October 31, 2007
Big & Rich & Homophobic
If the country-western duo Big & Rich needed publicity (and, considering how low they’ve been flying under our radar until today, they did), they’ve got it now:
In a 10/25 throwaway piece in the Tennessean, “John Rich is a Fred-like conservative,” Rich tells how he’s endorsing Fred Thompson, because he doesn’t want to see “Hillary Clinton go trotting into the White House”:
The preacher’s son says many are surprised to learn that he’s conservative.
“Big & Rich music is so out of the box and so wild and unrestrained,” John tells me. “They probably just make assumptions that you’re that way with everything. One reason why we are able to be so untethered in country music is because we have a really strong base and strong beliefs and core values.”
Then comes the money quote:
The pro-lifer is against gay marriage.
“I think if you legalize that, you’ve got to legalize some other things that are pretty unsavory,” he says. “You can call me a radical, but how can you tell an aunt that she can’t marry her nephew if they are really in love and sharing the bills? How can you tell them they can’t get married, but something else that’s unnatural can happen?”
Ah, the ol’ slippery slope.
A few blogs covered Rich’s “radical” remarks, but Howie Klein seems to have the inside scoop (and it’s a good read in full, so click the link):
I had already left Warner Bros by the time our Nashville division had released its first album with Big Kenny (Alphin) and John Rich (pka, Big & Rich). When I first heard Warners had a hit artist called Big & Rich I thought they had finally broken into the rap business. They hadn’t.
I was vaguely aware they had a big, albeit humdrum, wedding song last year called “Lost in This Moment,” and that the first album, Horse of a Different Color went platinum a couple times. Other than that, I wasn’t hearing much about them… until Thursday. Thursday I started getting barraged with e-mails from distraught former employees of mine all complaining about Big & Rich being homophobic.
It stems from half the duo, John Rich, going on a gay-bashing, Santorum-like jag for his political hero, Frederick of Hollywood. Rich is a regular commentator on Steve Gill’s radio show in Nashville, where he spouts his Limbaughesque nonsense to an audience where marrying one’s cousins and aunts is a lot more common than gay marriage. After a thorough tequila-fueled search for the most backward of the pathetic pygmies™ vying to personify a third George W Bush term, Rich has endorsed Thompson. And in a slap at the cousin-marrying Rudy Giuliani and at gay-Americans, he spouted off about gay marriage on Wednesday…
. . .
I suppose far more “natural” would be Rich’s own lifestyle as an embarrassing and philandering slob. He may be hysterical and obsessive about his irrational zombie-like hatred for Hillary Clinton but reports from the road are that when he’s got enough substances in him there isn’t a woman breathing he doesn’t try to jump on.
Gay employees and straight non-bigots at Warner Bros, and that pretty much accounts for almost everyone who works there, are pretty disappointed, to put it mildly… and I’m not the only one getting complaints. …
. . .
I spoke with one of Tennessee’s most influential and respected radio programmers. He was still dismayed today and he said most everyone he knows in the music business is as well. This is what he told me:
“Much of the Nashville music scene is ashamed of John. We have felt betrayed because many of us had embraced him and his mantra of love everybody. John has made a career on the backs of many people, and a lot of them are gay. …”
That sounds like a very sensible suggestion.
The reason this came to our attention today is that Rich issued a backhanded non-apology:
Big & Rich Star Retracts Offensive Gay Marriage Comments
“My earlier comments on same-sex marriage don’t reflect my full views on the broader issues regarding tolerance and the treatment of gays and lesbians in our society. I apologize for that and wish to state clearly my views. I oppose same-sex marriage because my father and minister brought me up to believe that marriage is an institution for the union of a man and a woman.”
“However, I also believe that intolerance, bigotry and hatred are wrong. People should be judged based on their merits, not on their sexual orientation. We are all children of God and should be valued and respected.”
Rich also says “his views were not properly clarified.”
Oh, they seem pretty “clarified to us,” John-Boy: You’re hiding behind your Daddy and your Bible to justify your homophobia.
And if you don’t believe intolerance is wrong, then you’re saying you’re wrong. Which you are. Is that “clarified” enough?
Permalink | Trackback | Category: Celebrities, Christianity, Fred Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Homophobia, Marriage Equality, Music, Rick Santorum
