Joni Mitchell Joins Neil Young In Pulling Her Music Off Of Spotify Over “Irresponsible People Spreading Lies”
You know you really fucked up when you start pissing off the Canadians. Earlier this month a group of 270 doctors and scientists released an open letter to Spotify asking them to do something about “menace to public health” Joe Rogan because he keeps mouth-farting out all sorts of COVID-19-related misinformation to his millions of listeners. Then this week, Neil Young threw down an ultimatum to Spotify, telling them that either Joe Rogan goes, or he goes. Spotify sided with Joe Rogan and pulled most of Neil Young’s music, which was the opposite of $urprising since Spotify has a $100 million multi-year deal with Joe Rogan. And now the legendary Joni Mitchell, whose vast catalog is a treasure trove for ears, has announced that she’s looked at it from both sides now and she’s on Neil’s side.
In an open letter titled “I Stand With Neil Young” that was posted onto Joni Mitchell’s website last night, she said that she’s standing with Neil Young and the scientific and medical community and is pulling her music thanks to “people” (I love that she won’t even type Joe Rogan’s name) spreading medical information that’s about as medically accurate as a Goop article:
I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.
As for the “lies” that Joni is talking about. On an April 23, 2021 episode, Joe declared that healthy young people and children don’t need to get vaccinated (and he was quickly shit on by Dr. Fauci over that). And even though Joe himself has said that he’s “not a fucking doctor” and is a “fucking moron and cage-fighting commentator,” he continued to say shit like Alex Jones was right about “actual microchips being injected into your arm to see if you have COVID-19,” and that young people are at a higher risk of myocarditis if they get vaccinated than if they catch COVID.
Here’s Joe Rogan saying the risk of young people getting myocarditis from the vaccine is > than the risk of getting it from COVID itself. He’s fact-checked on air & proven wrong.
Doing your own research doesn’t work if you use untrustworthy sources.pic.twitter.com/m3kFE58Iq5
— Ed Greenberger (@EdGreenberger) January 28, 2022
And before Joni Mitchell dumped Spotify, there was also an unconfirmed rumor going around yesterday that Barry Manilow was going to make Spotify 1000% less glittery by pulling his music too. But Barry tweeted that rumor wasn’t true. Barry sold the rights to his catalog of songs in 2020 so he probably can’t pull his music off of Spotify if he wanted to. And while Barry didn’t say whether he’s on Team Neil Young or not, other musical artistes like Perry Farrell, Peter Frampton, and Sebastian Bach made it clear that they are:
Censorship?! This is about lives and deaths. I’ve watched friends and relatives get sick and die. (Bring back Mick or be still) I have kept my health; looked out for the well-being of others. Stop listening to crackpots. “God protect us from the flood of lies that inundates us”. https://t.co/q5HZaBh0vo
— Perry Farrell (@perryfarrell) January 29, 2022
Good for you Neil.
I’ve always been an Apple guy for streaming. No Joe Rogan for me thank you! @neilyoung @SpotifyUSA— Peter Frampton (@peterframpton) January 28, 2022
Misinformation about the vaccines is everybody's problem. Neil Young is doing this because he wants rock and roll to exist and his fans to live. This other guy is a complete jackass who doesn't give a shit about anybody or anything except himself https://t.co/SgzVBnIwqM
— Sebastian Bach (@sebastianbach) January 25, 2022
But Joe Rogan does have a defender in Howard Stern, who has dragged Joe Rogan’s COVID-19 fuckery before. Howard doesn’t think Spotify should shit-can Joe Rogan because he’s against “censorship,” but he does think Neil Young has a point in blacklisting an organization that is spreading “something lethal as ‘don’t take the vaccine.’”
Spotify’s stock has reportedly been falling hard over the past year, and it lost $4 billion in market value this week. And #CancelSpotify has been Trending on Twitter. I do see one little problem in people dumping Spotify left and right. How am I supposed to know which relatives and friends to not let pick the music at a party or in my car if they’re unable to share their shitty music tastes in that Spotify Wrapped shit that everyone spams us with at the end of the year?!!!?
Pic: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Getty