An Endorsement Out of Nashville: Fred Thompson is Homophobic Enough for Big & Rich

I used to work at Warner Bros Records but I had already left 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.

A kind of a good-time schlocky, commercial-country outfit they've been raking in enough dough with multi-platinum records that please people who love the glitz that they drive around in Bentleys and live a fast, somewhat sordid celebrity lifestyle. But John Rich is also an outspoken conservative. He isn't the only one in Nashville who is, of course, and he has every right to speak his mind and endorse Frederick of Hollywood or whomever else he thinks will best personify a third term for George W. Bush among the bunch of pathetic pygmies™ running for the useless GOP presidential nomination.

Perhaps Big & Rich fans and Fred Thompson supporters care but non one else could. Thursday, however, I started getting barraged with e-mails from distraught employees of Warner Bros all complaining about Big & Rich being homophobic. It stems from half the duo, John Rich, going on a gay-bashing, Rick Santorum-like jag on Steve Gill's radio show in Nashville, where he's a regular commentator. After a thorough tequila-fueled search for the most backward of the candidates Rich found his man, and 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 think if you legalize that, you've got to legalize some other things that are pretty unsavory. 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?"

I suppose far more "natural" would be Rich's own lifestyle as an embarrassing philanderer. 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. One person who has worked on the Big & Rich projects wrote, "I tend to support all of our artists unconditionally even when some of their politics don't necessarily coincide with mine. I have been made aware of comments made by Big and Rich and I must say this is a real blatant slap in the face and it's somewhat scary to think that I'm helping to make artists' voices such as theirs heard out in the world. I feel deeply torn by comments that they've made recently and can't help but feel really uncomfortable having to see or hear them played in this amazingly diverse environment of Warner Brothers Records that to me has always spoken on behalf of the eccentric and artistic."

Another WB employee, an out front gay men, is torn between his disapproval of censorship and his disapproval of bigotry. He feels it's the company's duty-- their moral responsibility-- to take a public stand against this denigration of a class of people. "Rich's comments are not a political position, they are words of hatred that denounce an entire community and are taken as a personal attack on many of our families. CBS did not tolerate Imus's racist remarks against Blacks nor should we with Rich's remarks about gay families."

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. More than anything, his hateful comments have hurt them and they feel especially betrayed. John is entitled to his opinion. However, comparing gay marriage to incest was unforgivable. I have urged those who feel as I do to stop buying his records and songs that he writes."

That sounds like a very sensible suggestion. Nice artwork for this over at my own blog, DownWithTyranny.

UPDATE: WARNER BROS MAKES JOHN RICH SAY HE'S SORRY

Whatever the motivation, he apologized

Follow Howie Klein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/downwithtyranny

Comments

[expatstudent]

Gay marriage is not a lifestyle choice because being gay is not a lifestyle - it's an orientation. Gay rights are not important because people should be able to choose whatever lifestyle they want. They're important because people cannot choose whatever lifestyle they want. They're important because being gay is not a choice and to pretend it is and deny people the right to be the way they are born to be produces profound mental illness and depression (teen suicide rates, alcoholism in the lgbt community, crystal meth addiction).

This is complex of course as both sides are stuck in a paradigm of rights with this issue. But we must stop thinking in terms of rights and start thinking in terms of nature and biology and acknowledging truth and the need to alleviate suffering and bring justice.

As the Christian right would aruge, truth does indeed outweigh rights every time. They're just wrong in thinking homosexuality is unnatural (as Paul wrote in Romans 1), and therefore they have the wrong truth (on that issue).

[pompous]

I didn't know these guys. Once I saw them It was clear that country music has a low rent version of Steven Tyler (Aerosmith rules!). If Rich is scared of homosexuals I suggest he and Big reconsider their wardrobe choices. Check out the photo section of their website. Those are not the clothes of a straight man. The burgundy velvet shirt and denim and velvet pants well....enough said. Honestly what is wrong with these country bumkins.

[Stevelagain]

Howie,

Let me give you a clue. In your post you called numerous people who don't agree with you: "Pathetic, Pygmies, Useless, Irrational, Zombies, Haters, Backwards, Scary, Racist"... etc.

Such hate filled smearing does not lend itself to rational debate,changing minds & hearts, and goes way beyond the norms of politic and honest discussion or issues.

I suppose you attract a certain "crowd" with such speech but quite frankly, that crowd wallows in a gutter filled with hate.

