Latest / Wicked Radio with Bill Adams / 10-15: Rockers Rebel: Politics Finally Out Of Entertainment?

Transcript

10-15: Rockers Rebel: Politics Finally Out Of Entertainment? · Wicked Radio with Bill Adams

0:04
Speaker 1: Something amazing has happened in the world of entertainment. I'm
0:08
Speaker 1: a little bit biased because it's mostly coming from the
0:11
Speaker 1: hard rock, heavy metal world. So that's where I saw
0:13
Speaker 1: it first. You know, you follow these kinds of things.
0:15
Speaker 1: All of a sudden it shows up in your algorithm.
0:17
Speaker 1: But something amazing is happening. And it's leading us to
0:20
Speaker 1: this question. Is the era of politics from the stage
0:26
Speaker 1: in entertainment finally over? I don't know completely. We'll get
0:30
Speaker 1: an answer to that question as we talk along here
0:32
Speaker 1: and I'll work it out in my head. But I
0:33
Speaker 1: will tell you this, this much we know for sure.
0:36
Speaker 1: This is the closest we've ever come to getting rid
0:38
Speaker 1: of it. Truly. And I really mean that. And you
0:42
Speaker 1: may be thinking, and I've said it, I'm sure you've
0:44
Speaker 1: said it too, you've heard various entertainers, you know, musicians,
0:49
Speaker 1: actors say it in interviews. They've hinted around at it saying,
0:52
Speaker 1: you know, it's not a smart idea to alienate half
0:54
Speaker 1: the audience. That's not smart. We really try not to
0:57
Speaker 1: preach from the stage or whatever. They've said it for
1:00
Speaker 1: the first time ever, and this is what's different. You've
1:03
Speaker 1: got entertainers, in this case hard rockers, at their shows,
1:06
Speaker 1: coming out, taking out some valuable concert time and telling
1:09
Speaker 1: you that they will never, ever try to influence how
1:13
Speaker 1: you vote, how you think, how you act, who you're with, whatever,
1:15
Speaker 1: from the stage. This is a big turning point, and
1:18
Speaker 1: I don't think we should discount it, and it's so good.
1:21
Speaker 1: We'll get to it here in a second. I don't
1:22
Speaker 1: know the answer to the question yet. Is that era over?
1:26
Speaker 1: I don't know, but It's a huge development in that direction.
1:29
Speaker 1: Thanks for finding me. I appreciate you. Welcome to Almost
1:33
Speaker 1: the Weekend. You can see it. It's right around the corner.
1:35
Speaker 1: We're almost there. Thanks for finding the live stream, Wicked
1:37
Speaker 1: Radio live stream, 8 a.m. Eastern time, 8 a.m.-ish, Monday
1:41
Speaker 1: through Friday on X, YouTube, and Facebook. The replay's always
1:44
Speaker 1: on there for you, too. And then the audio podcast,
1:46
Speaker 1: wherever you like to get your podcasts, whatever they'd like
1:48
Speaker 1: you to do, reviews and follows and shares and all
1:50
Speaker 1: that crap, which has been big the last two weeks.
1:52
Speaker 1: I appreciate it so much. So thank you so much. Well,
1:55
Speaker 1: let's get right to it. What leads us to this question?
1:58
Speaker 1: Very big question. Great question. Going back to the ways
2:02
Speaker 1: we used to be. Remember, you just used to, you
2:04
Speaker 1: didn't know. Yeah, you maybe had an idea, but you
2:08
Speaker 1: didn't completely know how your favorite comedian or author or
2:14
Speaker 1: rock star or actor voted or who they hung out with.
2:19
Speaker 1: You didn't really care. It's just like, entertain me. That's
2:22
Speaker 1: why I'm here. Remember those days? And I've always looked
2:25
Speaker 1: at it like this. I buy a concert ticket, a book,
2:29
Speaker 1: a streaming service. This is how I look at it.
2:32
Speaker 1: This is how I do it. This is what's worked
2:34
Speaker 1: for me. I'm paying you, actor, rocker, entertainer, singer, to
2:39
Speaker 1: entertain me for whatever period of time it is. And
2:41
Speaker 1: that's how I think we've got to look at this
2:42
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. As we all know, we've all talked
2:45
Speaker 1: about it. We've all made jokes about it. I've certainly
2:48
Speaker 1: dedicated certain episodes to it. Stop preaching from the stage.
