leading up to the World Cup. The opening ceremony of the World Cup will reportedly include pop stars like Shakira and BTS member Jungkook. Over the weekend, Dua Lipa made a statement denying reports that she would perform at the ceremony: “I will be cheering on England from afar and I look forward to visiting Qatar when it has fulfilled all the human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup.” Now, another big star has said that he turned down a huge payday to perform in Qatar.

Yesterday, the Times ran an interview with Rod Stewart, who claims that he turned down a huge payday to perform in Qatar. Stewart doesn’t say whether the performance was supposed to be part of the opening ceremony: “I was actually offered a lot of money, over $1 million, to play there 15 months ago. I turned it down.” When asked why he turned down the offer, Stewart says, “It’s not right to go. And the Iranians should be out too for supplying arms.”

Rod Stewart doesn’t exactly have a great history of making stands against repressive governments. In 1983, Stewart was one of the few pop stars who accepted an offer to perform at Sun City, the apartheid-era casino in South Africa. Maybe Stewart is rethinking his role in the world these days. He definitely doesn’t need the money.