Next to retweeting a hashtag, making a “call to action” video is the least amount of effort a celebrity can put into a bullshit cause. Musician Peter Gabriel heads up a D-list celebrity anti-gun video in which he proclaims that he is appalled that Americans have a 2nd Amendment right to gun ownership. He should be more repulsed by the shit music he’s made since the 1980s, but this is more about elitism than self-reflection.
Mark Barden, who is allegedly a musician and who lost a child in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, has started a group called “Artists for Action.” This is supposed to be a non-political group that encourages people to vote for democrats who will pass unconstitutional gun control laws, which is anything but non-political.
“Our mission at Artists For Action is to build a coalition of musicians, artists, athletes, influencers of all kinds, to come together for the common cause of preventing gun violence,” says Barden in the video.
But instead of a coalition of big-time clebes, he found some of the biggest has-beens and nobodies the world has ever seen, starting with Peter Gabriel:
“As much as I love the United States, I am always appalled at the ease with which anyone can get a weapon,” says Gabriel.
Then f*cking leave. Nobody gives a shit what Peter Gabriel thinks about our Constitutional rights, other than him finding them appalling.
From there, the star power drops from low to non-existent. I actually looked up the rest of the people in the video, so you don’t have to:
Karen Fairchild – She is from some country band called Little Big Town that I guess has been mildly successful, but I hate modern Country and never heard of them.
Billie Eilsih – I know her, not from her music, but rather because she makes the news a lot whining and complaining about stupid shit.
Bootsy Collins – I also know him as the bass player from Funkadelic, but I don’t think he’s done anything in the past 40 years.
Ketch Secor – This dude plays the banjo in some band called Old Crow Medicine Show.
LP – This is a “gender neutral” person who apparently sings.
Rozzi – This is a non-gender neutral person who apparently sings
Rufus Wainwright – Wikimedia says he’s a musician.
Nile Rogers – He is the co-founder of the disco band Chic, famous for their hit “Le Freak” in 1978.
Sofi Tukker – This is a musical duo who had a song in an iPhone commercial.
Joey Santiago – He’s the guitarist for the alt-rock band The Pixies.
Sheryl Crow – I heard of her, but not since 1994.
I would say that this is an underwhelming collection of musicians, but that cheapens the words underwhelming and musicians. If you threw a festival featuring all of the “artists” you couldn’t give the tickets away.
Somehow the Sandy Hook guy thinks that a bunch marginal celebrities are going to make people vote against their Constitutional rights, when people don’t even care when famous people they have heard of tell them how to think and behave.
