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Rocker Dion
lending voice to support GOP's West
Monday,
September 07, 2009
In an industry
known for its prevailing liberalism, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer
and
DiMucci - better
known simply as Dion from his chart-topping Teenager in Love/Runaround
Sue/The Wanderer days - turned 70 this year and is a
registered Republican who has developed an admiration for
conservative GOP congressional hopeful Allen West. West lost a
challenge to U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, last year and is
gearing for a 2010 rematch.
In a type of gig
Dion says he hasn't done before, he's scheduled to introduce
West at a Boca Raton Republican Club meeting this month and then
perform a not-yet-determined number after West speaks.
Dion was part of
Buddy Holly's ill-fated 1959 Winter Dance Party tour (he skipped
the doomed plane ride with Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The
Big Bopper" Richardson), and his likeness is included in the
iconic crowd shot on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band album cover (he's right behind Tom Mix and Oscar
Wilde).
To the extent
he's ever been identified with politics in the past, it's for
his 1968 recording of Abraham, Martin and John, which
associated him with the folky progressivism of the era.
"I still believe
in it," Dion says of the song. But in other ways, he says, he
doesn't understand the dominant liberalism of the recording
industry.
"It's puzzling
to me because I'm a rock 'n' roller and rockers believe in truth
and freedom. I don't believe a lot of them know what the two
words mean," Dion says. "I think a lot of them have confused it
(freedom) with license - giving you permission to do anything
you want without regard to the consequences."
Dion describes
himself politically as "kind of an independent. ... I'm liberal
with my love but conservative with my thinking." |
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