"You See A Faggot Behind The Fuckin' Cash Register...": Neil Young's 1985 Comments On Homosexuals And AIDS Resurface After Joe Rogan Ultimatum Controversy

[Ubiquitous]

Comments made by Neil Young on the subject of homosexuals and the AIDS
epidemic have resurfaced, following the musician's controversial spat with
Spotify and podcast host Joe Rogan.

"In an interview with Melody Maker in 1985, Neil Young backed Reagan's gun
control policies and said of AIDS, `You go to a supermarket and you see a
faggot behind the fuckin' cash register, you don't want him to handle your
potatoes," Young said, Rolling Stone reported in 2013.

"Needless to say, Young almost certainly regrets that horrific statement and
quickly moved away from right-wing politics," Rolling Stone added. "He wrote
the furious anti-George H.W. Bush screed `Rockin' in the Free World' in 1989
and was one of George W. Bush's most vocal critics in the 2000s."

Last week, in a now-deleted message to his management team and record label,
musician Neil Young issued an ultimatum, saying he would not allow Spotify
access to his music catalog unless they cut ties with podcast host, Joe
Rogan.

"Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time
schedule," Young shared in the letter, as reported by The Daily Wire.

"I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music
off their platform," he continued. "They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not
both."

"With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted
exclusively on Spotify, is the world's largest podcast and has tremendous
influence," the letter continued. "Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate
the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently
has no misinformation policy."

Rogan responded on Sunday to Young, after his music was pulled from Spotify,
saying that he is a huge fan.

"First of all, I'm not mad at Neil Young, I'm a huge Neil Young fan," Rogan
said. "I've always been a Neil Young fan. When I was 19, I was a security
guard at a place called Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts. It's an
outdoor concert amphitheater. And Neil Young was playing there. And that was
the last day I worked there, I quit during the Neil Young concert."

"So one day during a Neil Young concert, the amphitheater the way it's set up
is, there's a covered area outside that has seats, and then there's a lawn
area behind it. And the lawn area, during the Neil Young concert, they got a
little rowdy, it was cold out and they started bonfires. So they had these
raging fires on the lawn. And we were supposed to go and put these fires out
and stop them. So we tried for a little while. But then brawls started
breaking out and it started getting crazy. And I was like fuck this, so I put
my hoodie on, I zipped it up and I left and I drove home. And as I was
driving home, I was singing, `keep on rockin in a free world.'"

"That was my last day on the job," he said. "I don't even think I collected
my last check. So no hard feelings towards Neil Young. And definitely no hard
feelings towards Joni Mitchell. I love her too. I love her music, `Chuck E.'s
In Love' is a great song."

--
Let's go Brandon!