Culture & Society

Leftists celebrating Neil Young’s crusade to cancel Joe Rogan overlooked old hippy’s homophobic past

January 30, 2022 | | Print Article

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Leftists who rallied behind behind legendary rock and roller Neil Young after his ultimatum to Spotify to cancel Joe Rogan and his immensely popular podcast or he would pull his music from the streaming service may have been singing a different tune if they were aware of his past homophobia.

While the septuagenarian rocker who flipped sides from opposing “the man” during the turbulent 1960s to becoming a protector of an abusive government in his old age came up with the short end of the stick when Spotify sided with Rogan, the damage to his image with those who sided with him may have taken an even bigger hit after incendiary remarks from a 1985 interview were dug up and given new life on social media.

In the interview with Melody Maker magazine during the height of the AIDS crisis, Young spoke favorably of then-President Ronald Reagan and blamed homosexuals for the spread of the disease, invoking an anti-gay slur while remarking, “You go to a supermarket and you see a f*ggot behind the f**in’ cash register, you don’t want him to handle your potatoes.”

Young’s inflammatory statement was revisited in a 2013 Rolling Stone article about rockers who have “betrayed their fanbase” including Bob Dylan who the magazine accused of preaching “radical Christianity,” Willie Nelson who “supported 9/11 conspiracy theories” and the “King of Pop” Michael Jackson who denied “child molestation charges but admits to sleeping with young boys.”

According to Rolling Stone, “Needless to say, Young almost certainly regrets that horrific statement and quickly moved away from right-wing politics. He wrote the furious anti-George H.W. Bush screed “Rockin’ in the Free World” in 1989 and was one of George W. Bush’s most vocal critics in the 2000s.”

Twitter users reacted to Young’s past hostility toward gay people as well as the left’s raging hypocrisy.

Young was also torn to shreds by comic Jimmy Dore, one of the rare leftists who actually have principles and who ripped the aging musician as a “reactionary moron” on the latest edition of his YouTube show.

Dore, a self-described progressive whose work was previously featured on The Young Turks TYT Network before a nasty feud broke out with Cenk Uygur and foul-mouthed co-host Ana Kasparian dragged “godfather of grunge” down memory lane over his anti-gay remarks.

(Video: The Jimmy Dore Show – YouTube)

Young’s temper tantrum and threats came in the form of a letter to his management team and record label in which the hard core leftist demanded, “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he wrote, “They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both,” the letter read according to Rolling Stone.

The letter was mysteriously taken down with no explanation, leading some to suggest that it may have been because Young doesn’t even own the rights to much of his own music after selling 50 percent of his catalog to a UK-based investment fund last year.

Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter to post his theory on why Young yanked the letter, posting a picture of the artist in his father’s office back when Donald J. Trump was merely a hugely popular and successful billionaire businessman.

Young appeared to validate Don Jr. when he posted another statement confirming that he didn’t even own his music anymore and was in position to threaten Spotify, “Before I told my friends at Warner Bros about my desire to leave the SPOTIFY platform, I was reminded by my own legal forces that contractually I did not have control of my music to do that.”

He also sought to put a positive spin on being dumped, “I announced that I was leaving anyway, because I knew who I was. I was prepared to do all I could and more to make sure that happened” while acknowledging the financial hit that he took as a result of his temper tantrum, losing 60 percent of his streaming income.

(Screenshot: Neil Young Archives)

Young’s hypocrisy was also on display during the duration of the Trump administration when he repeatedly took shots at the sitting POTUS, including expressing his disapproval over the use of his iconic classic “Rockin’ in the Free World” during the 2020 Fourth Of July celebration at Mount Rushmore despite his warm past relationship with Trump.

As Neil himself once sang, “it’s better to burn out Than to fade away” and his epic self-immolation is the epitome of art becoming reality.

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Chris Donaldson
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