Days after attending a rally that led to a deadly right-wing uprising in the American Capitol, LA indie musician Ariel Pink on Thursday tried to defend his performance in the show of Tucker Carlson, Fox News presenter .
“I had no choice, there is nothing else for me to do,” Pink shook and said nervously. “I can not afford my lawyer even now.”
Pink, an award-winning but antagonizing part of LA’s experimental music scene, became an unlikely judge-martyr hero after attending photos of him at the January 6 ‘Stop the Steal’ rally (featuring fellow local avant-garde artist John Maus). .
Within hours, Pink was dropped by his label Mexican Summer and came under fierce backlash from fans. “Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and its staff have decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg AKA Ariel Pink,” the label said in a statement following the protest.
Pink appeared on Fox News earlier in 2013 and recently voiced support for Trump. ‘I just think that trump is the only thing that stands in the way of the total collapse. the false media zygos for the Biden / Harris presidency are more frightening to me, ”he wrote in December.
But in Carlson’s show, Pink tried to explain his presence at a rally that ended with a violent crowd of President Trump supporters.
“I went to the White House to see our president, I went to the hotel, took an afternoon nap, the end of the story,” he said, claiming he was not on the U.S. government’s grounds rejection does not. “I was there for a peaceful rally, that’s all it was for me.”
Carlson tried to send the topic back to the left’s “cancellation” of Pink. ‘You did the most offensive thing, you came out as a public Trump supporter … when did you find out your career was ruined?
“I can’t tour at this point either, it leaves me poor and on the street,” Pink said, hanging his head. ‘I’m currently overwhelmed and I do not know what to do. My family gets death threats. The hatred is overwhelming. People are so mean. I’m scared to death. ”
On the same day as the protest, Pink also lost a case in the Supreme Court in Los Angeles when a judge tried to obtain a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Charlotte Ercoli Coe, who accused him of emotional and sexual abuse, rejected.)
Carlson, in the interview, was apparently aware that he was dealing with an unexpected MAGA martyr figure from the edge of LA’s experimental music. “You’re taking a big risk to follow this show, why are you doing it?” he asked.
“I have no other profession,” Pink said. “What am I going to do?”
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.