2:53
Speaker 1: Get your politics out of entertainment, right? We've all talked
2:57
Speaker 1: about it. We've all realized, everybody, it's only common sense
3:00
Speaker 1: to say, if you're actually making some sort of a
3:03
Speaker 1: frickin' political statement, you know, on a stage during a concert,
3:07
Speaker 1: you're alienating exactly half the audience. We've all known this, right?
3:12
Speaker 1: But now here's what's different. Here's what's truly different. Like
3:15
Speaker 1: I said there just a couple of minutes ago. Now
3:17
Speaker 1: you've got entertainers, in this case rockers, taking valuable concert
3:21
Speaker 1: time to make sure they're going to tell you they
3:22
Speaker 1: will never, ever do that. Kind of like a promise
3:25
Speaker 1: to the audience. What really kicked this off? And I
3:28
Speaker 1: can't tell you how much I love this. Metallica is
3:32
Speaker 1: now doing a residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, which,
3:35
Speaker 1: by the way, side note, looks incredible. Boy, that may
3:40
Speaker 1: change the concert experience. Not just them, just how the
3:42
Speaker 1: Sphere does it with the audio-visual presentation they give you.
3:47
Speaker 1: I think that's the concert of the future. Anyway. They're
3:50
Speaker 1: in the middle of their residency, in the middle of
3:52
Speaker 1: a show, and James Hetfield, front man for Metallica, makes
3:56
Speaker 1: this statement. Again, I'm biased because I like and admire
4:00
Speaker 1: those guys, but tell me you can't admire this too.
4:03
Speaker 1: I love this so much. And here's why it matters.
4:07
Speaker 1: It's kicked off a trend and a good one.
4:09
Speaker 2: We're grateful for that, your travels, the money you spent,
4:13
Speaker 2: the time it took. Thanks for coming to celebrate with us.
4:17
Speaker 2: And I just got to say it. Metallica is not here.
4:21
Speaker 1: Like some other.
4:24
Speaker 2: Entertainers to influence you with their bullshit, okay?
4:31
Speaker 1: We are here for bullshit.
4:36
Speaker 2: We're here to forget about all the outside shit, okay?
4:43
Speaker 2: Metallica's agenda is love, energy, And heavy music, baby!
4:53
Speaker 1: In classic Metallica style. There's going to be a lot
4:55
Speaker 1: of profanities in these, too. They're concerts from hard rock
5:00
Speaker 1: and metal shows. What do you expect? So there you go.
5:04
Speaker 1: Taking some valuable time to come out and make a statement. Now,
5:07
Speaker 1: it's been said before. It's been hinted around at. You've
5:09
Speaker 1: seen interviews where they've kind of hinted around at it.
5:11
Speaker 1: They're like, coming out of the woke era. We never
5:13
Speaker 1: want to do that, and I think it's not a
5:15
Speaker 1: good idea. Now they're specifically telling you. that they are
5:18
Speaker 1: not going to preach from the stage. I've seen the
5:20
Speaker 1: critics already. This is already out there. But he's preaching
5:22
Speaker 1: from the stage right now, and oh, he must be MAGA,
5:25
Speaker 1: and he must be... No, he's literally telling you that
5:27
Speaker 1: that's it. You're not going to find that from them.
5:30
Speaker 1: And it started a trend. So, not to be outdone,
5:34
Speaker 1: following this trend, as they always kind of have, we
5:39
Speaker 1: have Motley Crue, who's also on tour right now, and
5:42
Speaker 1: Nikki Sixx made this statement, similarly, saying... We don't care.
5:47
Speaker 1: Our job is to entertain you. Now, is this a
5:49
Speaker 1: smart business move? Yes, it is. But I think they
5:52
Speaker 1: mean it, too. Sorry for the F-bombs. It does not
5:54
Speaker 1: matter to Motley Crue if you're a Republican. It does
5:57
Speaker 1: not matter to Motley Crue if you're a Democrat. It
6:00
Speaker 1: does not fucking matter if you're gay or if you're
6:02
Speaker 1: straight or if you're going right down the center of
6:04
Speaker 1: the fucking lane in life.
6:06
Speaker 2: Because we're all in this together. Can we agree? Yes.
