Not honored by the pro-life movement
Published Apr 24, 2000
On April 25th on the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, hundreds of pro-life activists will spend $500 each to dine and honor those whom the National Right To Life Committee considers to be heroes in the anti-abortion movement.
But some of the most admirable heroes will not be in attendance because the pro-life movement has a history of consistently ignoring rock stars who risk their careers by taking a most unpopular stand against abortion rights.
Just ask Gary Cherone the former lead singer of the rock groups Van Halen and Extreme who has long been vocal in his opposition to abortion. In the early '90's he had two big hits with Extreme, "More Than Words" and "Hole-Hearted," but he also wrote a most unusual ballad called "Rock A Bye Bye." If the pro-life movement had a bit of cultural sense, this ballad would have become the anthem for their cause in the same way that Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" was used by 60's revolutionaries.
In 1997 Cherone became the lead singer of Van Halen and, soon after the release of his first record with them, began a public campaign against abortion. He released a letter to singer Eddie Vedder of the group Pearl Jam, a champion for the right to abortion and a leader of a lobbying group called Rock For Choice.
Vedder never responded to Cherone, so Cherone ratcheted up the debate another notch. This time Cherone appeared on Fox television's "The O'Reilly Factor" where host Bill O'Reilly quizzed the singer about his views. Weeks later Cherone was out of the band.
Nobody can prove a direct link between Cherone's departure from Van Halen and his anti-abortion activism. Was he out because of the band's slumping album sales, the fans disgust with the new Cherone influenced Van Halen message with lyrics lifted from the New Testament, or his passionate opposition to abortion on demand? Nobody knew for sure, but there was one point on which there should have been unanimous agreement on the part of anti-abortion leaders: Cherone was on their side and he wasn't ashamed of what he believed.
Will Cherone be invited to National Right To Life's swank dinner at the Waldorf? Will he be honored with an award as the pro-choicers honor those who embrace their cause? Fat chance. For there is a reason that Americans, regardless of how they actually feel about abortion, tend to be more sympathetic to the pro-choice side than the pro-life side: the pro-choice crowd is far more adept at taking care of popular figures who agree with them on the issue and recognizing the importance of artists in marshalling public opinion in their favor.
The sad fact is that many conservatives who tend to populate pro-life groups hate or at the least mistrust the arts and have never understood its power to persuade and inform. How else to explain the lack of recognition among their ranks for Cherone's work, or for the work of Kings X a Texas rock band which released an anti-abortion track called "Legal Kill," or guitar legend Phil Keaggy and his ballad "Little Ones," or Gospel legend Andrae Crouch and his "I'll Be Good To You Baby," or rock mogul Steve Taylor and his haunting rendition of "Baby Doe?"
The answer can only be that the anti-abortion movement is ashamed to be associated with long-haired rock stars. After all, they might ruin the mood at the luxurious Waldorf.
A few years back the chief planner of the Proudly Pro-Life Award dinner offered this response when asked why rock stars weren't honored: "It takes more than singing a song to make one a champion of life."
Too bad for them that they didn't live in the era of Abraham Lincoln, one activist who understood the power which men and women of arts and letters possess to change the collective opinion of a nation. Lincoln, who understood the link between pop culture and the social conscience of his nation, is said to have remarked upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the anti-slavery tome Uncle Tom's Cabin, "So this is the little lady who started this great war."
But some of the most admirable heroes will not be in attendance because the pro-life movement has a history of consistently ignoring rock stars who risk their careers by taking a most unpopular stand against abortion rights.
Just ask Gary Cherone the former lead singer of the rock groups Van Halen and Extreme who has long been vocal in his opposition to abortion. In the early '90's he had two big hits with Extreme, "More Than Words" and "Hole-Hearted," but he also wrote a most unusual ballad called "Rock A Bye Bye." If the pro-life movement had a bit of cultural sense, this ballad would have become the anthem for their cause in the same way that Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" was used by 60's revolutionaries.
In 1997 Cherone became the lead singer of Van Halen and, soon after the release of his first record with them, began a public campaign against abortion. He released a letter to singer Eddie Vedder of the group Pearl Jam, a champion for the right to abortion and a leader of a lobbying group called Rock For Choice.
Vedder never responded to Cherone, so Cherone ratcheted up the debate another notch. This time Cherone appeared on Fox television's "The O'Reilly Factor" where host Bill O'Reilly quizzed the singer about his views. Weeks later Cherone was out of the band.
Nobody can prove a direct link between Cherone's departure from Van Halen and his anti-abortion activism. Was he out because of the band's slumping album sales, the fans disgust with the new Cherone influenced Van Halen message with lyrics lifted from the New Testament, or his passionate opposition to abortion on demand? Nobody knew for sure, but there was one point on which there should have been unanimous agreement on the part of anti-abortion leaders: Cherone was on their side and he wasn't ashamed of what he believed.
Will Cherone be invited to National Right To Life's swank dinner at the Waldorf? Will he be honored with an award as the pro-choicers honor those who embrace their cause? Fat chance. For there is a reason that Americans, regardless of how they actually feel about abortion, tend to be more sympathetic to the pro-choice side than the pro-life side: the pro-choice crowd is far more adept at taking care of popular figures who agree with them on the issue and recognizing the importance of artists in marshalling public opinion in their favor.
The sad fact is that many conservatives who tend to populate pro-life groups hate or at the least mistrust the arts and have never understood its power to persuade and inform. How else to explain the lack of recognition among their ranks for Cherone's work, or for the work of Kings X a Texas rock band which released an anti-abortion track called "Legal Kill," or guitar legend Phil Keaggy and his ballad "Little Ones," or Gospel legend Andrae Crouch and his "I'll Be Good To You Baby," or rock mogul Steve Taylor and his haunting rendition of "Baby Doe?"
The answer can only be that the anti-abortion movement is ashamed to be associated with long-haired rock stars. After all, they might ruin the mood at the luxurious Waldorf.
A few years back the chief planner of the Proudly Pro-Life Award dinner offered this response when asked why rock stars weren't honored: "It takes more than singing a song to make one a champion of life."
Too bad for them that they didn't live in the era of Abraham Lincoln, one activist who understood the power which men and women of arts and letters possess to change the collective opinion of a nation. Lincoln, who understood the link between pop culture and the social conscience of his nation, is said to have remarked upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the anti-slavery tome Uncle Tom's Cabin, "So this is the little lady who started this great war."
Originally published April 24, 2000.
