Articles

Michelle Shocked Cancelled in Santa Cruz

When the talk about singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked started going around the office on Monday, someone asked “What happened? Did she die on stage?” “No,” came the answer, “but her career did!”

Sure enough, the longtime Santa Cruz favorite managed to alienate not just her fans here, but pretty much everywhere, when she went into a nasty anti-gay rant Sunday night at Yoshi’s in San Francisco, taking it straight to crazy town with the assertion that “God hates fags, and you can tweet that I said so.” Most of the audience walked out.

You know you’re in a bad way when people think your best-case scenario is that you’ve had a mental breakdown. But alas, she appears to be not so much koo koo for Cocoa Puffs as a garden-variety bigot, having increasingly spewed this kind of hate speech since becoming a born-again Christian several years ago.

By Monday, promoters who had booked Shocked were firing cancellation notices into our inbox, starting with her March 29 show at a club in Novato. Not far behind was Bill Welch of Moe’s Alley, who had booked her to play Santa Cruz on Thursday. “We will not tolerate bigotry or hateful views from anyone, regardless of musical talent,” he wrote.

Reached by phone, Welch said he got a heads up about her diatribe Sunday night, and after he put all the facts together, it was “a pretty easy decision” to cancel the show. “My purpose is to promote a positive message in the music,” says Welch.

Some people who know Shocked say this outburst is out of character for her. Of course, it’d be out of character for Ted Nugent, let alone someone who found her first real acceptance as an artist in the LGBT community. Best of luck to her in her second career as house guitarist for the Westboro Baptist Church coffee klatch.

  • https://www.santacruz.com/articles/michelle_shocked_cancelled_in_santa_cruz.html Joe Smoe

    Yeah right, promoters and club owners only care about money.  The Moe’s Show got cancelled cause Bill knew that nobody would be there….it is a nice way to save face in the community though wink

  • https://www.santacruz.com/ae/articles/2013/03/19/michelle_shocked_cancelled_in_santa_cruz Joe Smoe

    Yeah right, promoters and club owners only care about money.  The Moe’s Show got cancelled cause Bill knew that nobody would be there….it is a nice way to save face in the community though wink