Joe Rogan loves Joni Mitchell, especially when she sounds like Rickie Lee Jones
Joe Rogan found himself correcting a little musical misinformation he spread accidentally when he praised Joni Mitchell on Sunday as the talent behind the 1979 tune “Chuck E.’s in Love.”
Which would have been lovely, except Rickie Lee Jones wrote and performed “Chuck E.’s in Love,” and Mitchell had nothing to do with it. The song was written about bandleader Chuck E. Weiss, whom Jones eulogized for The Times after he died in July.
“My thoughts on the latest controversy with @spotify,” the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcaster wrote initially in the Instagram caption on a video. He then pledged to do more research about his podcast topics — rather than fly by the seat of his pants — and do a better job of balancing different perspectives.
Rogan has been the center of a firestorm of controversy surrounding how Spotify manages misinformation about COVID-19 on its audio platform.
“Whenever I get something wrong, I try to correct it, because I’m interested in telling the truth,” Rogan said in the video, which addressed the recent Spotify-versus-Neil Young controversy surrounding his show. “I’m interested in finding out what the truth is.”
Young gave Spotify an ultimatum last week, saying he would pull his music from the streaming service if it continued to host Rogan, whom he accused of spreading “dangerous” misinformation. Mitchell and others joined Young’s cause. But Spotify chose the side of its $100-million man.
Rogan said Sunday that “many of the things that we thought of as misinformation just a short while ago [the efficacy of cloth masks, whether the vaccinated can transmit the virus] are now accepted as fact.” But he also agreed with Spotify’s plans to put a disclaimer at the beginning of certain podcast episodes that deal with COVID-19 discussions outside the mainstream consensus.
Neil Young fans are threatening to ‘uninstall Spotify’ after the streaming giant chose to stand by Joe Rogan, prompting Young to remove his music.
“I’m a Neil Young fan. I’ve always been a Neil Young fan,” the podcaster said Sunday. Later, he added, “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.”
Woops.
“Edit: I just realized ‘chuckie’s in love’ is Ricky Lee Jones not Joni Mitchell,” Rogan added to the caption a little later on, no doubt after a getting feedback from the “Big Yellow Taxi” singer-songwriter’s fans. “Doh!”
Ava DuVernay, Joni Mitchell and India Arie have abandoned Spotify in the wake of Neil Young’s protest against the streaming platform and podcast host Joe Rogan.
Of Chuck E., Jones wrote last summer, “He could not sing, he did not play an instrument. But he could make up a rhyme along the lines of [sidekick Tom] Waits, and eventually so many musicians in town wanted to play with him because if Waits liked him, he must be good, and because, well, he was Chuck E.”
Now if only Rogan could spell Rickie’s name correctly, as well as Chuck’s. But that, friends, is a topic for another episode.
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