Joe Exotic

'Tiger King' - Joe was lip-syncing (!), Cardi B, blink-182, Marilyn Manson & more

In case you haven’t seen the most popular show on television, Netflix’s Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, it’s a truly ridiculous, stranger-than-fiction story that’s worth the hype and should help you kill some of your quarantine-induced boredom. Personally, my biggest takeaway was that Joe Exotic‘s music was… actually kinda good? BUT, apparently he was lip-syncing to someone else’s songs!!!!!!! The music was actually by The Clinton Johnson Band, whose members recounted the strange story to Refinery29. Truly the post-truth era. Via Vanity Fair:

It was absolutely ridiculous,” producer Rick Kirkham told Vanity Fair of Joe’s music ruse. Kirkham spent years living on Joe’s now-shuttered zoo, filming footage for a prospective reality show. “One time,” he said, “Joe got a little bit drunk and high, and we actually coaxed him into singing part of one of the songs. He couldn’t even hold a tune. It was just so ludicrous. It was a big joke within the crew and staff that it wasn’t him [singing in the videos]—but he was damned insistent to anyone and everyone, including us and my studio crew, that that was him.”

Anyway, we weren’t the only ones stirred by Joe Exotic’s music (or not-Joe Exotic’s music). A Twitter search for “Joe Exotic” music shows all kinds of surprised reactions about it not sucking (which makes more sense when you realize it isn’t actually him), and “I Saw A Tiger” has even been covered by Matt Heafy, frontman of the very popular Orlando metal band Trivium. See:

Tiger King‘s connections to real people in the actual music industry don’t stop there. Cardi B is just one of many people who said Joe deserves to be let out of jail. “Bout to start a gofundme account for Joe. He shall be free,” she tweeted. That tweet prompted TMZ to report that raising money on GoFundMe to fund the defense of inmates convicted of violent crimes is actually a violation of GoFundMe’s policies, to which Cardi responded, “Omg I was just playing, I do love him tho and he deff needed better representation. oooooooooooooooooo here Kitty Kitty.”

Meanwhile, Marilyn Manson Instagrammed a screenshot yesterday of Joe Exotic thanking him for following him on social media and asking him to endorse Joe’s campaign for Governor of Okalahoma. “Nope. Don’t Fuck With Cats,” Marilyn captioned the post.

Tiger King even brought estranged blink-182 members Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus together!

blink-182 tiger king

Moving over into the film world, Jared Leto‘s pictures of himself dressed as Joe Exotic have gone viral. But if any actor is gonna play Joe Exotic, Tiger King filmmaker Rebecca Chaiklin told Hollywood Reporter that Joe is hoping it’s either David Spade or Brad Pitt. Naturally.

Meanwhile, Joe’s husband Dillon Passage tells Vulture that Joe is currently in coronavirus isolation because inmates at his previous jail tested positive for the disease.

Update: Prosthetic Records-signed band Without Waves were interviewed by The Hard Noise about visiting Joe Exotic’s zoo.

Update: metalcore band Everyone Dies In Utah did a cover too: