Jack Antonoff Wore a Bobby Kennedy Campaign Pin at the 2023 Grammys

Jack Antonoff showed up at the 2023 Grammys with an interesting accessory: a Robert F. Kennedy campaign pin.

"I just like it," he said after winning Producer of the Year. "I think he's an interesting figure. It's not a big statement. I collect a lot of JFK and RFK stuff, I think they're both incredibly interesting figures for good, and bad, reasons. It's more like— I'm wearing a piece of my home."

Here's a close-up of the pin:

RFK successfully campaigned for Senate in 1964. "I'd like to just be a good United States Senator. I'd like to serve," Kennedy said at the time. He served as a Senator from New York, and then announced his run for the presidency in March 1968, but was assassinated just four months later in Los Angeles.

In a weird connection, one of Antonoff's most prominent collaborators, Taylor Swift, once dated Kennedy's grandson, Conor Kennedy.

This is not the first time Antonoff has shared about his obsession with Kennedy memorabilia—in fact, it's been a pretty consistent staple of his public persona for years now.

"I have a lot of it around my house," he told the New York Times in July 2021 about his Kennedy memorabilia. "Growing up, we had this JFK bust; I don’t know where my dad got it. Then I started collecting JFK busts, and all these great JFK speech compilation LPs. There’s just such a heavy cultural context that comes along with it that makes you think of so many hopeful, tragic, bizarre elements of what it is to be an American. He’s become a really interesting symbol to me, in his complication."

In a Pitchfork profile from 2017, writer Matthew Schnipper observed Antonoff's home recording studio: "The studio is lined with animal print wallpaper that he had recreated to match his childhood bedroom in New Jersey, where he lived until he was 28. There’s JFK memorabilia, issues of old fanzines he’s contributed to, and a small collection of 1990s baseball cards strewn around."

In another interview, he talked about decorating he studio. "I just got obsessed with who I am and where I come from," he told NorthJersey.com around the release of Bleachers's album Gone Now. "I brought my posters, my collection of JFK busts. I built a studio in my apartment modeled after my bedroom in New Jersey. That didn't let me escape who I am and I think the album sounds like the space looks."

He's had numerous collections over the years, including of baseball cards and Star Wars toys, but the Kennedy collection seems to have lasted the longest. Jack Antonoff: Grammy winner and longtime JFK memorabilia collector.

You Might Also Like

• Oprah’s Favorite Things of 2022 Is Here—Gift These 20 Amazing Finds This Year

• 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion

• 13 Beauty Tools to Up Your At-Home Facial Game