[GuiltyUndertaker]

But he can back up everyone of those charges when they're leveled at the collection of bozos trying to be the next George W. Bu...ERRR, Ronald Reagan

[UncleDave]

I thought He went easy on em,myself. If it's accurate,it's not hate,it's truth. And referring to specific individuals is NOT anything like condemming a Lifesyle as 'wrong'.That's descrimination. Now,tell me-which qualifies as 'hate'?

[neoconjob]

apparently he attracted you to it. i guess your point is proved.

[LoriAnn]

Oh ..its so nice to know that the ignorance goes on no matter how enlightened the majority of this country gets....always going to be pockets of intolerance and idiocy among us. I dont buy the poor excuse for music these so called kinds of 'artists' throw on the market but they have the right to say what ever they want to sell a song. They 'know' the demographic that theyre focusing on..the ones with the squinty eyed, closed, little lives that serve only them and their inbred families...and its everyone elses fault that Ma went to jail...so sad but if thats all you want in life then there is a 'right wing conservative in your future' and on your cd player!!!!

[gino618]

So - because of his political and personal views, they'd prefer him not to work for this label? In essence, silencing him for his thoughts.

Aren't you the same crowd who decried the shamefulness of those who boycotted the Dixie Chicks?

Once again, the left shows that the first amendment only applies to those who agree with them.

Last I checked, believing that homosexuality is wrong is not illegal. It's a belief that for many people is rooted in religious principles.

But yet you want to throw this duo under the bus because they believe differently than you do?

True colors can't be hidden - and yours shine brightly enough for all to see.

[Susanholmes]

"Last I checked, believing that homosexuality is wrong is not illegal."

No, and neither is it illegal for us to choose not to support it's enemies. What exactly is your issue?

The first amendment only applies to government censorship. To imply otherwise is worse than disingenuous - it's a weakening of all our rights through misrepresentation.

The Dixie Chicks analogy is specious. They were silenced by industry for speaking out against the government. What were talking about here is a private boycott. That isn't even apples and oranges; it's more like apples and Barney the dinosaur.

[kurttrail]

So your like Bill O'Reilly calling for the boycott of French products?

[newworldman777]

I can only wonder how many of those country music stations -- most of whom are intensely conservative -- will refuse to play Big and Rich songs, much like many of them still refuse to play Dixie Chicks songs (for how many years now?).

Of course, Bush's administration has proven the Dixie Chicks wrong with their fallacious public criticism of him at their concert. Wait a minute...let's see...Bush lied to take us into a disastrous war -- a war which he is threatening to expand into Iran, his illegal immigration policy is a joke, he tramples upon the constitution, and his public approval rating hovers around a miserable 24%. Those Dixie Chicks should be ashamed for having the audacity to enlighten a brainwashed public about their mistake for electing such a man for our president.

[GuiltyUndertaker]

The Dixie Chicks lied, too. They said Bush was from Texas. He's a New England prep school boy.

I'm ashamed to say I live on the same planet as GWB.

[tombollocks]

No, because they embrace hate. A hate of 10% of the population. A hate that is unjustified, religious or not.

The Dixie Chicks detest this country's numbers 1 and 2 terrorists-Dick and Dumbass, you know, the ones that raped our Constitution.

There's a big difference between this trash and the Chicks.

[kurttrail]

He is free to speak, and take the consequences for his speech.

Ain't American Great?

[GuiltyUndertaker]

America's greatness has diminshed greatly under the reign of Bush and Cheney.

[unclesmedley]

"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."

Please.

I'm not supporting the man's opinions, but the use of apocryphal rumors to demonize a knucklehead is to engage in knuckleheaded behavior. Why not make fun of his clothes, or belittle his accent?

What you seem to be saying is that he's a musician who parties and chases women while he's on the road. By all means... stop the presses!

[GuiltyUndertaker]

But the others who do that aren't hypocrites.

[Bondaroid]

If you stop buying records because people are idiots the Dixie Chicks would have been put out of business. Gay marriage is a social issue and not a political one and it should be put to a vote of the American people. The same goes for polygamy, bestiality, inbred marriage, marriage to minor children, etc. Let the people vote on it. And if the majority of the people believe that gay's should have right to marry then they will get it. Because, after all, it is an additional right that is being asked for. Currently, the only right of marriage a person has is a man to a woman for biological reasons, to produce, raise and nurture children. Let the voters vote on the issue. As far as Big and Rich, Bill Maher, Rosie O'Donnell, Jessie Jackson, the anti-war groups or the KKK. You don't have to condone what they say but they have a right to free speech and if you think those rights should be limited who will decide? Who will decide that a book is banned or speech is suppressed and who is imprisoned for their political views? The government? The people? And let's face it the gay lifestyle is not going to be considered a normal relationship until you convince everyone that it is without forcibly shoving it down their throats. The gay activists have done more to harm their cause by these tactics then the religious communities opposition. Let's vote on it.

