DISTURBED frontman David Draiman responded to Sebastian Bach claims that he is “siding” with Joe Rogan after Draman praised Spotify‘s announcement that it would remove Neil Young‘s music two days after Young demanded that his catalog be taken off in response to “fake information about vaccines” being “spread” on the platform via Joe Rogan‘s podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
Young said the music and podcast platform is “spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe this disinformation spread by them.” “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he wrote in a now-deleted post on his web site. “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
“With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE [‘The Joe Rogan Experience’] which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence,” Young continued.
“Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.”
On January 26, a Spotify spokesperson issued a statement saying: “We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil‘s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.”
A short time later, Draiman shared his thoughts on Spotify’s decision, tagging the company’s chief executive Daniel Ek on Twitter and writing: “@eldsjal 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.”
Yesterday (January 27), Bach took to his Twitter to write: “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.”
He also previously wrote: “Misinformation about the vaccines is everybody’s problem. Neil Young is doing this because he wants rock and roll to exist and his fans to live. This other guy is a complete jacka—s who doesn’t give a sh*t about anybody or anything except himself.”
Draiman now responded to Bach, writing: “I still love and will listen to Neil Young too brother, the same way I still love and will listen to you. Always continue to respect and admire the both of you brother. The only “side” I’m on is the side of freedom, and you’re free to have your opinion, of course.”