6:14
Speaker 1: Yes, we can agree. Thank you, Nikki Sixx. Now, what
6:17
Speaker 1: are the chances you're going to see other, not just
6:19
Speaker 1: hard rockers, not just, you know, metal bands coming out
6:22
Speaker 1: and saying this kind of thing. What are the chances
6:24
Speaker 1: you're going to, I think pretty good, actually. Or at least,
6:26
Speaker 1: you know, they don't have to say it. Just don't
6:28
Speaker 1: do it. Just, you know, we don't need any more speeches.
6:30
Speaker 1: Just stop pushing any politics whatsoever. Now, who are they
6:35
Speaker 1: referring to? We could all point to recent developments. We
6:37
Speaker 1: could all, you know, maybe it's the Macklemore thing who
6:40
Speaker 1: absolutely submarined poor Ed Sheeran's tour. You know, don't cry
6:44
Speaker 1: any tears for him because he also didn't stand up
6:46
Speaker 1: for anything there. We've got that. We've got the traditional
6:49
Speaker 1: people who have always inserted politics into their music. You know, Springsteen, obviously.
6:54
Speaker 1: We did that to the classics era. Barbra Streisand. They've
6:57
Speaker 1: always done that, and they've taken that opportunity to preach
7:00
Speaker 1: to you and tell you who to vote for and
7:01
Speaker 1: all this other stuff. So they could be talking about
7:04
Speaker 1: any of them, right? Any of these. It doesn't matter who.
7:08
Speaker 1: Anybody that's actually doing that. And they're finally coming out
7:11
Speaker 1: and saying that they're not going to. to do that,
7:14
Speaker 1: which is great. The reason why, this is why I said,
7:19
Speaker 1: this is what's gotten me through this, because there was
7:21
Speaker 1: a time there during the woke era where you would
7:25
Speaker 1: lose your mind. You couldn't watch a movie. You couldn't
7:28
Speaker 1: read a book. You couldn't go to a show. If
7:31
Speaker 1: you were just so up against this stuff and say,
7:34
Speaker 1: I'm never going to listen to that person again. I'm
7:36
Speaker 1: never going to watch that again. You got to be
7:38
Speaker 1: able to separate that or you're going to go crazy.
7:40
Speaker 1: This is why I look at them like paid entertainers.
7:43
Speaker 1: Dance for me. Like, literally, I'll say that. I'll sit
7:46
Speaker 1: down in a streaming thing and it's some woke actor
7:48
Speaker 1: that I just, I can't really stand when they start
7:51
Speaker 1: making their political statements. But they happen to be a
7:54
Speaker 1: good actor. I'll literally start the streaming service and I'll
7:58
Speaker 1: either say out loud or in my head, entertain me.
8:01
Speaker 1: Entertain me, actor boy. That's how I look at it.
8:03
Speaker 1: That's how you should be a good consumer with this
8:05
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. That's what works for me. So if
8:07
Speaker 1: you want to get your head around this, maybe it is.
8:09
Speaker 1: But who are they talking about? The Springsteens of the world.
8:12
Speaker 1: The one that I still personally have a real problem
8:16
Speaker 1: with is Springsteen. And I've said this before. I think
8:18
Speaker 1: I've said this in a couple of complete individual podcasts.
8:21
Speaker 1: Springsteen drives me the most crazy because of the woke
8:24
Speaker 1: entertainers that have become so prominent these days. You know,
8:29
Speaker 1: U2 and Springsteen. And they're telling you that they know
8:33
Speaker 1: so much. These people don't know much is the problem
8:37
Speaker 1: with this. Now, I always use Springsteen as an example
8:39
Speaker 1: because he's the And you may still love Springsteen. God
8:42
Speaker 1: love you. I hope you do because it is. Great musician.
8:44
Speaker 1: Great musician there. I'm just telling you that this is
8:47
Speaker 1: a me problem. I have a problem listening to this
8:50
Speaker 1: thing because I think he's a fraud. I've said this before.
8:52
Speaker 1: Since he was 24 years old, he's been a multi-multi-millionaire.
8:56
Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with that. I'm a capitalist too. The problem
8:59
Speaker 1: is he's always portrayed himself as the voice of the
9:01
Speaker 1: working man. What do you know about the working man, honestly,
9:06
Speaker 1: to be completely honest with you? And here's the other problem.
