(CNN) โ Throughout Coldplayโs nearly 30-year career as a rock band, frontman Chris Martin has heard it all.
From devoted fans whoโve time and again turned out en masse to fill stadiums to see them perform in concert, to the haters and internet trolls who canโt handle how utterly positive Coldplayโs message of peace, love and unity has become, Martin is used to feeling stuck in the middle of being both beloved and maligned.
โAs you become the biggest band in the world, you also become the least popular band in the world,โ Martin told Rolling Stone in an interview published Thursday. โYou can never escape. You can never win, if youโre looking for just winning. The stronger the light, the darker the shadow.โ
But after decades in the game, Martin also understands why there is, at times, so much polarization when it comes to how his bandโs music is received.
โWeโre a very, very easy, safe target. Weโre not going to bite back,โ he said.
But for Martin, what outside critics are saying doesnโt weigh on him as much as his inner monologue does.
โWhen Iโm saying these things about world peace, Iโm also talking about my own inside,โ Martin said. โItโs a daily thing not to hate yourself. Forget about outside critics โ itโs the inside ones, too.โ
Itโs what he said he works hard to neutralize, which is why Coldplayโs own โkumbayaโ-type messaging resonates the most with Martin himself.
Coldplay is currently on their Music of the Spheres world tour, which is set to run through 2025. It has become the highest-grossing tour for a rock band in history, selling over 10 million tickets and earning over $1 billion in ticket sales.
With such a massive platform, Coldplayโs mission now is about making a conscious effort to โfly the flag for love being an approach to all thingsโ because, Martin said, โthere arenโt that many (groups) that get to champion that philosophy to that many people. So we do it.โ
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