We often see musicians refusing to license songs to politicians or companies they don’t agree with, but Grace Slick did something different. Slick, the legendary musician who was a key figure in Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Starship, recently decided to let Chick-Fil-A use the Starship song “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” for a new commercial despite her opposition to CEO Dan T. Cathy’s anti-LGBT views and the company’s donations to anti-LGBT causes through their charitable foundation. As Slick wrote at Forbes, she thought it was more valuable to take their money and immediately donate it to a group helping LGBT people:
Chick-fil-A pisses me off. The Georgia-based company has a well-documented history of funding organizations, through their philanthropic foundation WinShape, that are against gay marriage. In interviews, CEO Dan T. Cathy has critiqued gay-rights supporters who “have the audacity to define marriage” and said they are bringing “God’s judgment” upon the nation.
I firmly believe that men should be able to marry men, and women women. I am passionately against anyone who would try to suppress this basic human right. So my first thought when “Check”-fil-A came to me was, “F**k no!”
But then I decided, “F**k yes.”
So that was my voice you heard on the Chick-fil-A commercial during the Grammy Awards telecast. I am donating every dime that I make from that ad to Lambda Legal, the largest national legal organization working to advance the civil rights of LGBTQ people, and everyone living with HIV. Admittedly it’s not the millions that WinShape has given to organizations that define marriage as heterosexual. But instead of them replacing my song with someone else’s and losing this opportunity to strike back at anti-LGBTQ forces, I decided to spend the cash in direct opposition to “Check”-fil-A’s causes – and to make a public example of them, too. We’re going to take some of their money, and pay it back.
Now that’s some high-level trolling, and it makes a lot of sense as a protest. If Slick had turned the company down, they surely would have found some other group willing to take their money. By accepting the deal and donating the money to an opposite cause, Slick’s not only living out her beliefs, but also helping to bring attention to both Chick-Fil-A’s stances and Lambda Legal‘s work. That seems like a worthwhile white rabbit to follow, and a worthwhile way to build a city. And hey, it also led to a decent song being used in this commercial.
