So Dave Mustaine of Megadeth has gone off the deep end yet again, and claims the terrible recent massacres in Aurora and Milwakee weren’t the work of deranged nutters or domestic terrorists, but false-flag operations by the Obama adminstration to justify taking away everybody’s guns. And he’s already on record as being a “Birther”, spouting the brain-dead racist conspiracy theory that Barack Obama is not a natural-born American and his presidency is therefore not legitimate.
Which doesn’t leave me feeling like listening to any Megadeth records any time soon.
Which in turn begs the question: How unsavoury does someone’s political views or personal behaviour have to be before their music becomes unplayable? Ted Nugent is an obvious example; I’ve never been a particular fan of his music anyway, but the fact that he’s a nastily racist, homophobic bell-end doesn’t exactly help his cause. Likewise many, many people refuse to listen to Chris Brown because of his violence against women. Again, that’s far easier to do since his actual music is by all accounts pretty terrible. And let’s not even start on Gary Glitter.
How much can you separate the art from the artist? Are there people you can’t listen to because their opinions or behaviour are well beyond the pale? Or is there music you can enjoy despite of the artist?