Governor Gavin Newsom was living the California dream this weekend. The former mayor of San Francisco headed to the northern edges of the Bay Area Saturday for BottleRock, a three-day music festival geared primarily to the elder Millennial and Gen X set (see: last year’s Bradley Cooper/Pearl Jam collab), which is arguably the high-profile politician’s target demo.
Or is it? Depends on the day, I suppose. Gavin Newsom, who launched a podcast earlier this year on which he has platformed legitimately problematic people such as conservative activist and anti-vaxxer Charlie Kirk and recently imprisoned alleged booster of the January 6 attempt to overthrow democracy Steve Bannon, was hanging out backstage at the fest on Saturday, alongside folks including Marsha Vlasic, the talent manager for musician Neil Young.
It is perhaps Vlasic’s presence that spurred Newsom to tell a San Francisco Chronicle staffer that “Neil Young has shown incredible integrity,” a reference to the “Rocking in the Free World” singer’s repeated statements of opposition to the policies of President Donald Trump.
“This is an incredibly important moment in U.S. history,” Newsom said. “It’s about free expression and being accountable. We can’t afford to be timid.”
Young has opposed Trump’s use of his anti-GOP anthem at campaign events since 2015, when the then-reality star launched his initial grab for the White House. He had to repeat himself in 2020, when Trump’s campaign rolled the song out again, this time at a rally at Mount Rushmore (a monument, by the way, that Trump may or may not wish to be added to—though, glass half full, it’ll sure be tougher to carve Trump’s mug on that cliff if he gets his way and tanks all our National Parks).
Young escalated his criticism of Trump last week after the president appeared to pick a social media fight with Young contemporary Bruce Springsteen. “I am not scared of you. Neither are the rest of us,” Young wrote online. “You shut down FEMA when we needed it most. That’s your problem Trump. STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT ROCKERS ARE SAYING. Think about saving America from the mess you made.
“Taylor Swift is right. So is Bruce. You know how I feel. You are more worried about yourself than AMERICA…You are forgetting your real job. You work for us.”
