Audio By Carbonatix
I don’t want to bury the lede, here: There’s a video, in this post, of Go Daddy founder and local philanthropist Bob Parsons making a smoke-filled introduction to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” next to a bunch of scantily clad dancing girls, getting a big round of applause for saying, “Nuke the Chinese [just kidding],” and saying we can wear buffalo heads because we live in America.
But all that arrives on Up on the Sun by way of a press release from “patriotic rock band Madison Rising,” who announced Tuesday that Parsons had “sent them a surprise $10,000 check days after seeing the band perform in Scottsdale” at the Bike Week Blast-Off Party.
Here’s the introduction, which is — well, it’s exactly how you think the Go Daddy guy might like to be introduced:
When news happens, Phoenix New Times is there —
Your support strengthens our coverage.
We’re aiming to raise $30,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to you. If New Times matters to you, please take action and contribute today, so when news happens, our reporters can be there.
And here’s the performance, of Madison Rising’s very popular rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” shortly after getting hype-manned by Parsons:
I consider myself a basically patriotic human being; I’m from Springfield, Illinois, where it always got very dusty for me in Abraham Lincoln’s tomb. I like America a lot. I chant U-S-A unironically at sports events and some elections and I’m not all that mad that they’re still playing “God Bless America” during the seventh inning of baseball games, although I do think the idea that the military “gives” us our freedoms is basically antithetical to the Declaration of Independence.
I’m glad these guys are reaching people their music speaks to, up to and including Go Daddy’s own Bob Parsons.
But I’m really not sure I needed a post-grunge version of the national anthem.
