Erykah Badu has loudly and proudly always marched to the beat of her own drummer. But the “Call Tyrone” singer admitted this week that she’s happily hopping on a recent trend to protest the deep cuts to government agencies being led by Elon Musk as part of his DOGE team by trashing one of the richest man in the world’s signature vehicles.
“Just vandalized my own Tesla,” Badu tweeted earlier this week. “Trying to stay on trend.”
There have been a number of attacks on Teslas and Tesla dealerships around the country over the past few weeks, from Cybertrucks set on fire to molotov cocktails hurled at Tesla dealerships and vandalism of charging stations. Attackers have also taken their ire out on the all-electric vehicles with anatomical drawings and NSFW messages such as “Hail Elon” and “Nazi car,” in seeming reference to Musk’s Nazi-like salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
It was unclear if Badu — who recently revealed to Billboard that she is working on her first new album in 15 years — was joking or actually dinged up her Tesla, but she is not the only one breaking up with the pricey vehicle that was once considered a badge of environmental courage. Sherly Crow announced last month that she had sold her Tesla and donated the proceeds to NPR in protest; NPR and PBS executives will be on Capitol Hill on Wednesday (March 26) to testify in a hearing titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable” as DOGE is reportedly homing in on drastic cuts to public radio and television.
While many protests across the nation, and the world, have focused on Teslas and Musk, Green Day took aim at the billionaire during shows in January, where singer Billie Joe Armstrong swiped at the unelected DOGE boss while performing in Musk’s home country of South Africa. “I’m not part of the Elon agenda,” he sang in a switch to a classic “American Idiot” lyric.
Jack White also slammed Musk during a performance of his 2018 single “Corporation” at a February 18 show on his No Name tour. “I was thinking about becoming an oligarch, who’s with me?” White sang in Boston. “I was thinking about taking government subsidies and starting my own electric car company. Who’s with me?” he added. “I’m thinking about not being elected. Never holding a public office. Never serving one day of military service. But somehow having the authority to control parts of the U.S. Government. Who’s with me?”
Then, on the debut episode of Netflix’s Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney earlier this month, 1960s folk legend Joan Baez lamented that “our democracy is going up in flames… we’re being run by a bunch of really incompetent billionaires.” And while she didn’t name names, when Mulaney joked about Baez owning a Tesla, she noted that she did used to have one, but that she sincerely regrets the purchase now.
“I hated that thing,” Baez, 84, said. “But I thought I was supposed to like it. So I drove off in it. Within 45 minutes I had smashed it into an oak tree on my property… I was thinking, ‘That’s a sign.’” Without saying when she ditched it, Baez added, “I hated it… It was too big… I sold it and got one-half the amount of money I paid for.”
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