David Livingston/Getty ImagesRetired Jefferson Airplane/Starship singer Grace Slick is a well-known supporter of liberal social issues, so some were surprised that she recently allowed the chart-topping Starship hit “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” to be used in a commercial for Chick-fil-A, a company that’s funded organizations that are against gay marriage. In an op-ed piece published in Forbes, the 77-year-old Rock and Roll of Famer explains why, after initially balking at the request, she ultimately decided to license the tune to the restaurant chain.
Slick maintains in her editorial, “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*** no!’…But then I decided, ‘F*** yes.'”
The Woodstock-era icon reveals that she’s donating all the money she makes from the ad to Lambda Legal, which she says is “the largest national legal organization working to advance the civil rights of LGBTQ people, and everyone living with HIV.”
She adds, “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.”
Slick continues by noting that her 1960s heyday was “a time when artists didn’t just sell their soul to the highest bidder, when musicians took a stand, when the message of songs was ‘feed your head,’ not ‘feed your wallet.'”
She maintains that that kind of artistic integrity is needed today, “more than ever.”
Grace wraps up her piece by asserting, “I hope more musicians will think about the companies that they let use their songs; we can use our gifts to help stop the forces of bigotry.”
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