Another day, another whopper when it comes to unearthing more of the real story behind the stars of the new Netflix smash hit docuseries Tiger King.
It was recently revealed to us Doc Antle‘s wild appearance in Britney Spears‘ iconic performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Now, it’s another music-related revelation — only this time regarding the star of the streaming series, Joe Exotic!
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Much was made in the series about Exotic (real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage) and his crossover appeal as a country music artist in addition to his tiger-taming duties. But as it turns out, according to Joe’s own would-be-reality TV producer Rick Kirkham, the Tiger King himself can’t even so much as hold a tune!
Speaking to Vanity Fair about the star’s music chops, Kirkham dismissed the animal aficionado as having any song sense whatsoever, saying:
“It was absolutely ridiculous. One time, 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.”
OMG! WTF, Joe?!
So then this music video (below) was all a lie?!
We feel conned!!!
The media outlet did a little digging and, as it turns out, musicians Danny Clinton and Vince Johnson are actually responsible for most of Joe’s country music songs, including two of the biggest ones featured in the docuseries itself: I Saw A Tiger and Here, Kitty Kitty.
Related: Cardi B Wants A GoFundMe To Free Joe Exotic From Prison…
Johnson was contacted by Vanity Fair about the musical mix-up, and he explained how Joe apparently contacted him and Clinton asking them to produce the songs for free (!) on the premise they’d be featured on a reality show set to air on Animal Planet or National Geographic. Of course, that reality show never came to fruition, as Joe had a wild fall-out with Kirkham that’s well-documented in the series, but even so, it clearly made Johnson made to know he’d been conned by the Tiger King!
The musician said:
“I had no idea he was going to Milli Vanilli the songs. It was a couple of months and two or three songs [into the collaboration] when I was on YouTube one night and just happened to look up Joe Exotic. And there he was, lip-syncing and acting like the ghost of Elvis [in these music videos]. I called him up, I was hot… And he bamboozled me about his reality show, that it was coming soon and he would make everything right as rain. I just wanted the proper credit.”
Wow! What a devious little plot…
Clinton’s son Preston spoke out about the bait-and-switch, as well, telling KATU News how crazy it was to hear his father’s voice on the tracks as they became more popular with the rise of the show. The elder Clinton passed away last October, Preston explained, before Tiger King was released — and the musician’s son added more:
“Every time Dad’s voice would come on it was pretty mind-boggling. He would have been blown away. This is everything he worked for. This would have seen a big deal for him. We want to speak out for dad and say he wasn’t just a puppet, he wasn’t just singing songs for whoever told him to, he was writing as well.”
What a crazy, crazy story…
Music and video producer Romeo Dupuy, who worked on producing several of Joe’s music videos, added more color about the entire process, too, telling the outlet:
“I’m a musician myself, and I was just flabbergasted by the sheer fakeness of his presentation. He couldn’t even play the guitar. So we would pose him. When we shot him playing these songs, he would be behind grass to cover up his hands. Then he’d lip-sync. We’d just record two different angles maybe 50 different times, then pick the take where his mouth lined up with the music.”
The whole thing, a ruse, and Joe Exotic a charlatan. Obviously, you kind of get the sense of that as you watch the entirety of the docuseries, but to hear this side of it, too, is just… WOW!!!
Related: Joe Exotic Sues The Feds From Prison!
Maybe the most telling tidbit about Joe Exotic’s career (LOLz) in music comes from Tiger King directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times about their months of work alongside the tiger trainer. While the two directors admit “struggling” to find out just how much Joe was actually involved in the production of “his” music, they ultimately came to a crazy conclusion. Chaiklin laid bare to The Times:
“We were really struggling with what the truth of it was. We went back and forth on it. With certain songs, it became super confusing. And then our fact-checker told us we were wrong at one point, he was actually singing [very softly over the track] on certain songs. It was tricky to determine which he was on. We cut a really good scene about that. Joe even said, ‘Of course not every singer sings all his songs, that’s just how it’s done.’ His take on it was funny, that you could be a musician and a singer and not sing.”
Goodness gracious! What a train wreck… but we can’t look away!
What do U think about all this country music drama and lip-syncing craziness, Perezcious readers?! Sound OFF with your take about everything here down in the comments (below)!!!
[Image via Joe Exotic TV/YouTube]
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