Music

Homophobic Kentucky clerk hits stage to "Eye of the Tiger" and Survivor's pissed

by Richard Howard

Let’s be honest: for most of us, knowledge of the band Survivor begins and ends with “Eye of The Tiger” (a.k.a. “that song from Rocky“). It turns out, however, that the band’s badassery extends far beyond providing the soundtrack for Sly Stallone and Mr. T to beat the shit out of people.

The guys in the band are all about equal rights – so when they found out Kim Davis (the Kentucky clerk cuffed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples) exited jail and strutted into a weird religious-right rally to the strains of their hit song, they were having exactly none of it.

If you haven’t heard the story yet, county clerk Kim Davis shot to notoriety when she declined to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and blocked her deputies from doing the same. She was sued, and when she defied the court’s order to issue the licenses she was tossed in the clink for contempt of court. You already know what happened next: the religious right hailed her as a hero. When it was announced she’d be released, about 4,000 supporters came to greet her including presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz. And to welcome their champion of God-Knows-What, they chose to triumphantly blast “Eye of The Tiger.”

Well, that may have been a bad call on their parts. Survivor is reportedly considering a lawsuit of their own, with a representative assuring that the band is “determined to protect the integrity of their music.” If nothing more had been said, it would be possible that this was simply a copyright issue where the terrible people in charge of a rally celebrating a homophobe didn’t acquire the clearances to use the tune. But no; Survivor guitarist and songwriter Frankie Sullivan cleared up any such ambiguity with this awesome Facebook post:

Yes, you read that right. If it was in his power, the man behind “Eye of The Tiger” would not allow Kim Davis the use of toilet paper to wipe her ass. Pardon me, I gotta go educate myself on the Survivor discography.