American musician Moby is returning on stage for the 25th anniversary of his cult album "Play"

Moby, who is now an animal rights activist and achieved success in the late 1990s and early 2000s, will be performing live for the first time in over ten years and will donate the proceeds from his concerts to organizations supporting his causes.

"Defending animals is my job now," explains Moby. However, this won't stop him from also releasing a new album, "Always Centered At Night," named after his label created in June 2022, which features collaborations with many artists.

The artist clarifies that 99% of the show on his upcoming European tour in September will be based on the albums "Play" (1999), "18" (2002), or "Hotel" (2005), because he wants to give people what they want to hear, otherwise, he says, "it would be selfish."

Hits from the album "Play," which sold over 12 million copies worldwide, such as "Porcelain," "Natural Blues," and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" will resonate at the Zénith de Paris on September 24.

Moby's tour will also stop in Manchester, London, Antwerp, Berlin, Düsseldorf, and Lausanne in September. "Bands like Radiohead, who no longer play 'Creep' (one of their hits), I don't understand," continues the artist.

Moby sports a huge "Animal" tattoo on one arm and "Rights" on the other, which means "Animal Rights." He also has "Vegan for life" on his neck, noting that he has been vegan for 37 years. While he loves making music, he no longer sees it as a job but rather as a peaceful and joyful refuge for himself, adding that defending animals is now his job.

To support his cause, Moby acts "strategically," seeking to "identify" where he can help the most among the "political, philanthropic, media, etc." spheres.

He adds, "I don't like going to Washington, but I go there a few times to lobby the American administration," and admits that "the presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump complicates things."

In the Biden camp, "there are well-intentioned people, but they are afraid to do anything that might help Trump: if they openly support veganism, they could lose voters."

As for Trump, Moby doesn't think "he's interested in anything besides himself, he's a sociopath, a narcissist, and he hates animals because they can't do anything for him."

It's worth noting that in 1996, Moby released an album also titled "Animal Rights." And in 2023, he made "Punk Rock Vegan Movie," a documentary showing the links between the punk scene —from which he comes — and animal rights.

One of his new tracks, "Where is your pride?," features Benjamin Zephaniah, the British actor-singer-poet seen in the series "Peaky Blinders," who passed away in late 2023 from a brain tumor.

"It's funny, I didn't connect with him because he was an artist, but first because he was a vegan activist. Then we became friends, and afterward, I thought, 'hey, we could collaborate,'" says Moby, who mourns the premature loss of his friend.