Joy Behar Begs More Musicians to Protest Spotify

BUCK: Joy Behar is saying that she is dis… Okay. So what’s the big controversy right now? And this is important. ‘Cause, you know, Clay was laying out yesterday that Rogan, that there could be a big win here for Rogan if they did cancel him because he’s so influential. All that’s true. The left, however, is seeing this as —

CLAY: They want a scalp.

BUCK: They want a scalp, and this is a very big name/very big person to go after because he has cross-party appeal, and that’s what… You know, Clay and I sit here and we’re just like, “Bring it on.” We’re the guys that are walking… We’re the conservatives walking into the bar full of commies, saying, “Who wants to fight?” Rogan walks in and says, “Hey, everybody. Sit down,” and the commies will listen to him a little bit. So that makes them more upset.

And we got Joy Behar — although, like we said, Democrats everywhere welcome… I’m just saying in terms of the way they view us. They’re not… Democrats are not coming on this show. Rogan has this ability to, as a Bernie bro — he’s a Bernie bro — go back and forth a little bit between left and right. Joy Behar is disappointed, though, that more musicians… We’ve had, what, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, someone else, too, right? Joni Mitchell —

CLAY: An E Street Band member, I think. Neil Lofgren? Nils Lofgren? I… You and I are not musical experts; so, like, in general we’re not gonna be the experts. These are relatively, what, D- or F-list celebrity musicians in terms of their impact. Nobody out there… Spotify is not doing a lot of business on either of these people or any of these people.

BUCK: But Behar is disappointed that more musicians aren’t pulling out. Here she is. Play clip 1.

BEHAR: Let’s see if they put their money where their mouth is, and a lot of people… I was disappointed. Contrary to you, I was disappointed that more, uh, musicians and singers, et cetera, did not pull out. They’re on Twitter all the time trashing, uh, people who don’t get vaccinated, and then they keep their music there. This would have been a good opportunity to show what you believe in, and I didn’t see it. But I only saw two people from the sixties and seventies. Let’s see some young people!

BUCK: (impression) “Let’s see some young, ignorant people who know nothing take a big political stand here.” And, Clay, I just would say about this whole if there is a big-name artist, I mean, if there’s someone, you know, who you and I do know of from the contemporary music world who comes out against Rogan, I think they’re gonna have something of a showdown here. not because it’s about dollars and cents but because the employees of Spotify will absolutely terrify the executive suite of Spotify and they’ll cave. That’s the possibility.

CLAY: It is interesting how big the musician would have to be. I was thinking about this a little bit yesterday as this story continued to play out. Because this is probably the best advertisement Neil Young has ever gotten for his music in the last, what, 30 years, I would bet in general. Nobody really knows who Neil Young is. Again, when we first started talking about Neil Young on this show, Buck, I said the only time I’ve even heard Neil Young’s name was in Sweet Home Alabama.

They were making fun of Neil Young who had written anti-southern — according to the guys behind Sweet Home Alabama, had written anti-southern — lyrics and had attacked the people of the South. That’s why they said, “I hope Neil Young will remember” for those of you out there. Do we have the rights to Sweet Home Alabama, by the way? Can we play that when we come back in our next segment? I’m not sure exactly how the musical rights here work. But I will say that if, like, think about who the people are that could come out. Who were the five or 10 biggest musicians.

BUCK: If Beyonce came out —

CLAY: Beyonce.

BUCK: — that would be bi. You know, if Jay-Z —

CLAY: Jay-Z, Beyonce and Jay-Z came together.

BUCK: Who’s really cool these days? I don’t even really know who’s really cool these days. I would say U2, and everyone would you think I’m stuck in 1987.

CLAY: Dave Grohl, obviously, with Foo Fighters, if he came out. If you want to think about different genres of artists who are just massive, those are the kind of people where I think Spotify would have to consider.

BUCK: Taylor Swift?

CLAY: I’m a Taylor Swift fan. I love her music, not of her politics but I will say I think some of these artists are not even on Spotify. Didn’t Jay-Z have his own — Jay-Z and Beyonce have their own — streaming service? Unless Spotify bought it. So part of this thing is, I believe some artists are not on Spotify in the first place because of the way that streaming rights work. My wife would know the answer to this ’cause I have to pay… How many streaming services are you signed up for right now, Buck?

BUCK: I mean, a few. First off, of course I love — my first love is — the iHeart app, which is where I stream all of my music as well as my podcasts. But there are some other streams that I’ve heard of out there. And, Clay, I think what we’re seeing right here is a fascinating moment in time where they can’t even allow someone — with Rogan, they do not allow the guy… By the way, I hate that we’re doing all this, like, free advertisement for Rogan and the show.

But he is really at the center of this cancel culture issue, and I want… We stand with free speech. The same way that we’re, you know, the unsinkable aircraft carrier of free speech for conservatives, I think that we extend that to anyone. Glenn Greenwald is welcome on the show all the time. He’s a man of principle. Ppeople on the left. Tulsi Gabbard, we’d love to have had her on the show, people on the left who have principles —

CLAY: Fauci. Even people with disagree with we’re not running and hiding from them.

BUCK: He won’t come on ’cause Clay is unvaccinated, and the droplets may come through the microphone, travel a long distance. Anyway, yes, we would have Fauci on and I promise I wouldn’t make fun of him to his face. But he does know that I make fun of him, from what I understand.