Graham Nash Pulls Music Out From Spotify

Graham Nash followed his longtime friend and bandmate Neil Young’s lead to remove his music from Spotify in support of the protest against controversial podcast The Joe Rogan Experience over vaccine misinformation.

Nash said in a statement released on Tuesday:

“Having heard the Covid disinformation spread by Joe Rogan on Spotify, I completely agree with and support my friend Neil Young and I am requesting that my solo recordings be removed from the service,”

“There is a difference between being open to varying viewpoints on a matter and knowingly spreading false information which some 270 medical professionals have derided as not only false but dangerous,” Nash continued. “Likewise, there is a difference between misinformation, in which one is unaware that what is being said is false, versus disinformation which is knowingly false and intended to mislead and sway public opinion.”

“The opinions publicized by Rogan are so dishonest and unsupported by solid facts that Spotify becomes an enabler in a way that costs people their lives.”

Young wrote an open letter to his manager and record label criticizing Rogan and Spotify. The letter has been removed, but on it he wrote:

“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”

Two days after, Spotify then took down nearly all of Young’s music on their streaming platform. Spotify’s spokesperson told in a statement:

“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic.”

After the statement, many fellow musicians have voiced their support for Young on the issue, including Sebastian Bach and David Crosby. While Joni Mitchell and E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren have also removed their music from the streaming platform.