Entertainment and politics

Was listening to a talk show yesterday and someone emailed in and said they were put off when they paid $200 for tickets to a Roger Waters concert and were greeted with what they felt was a 2 hour anti-Trump rally. I couldn’t help but nod my head in agreement. As much as I loathe Trump, I would feel the same way.

How do you feel about stuff like this?

Personally, I hate it. For the most part, I don’t listen to music for politics. I like many musicians with whom I disagree completely politically. As long as they get my groove right, so to speak, we’re all good. And I sure as hell won’t appreciate spending my hard-earned money to go and be politically indoctrinated.

That being said, I can make two exceptions, cases where I will accept and approve of political slants…

1) They are a politically-themed act to begin with. Fair enough, that’s who they are.
2) They are performing at an openly-advertised political event. Again, fair enough.

Other than that, no, STFU and play/sing your damn songs.

/rant off, but… here’s an exception to my rule…

In 2000 I saw Ted Nugent open for KISS. This was in California, and in the middle of his set he went on a 5 minute rant about the “pieces of shit” in California politics, and he named all the liberals by name, i.e. Barbara Boxer, and so on. Boxer was his ‘favorite’, apparently.

Now, I will admit, as a contradiction somewhat, that I was mildly amused. In a train-wreck this-guy-is-beyond-belief kind of way I find Nugent fascinating… from a distance (I think he’d be a total asshole in person). He’s way too extreme for me politically, but I didn’t necessarily disagree with some of his thoughts. I seriously have never liked Boxer, for example. However, I would have preferred he did another song instead.

To every rule there are exceptions.

And yeah, I know the (alleged) Frank Zappa quote doesn’t really fit, but it amused me, so there ya go.