9:09
Speaker 1: It's the ignorance of different things and not truly understanding
9:13
Speaker 1: what regular, hardworking, working-class Americans go through, which he pretends
9:18
Speaker 1: to represent. Here's why. As soon as you're in that class,
9:22
Speaker 1: and this happens to a lot of these entertainers, as
9:24
Speaker 1: soon as they become big, most of them at a
9:26
Speaker 1: very young age, and they've spent their whole time on
9:28
Speaker 1: the education of the stage, not actually getting any historical
9:32
Speaker 1: information or understanding exactly what's going on with a formal education.
9:38
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden they're in this bubble and
9:39
Speaker 1: their bubble gets smaller and smaller and smaller as they
9:42
Speaker 1: get more and more successful. Like Springsteen, surrounded by only
9:46
Speaker 1: those people that are influencing him with those particular thoughts
9:49
Speaker 1: from the entertainment world, which, as we know, is mostly
9:52
Speaker 1: not only not only liberal. That's fine. We all have
9:55
Speaker 1: liberals in our lives. We know them. We love them.
9:57
Speaker 1: I'm talking off-the-shelf, off-the-cliff far-left influence. It doesn't matter if
10:03
Speaker 1: you're left or right. If that's all you heard in
10:05
Speaker 1: your head and that's all you're surrounded by so you
10:07
Speaker 1: can get into the cool cocktail parties in Hollywood, since
10:10
Speaker 1: you're 24 or 22, that's how you're going to be
10:14
Speaker 1: influenced because that's all you know in your little bubble, right?
10:18
Speaker 1: So that's why. I resent so much somebody like that
10:20
Speaker 1: preaching so much. I really do. And I will tell
10:23
Speaker 1: you this exact same thing. It's not just them. It's
10:28
Speaker 1: predominantly the left preaching from the stage or has been
10:30
Speaker 1: and maybe until now. From the right too, I wouldn't
10:33
Speaker 1: want that either. Even people I would happen to agree
10:35
Speaker 1: with or people middle of the road. We're talking about
10:39
Speaker 1: any preaching from anybody. I would resent just as much
10:43
Speaker 1: somebody pushing a political agenda from the other side of
10:46
Speaker 1: the political spectrum. We're all sick of it, which is
10:49
Speaker 1: why this is such a great development. So the question
10:52
Speaker 1: to ponder today, as I wrote there in the title
10:55
Speaker 1: and started this whole thing off with this morning is,
10:58
Speaker 1: is this era of politics from the stage finally over?
11:04
Speaker 1: I'm weighing no because it's too valuable. There's too much.
11:10
Speaker 1: The consumers won't put up with it, but they'll always
11:12
Speaker 1: still try. You know what I'm saying? Perfect example. And
11:15
Speaker 1: one that happened this week. Now here's, Maybe Metallica, maybe
11:19
Speaker 1: Motley Crue, maybe they were talking about this entertainer. It
11:23
Speaker 1: just happened this week, which is why I grabbed this.
11:24
Speaker 1: Kacey Musgraves was in, I'm pretty sure this was a
11:27
Speaker 1: show in Austin. She's a big country pop singer. Monday,
11:31
Speaker 1: which was Columbus Day, as we know, we talked about it.
11:34
Speaker 1: She made this statement from the stage. This was just Monday.
11:36
Speaker 1: This was four, three and a half days ago, okay?
11:40
Speaker 1: You listen to this and you think, is this era
11:42
Speaker 1: over forever? Forever. Probably not, but maybe it's just less influential. Now,
11:47
Speaker 1: here's her talking about Columbus Day and Columbus herself. Yeah,
11:51
Speaker 1: I'm sure she's a real historian with all the facts
11:53
Speaker 1: at her hand. That's right. Wait, is Columbus Day? Is
12:02
Speaker 1: what now? Yeah, no, no, yeah, actually, obviously, fuck Columbus.
12:09
Speaker 1: Really tell us about it. She's talking about Christopher Columbus
12:18
Speaker 1: and she wraps it up with, what a loser! So
12:22
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff is not going to happen. But
12:24
Speaker 1: I will tell you what, it's going to be less
12:26
Speaker 1: influential if we all just demand a better consumer experience,
12:29
Speaker 1: which is what this entire thing is about, right? That's
12:32
Speaker 1: what this really is. First part and the first takeaway is,
12:36
Speaker 1: if you look at entertainers of any sort, you're hiring
12:39
Speaker 1: them for a certain period of time to entertain you.