[wrabbitt]

they government don't want us to vote on anything heres some more things that should be up for the people to vote on congressional pay raises, congressional health care, lobbyists legality,c­ongression­al performance Vs; pay scale. let us vote on a proposition to impeach those who don't live up to their promises. vote on congressional pay scale same as average weekly pay and have them pay for their own health care as we do. and, let them retire on social security with medicare.

[WoodyCPM]

How about we vote on your marriage? How about we put your personal relationships up for a vote by the community? How about we vote on whether or not you're worthy to have your personal relationships respected? How about you stop shoving your heterosexist lifestyle down my throat? How about you take your sick, icky, nasty, stupid, dysfunctional lifestyle and get off the TV with it and out of the newspapers and out of the churches with it, and how about you shut up talking about it. How long have you been in the closet by the way? You're clueless.

[wrabbitt]

everyone is entitled to their own opinion and any minority has the right to complain but, the democracy thing is built on majority rule isn't it well my rights are being violated everytime i see a "gay" couple .

[Susanholmes]

Okay... where do I begin?

"If you stop buying records because people are idiots the Dixie Chicks would have been put out of business."

Specious. Boycotts work when there's enough momentum behind them.

"Gay marriage is a social issue and not a political one and it should be put to a vote of the American people."

If Gay Marriage is not political, why vote?

"Currently, the only right of marriage a person has is a man to a woman for biological reasons, to produce, raise and nurture children."

So, menopausal women can't get married? Impotent men can't get married? My own adoptive mother, who's own mother took the morning sickness pill that made all their daughters sterile, she can't get married?

I've got a real shocker for you - they CAN AND DO get married. It has Nothing to do with procreation.

"Let the voters vote on the issue."

While we're at it, let's go back in time and let the mississippi voters of nineteen fifty decide whether lynching is legal or not! Hello, tyranny of the majority anybody? This is why we have the House of Representatives AND the Senate. Study some civics. It'll do you good.

"...but they have a right to free speech and if you think those rights should be limited who will decide?"

"Free speech" does not extend to shouting Fire in a crowded theater, nor does it extend to saying "Hey Johnny, shoot the bastard and I'll give you ten grand." Also, a boycott by private citizens has nothing to do with censorship by the government and it's disingenuous to imply otherwise.

"The gay activists have done more to harm their cause by these tactics then the religious communities opposition.:

What tactics are these? Did the Black civil rights activists do "more harm to their cause" by marching?

[Akilah]

Amen

[SoulKeeper]

Susan, I think I love you!

John Rich is free to say whatever the hell he wants to. Just as I am free to disagree with him and to make sure that not a single penny of my hard-earned queer cash goes into his homophobic pocket.

I am so sick of hearing "if we allow gay people to marry we'll have to allow people to marry their pets or their siblings." It has never been a valid argument. We are not asking for any special rights, we are asking for EQUAL rights.

[serialcoma]

Voting on individual morality is wrong. Try making informed, ethical decisions that provide benefits for the "All men are created equal" that are citizens of this nation. Your morals are your business, my morals are not your business.

[Scribe57]

This is classic:

"Gay marriage is a social issue and not a political one and it should be put to a vote of the American people."

So, it's not political, but we should vote on it? Doesn't voting on something kinda make it political?

[newworldman777]

Negative attitudes regarding gays, such as those expressed by Big and Rich, represent the old America that is on the way out -- and good riddance. Those who agree with Rich would no doubt also support the "good old days," when Christian prayer was forced onto all of our students in our public schools, symbols of Christmas were blatantly placed on public squares, blacks and other minorities were relegated to inferior schools and other facilities separate from privileged whites, etc. etc.

We live in a new and evolving global community, and these neanderthals need to get with the times. If America continues down the road of sanctioning prejudicial and discriminatory treatment against those who deserve our protection and support, then we are doomed as a nation.

In a democracy, it is the responsibility of the majority to protect the rights of the minority.

[ARBOC2]

It is unquestionably the responsibility of the majority to protect the rights of the minority. In all seriousness what in the hell is the responsibility of the protected minority toward the majority? Is it only a one way street?

