Canadian-American songwriter Neil Young was removed from Spotify earlier this week after issuing the company an ultimatum, saying either he'd go or Spotify could remove The Joe Rogan Experience for "spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe this disinformation spread by them." Spotify paid Rogan somewhere in the realm of $100 million for the exclusive rights to the podcast in 2020, so this seemed like a losing fight right off the bat (and it was).
Then Disturbed vocalist David Draiman weighed in on the issue via Twitter, praising Spotify and saying that the right to free speech must be preserved. Draiman said "I applaud you and @Spotify for making the RIGHT call, preserving #FreeSpeech and not capitulating to the mob. I may not agree with everything @joerogan or his guests say, but they're entitled to have the forum to say it."
Draiman would later clarify his statement, adding "Let me be clear. I do not support ANY artist blackmailing any entity to follow an agenda THEY believe in, wether it's @Neilyoung one one side of the spectrum or @EricClapton on the other. Music shouldn't be used to sow division. It should be used to bring people together IMHO."
Now solo artist and ex-Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach has taken to Twitter to call Draiman out. Bach tagged Draiman, saying "Imagine calling yourself a rocker yet siding with some dude who has a podcast over @Neilyoung ? you can stick to listening to your podcast and I will stick to listening to Neil Young." Draiman responded diplomatically and that seemed to be that.
None of this is too surprising, given Bach previously got into it with Hatebreed vocalist Jamey Jasta over the same issue. I expect this whole "The Joe Rogan Experience v. Neil Young" conversation isn't going away anytime soon.