12:41
Speaker 1: You're going to a concert, it's like, Get on that
12:44
Speaker 1: stage and entertain me. I paid my $ 100. I'm here.
12:47
Speaker 1: A streaming service. I paid for this. Entertain me, actor
12:50
Speaker 1: boy or actor girl. Be a smart consumer that way.
12:53
Speaker 1: That's what's gotten me through this entire thing. That's what
12:55
Speaker 1: works there. But as far as it being, this is
12:58
Speaker 1: now a trend where they specifically finally have woken up.
13:02
Speaker 1: They've teased it for years now that entertainers of all
13:04
Speaker 1: sorts are not going to divide their audience anymore. They've
13:07
Speaker 1: teased it for years. They've finally gotten smart about this.
13:10
Speaker 1: Isn't it funny, though, that it took hard rock entertainment
13:12
Speaker 1: and heavy metal artists to actually finally get it and
13:14
Speaker 1: make a determined effort not to preach from the stage.
13:17
Speaker 1: It's funny. But is it over? I think they'll always
13:21
Speaker 1: keep trying because it's too valuable because you're on a stage.
13:24
Speaker 1: You have this bully pulpit to try to influence people.
13:27
Speaker 1: And those people, mostly you're trying to influence, very often,
13:29
Speaker 1: like the Casey Musgraves crowd you heard there, are young people,
13:33
Speaker 1: very influential. Excuse me, very influenced. So I'll wrap it
13:38
Speaker 1: up by saying this, and this is why I love
13:41
Speaker 1: this development so much that you've got people like James
13:44
Speaker 1: Hetfield saying, we will never do that to you, and
13:46
Speaker 1: why this is a growing trend and people are picking
13:48
Speaker 1: up on it. This is a quote, one of my
13:51
Speaker 1: favorites from, one of my favorites, Alice Cooper, who talked
13:55
Speaker 1: about this and why he doesn't, has never and will
13:58
Speaker 1: never preach from the stage. This is what he said,
14:00
Speaker 1: and I agree with this 100%. When musicians are telling
14:03
Speaker 1: people who to vote for, I think that's an abuse
14:05
Speaker 1: of power. You're telling people, your fans... uh, not to
14:11
Speaker 1: think for themselves. Just think like you rock and roll
14:14
Speaker 1: is about freedom and that's not freedom. That's why I
14:18
Speaker 1: love this so much. It's a great thing. It's a
14:20
Speaker 1: positive thing. You get people to think for themselves. Are
14:22
Speaker 1: they always going to try? Of course they are because
14:24
Speaker 1: it's too influential. It's media, it's live stage, it's streaming, it's,
14:27
Speaker 1: it's audio, it's everything, but that doesn't mean we have
14:30
Speaker 1: to put up with it. Good for the rockers. Absolutely
14:33
Speaker 1: love it. All right. And good for you. Thanks for
14:35
Speaker 1: being here. I appreciate you so much. Side note. Um,
14:38
Speaker 1: the audio podcast version of wicked radio, which I upload
14:42
Speaker 1: shortly after the live stream has just gone gangbusters over
14:44
Speaker 1: the past, like maybe like two, three weeks. So thank
14:46
Speaker 1: you so much for that. Wherever you'd like to get
14:48
Speaker 1: your podcast, whatever platform, thanks for being there. Following subscribing
14:51
Speaker 1: reviews are great. Thank you very much. Just like to
14:53
Speaker 1: ask questions to get us all to think about things.
14:55
Speaker 1: That's all. That's all not preaching, trying to get you
14:58
Speaker 1: to think. So thank you for that. And also a
15:00
Speaker 1: wicked radio live stream where I record this thing. Cause
15:03
Speaker 1: this is how I knock it out. Cause I have
15:04
Speaker 1: other stuff to do during the day. Um, Monday through Friday,
15:07
Speaker 1: 8 a.m.-ish, on X and YouTube and Facebook. The replay
15:10
Speaker 1: is always there, too. But I appreciate you. Almost to
15:12
Speaker 1: the weekend. We're getting closer. I can see it right
15:15
Speaker 1: over the edge. So make it a wicked awesome Thursday.
15:18
Speaker 1: I love this rock and roll development. I'll talk to
15:20
Speaker 1: you tomorrow.