[newworldman777]

It is indeed a two-way street; we should all fight to protect each other's rights. Unfortunately, this particular "protected minority" -- gay people -- are not enjoying the same rights that heterosexuals take for granted; therefore, their rights -- or lack thereof -- are not exactly being "protected," now are they? If those rights were extended to gay people, then I ask you this: Just how would your rights not be protected? What rights of your would be violated? Would you go so far as to say that your rigts would be trampled upon if gay people had the same rights as heterosexuals? Hmmm...soundslike a bit of sexual orientation insecurity going on here...

BTW...I'm "straight." I just believe that gay people should have the same rights that I enjoy. Anything less than that diminishes any proclamations that "America is the greatest country on earth, with freedom and justice for all." Sounds good...but it just ain't true anymore.

[Camel54]

I think a much worse fate for Big and Rich, as opposed to boycotting them, which wouldn't do any good since I don't listen to country music anyway, would be for the gay community to make icons of them. Co-opt the Big and Rich brand until it is so interwoven with gay culture you can't think of one without thinking of the other. Sure, they'd still make money and be famous, but instead of creating more division and more hate, it would associate them with culture they abhor and cast questions upon their own sexuality so they can experience some of the hate and the bigotry they currently espouse.

[miltshook]

Hey Howie,

Frankly, I think you have to be pretty idiotic to support Fred Thompson in the first place.

You know, I have some advice for the WB employee torn between censorship and bigotry. Just because you support someone's right to be a bigot and say the stupidest crap ever, doesn't mean that you owe him a paycheck. if he's really that talented, then he'll be picked up by someone else. Say, does Murdoch own a record company yet? I say we encourage him to start one. he can sign this idiot and ted Nugent as his first stars.

See, I'm in favor of free speech, too. But when someone on MT blog gets personally abusive or bigoted, he gets booted. I'm not taking away his right to free speech; I'm just not enabling his bigotry and hatred.

Milt Shook
author of "Talent on Loan," the best damn political satire ever.
http://www.pleasecutthecrap.com

[tombollocks]

Free speech should never be confused with hate speech. One should be embraced, the other completely censored.

[BillLumbergh]

"Unnatural"?
No, unnatural is the fact that due to our somewhat developed society, even inbred morons can achieve fame and fortune instead of what Darwin's law would have for them.

[janmB]

IS it the blue collar NRA members or NASCAR dads the ones who get screwed at every turn on the track, who are the staunchest defenders of this feudal system ? Well--maybe not the ONLY ONES. In some parts of the country there's no telling what all this beer, guns and inbreeding might lead to when these people who are so obviously not cut from the same cloth as the clothes the Emporer is wearing are still so loyal to him. Look in the mirror...you're wearing jeans and flannel shirts from the Dollar General, not Cross and Winsor tuxedos. The only thing I can figure is they get behind the God, America and Guns Manifesto and are too fired up to think straight and think GWB is a WUNDRFULL PRESIDUNT.
Try not to be too impressed with the purty brown shirts when they hand them out. We need more than a glimpse at the price tag first.

[dyannne]

Not that I don't agree with everything you said, JammB, I'd like to plug a book right here in response to your post: "Deer Hunting with Jesus" by Joe Bageant. He explains how the people you refer to (blue collar NRA, NASCAR dads, etc.) got that way and stay that way. Joe doesn't exactly tell us how to change them, but it might be a good idea to read his book and think about what we can do, because surely calling them names and trying to humiliate them isn't working. It's gonna take a lot more than that. I sure would like a discussion on that one.

[luvevrbody]

Having lived in Nashville for a number of years, and having worked with/around these guys (I was there when "Muzik Mafia" was born), I can honestly say that John Rich is as big a phony as they come. It's a shame so much good fortune would come to someone so shallow.

BTW, Howie, I am a long-time fan of your postings on Crooks&Liars. Evidently, we seem have mutual friends.

Keep up the good words!

[fredajetta]

I'm somewhat familiar with the muzik mafia myself, and from what I know about Big Kenny, he must be DYING about Rich's remarks, don't you think? So not his style...

[T.Roll]

"I think if you legalize that, you've got to legalize some other things that are pretty unsavory. 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?"

On a homophobic scale of 1-10, where 1 is "Gay people are shallow" and 10 is "God hates fags", what number would the above statement be rated? Can you assign a number to your outrage? I'm just asking.

[Cha]

Big and Rich and Toby Kieth, all of them cut from the same homophobic, bigoted cloth. Taking a flying leap off a very high cliff would do wonders for their dispositions.