How Radiohead’s Thom Yorke became the embodiment of evil
Since the birth of rock music, many have tried to draw links between the rebellious art form and Satanism with varying degrees of success. Sometimes, it can be with good reason, and other times, it feels like a deliberate stretch made by religious fanatics who are simply looking for a good excuse to ruin everyone’s fun. Sure, Black Sabbath are a prime example of an act that clearly shook hands with the horned one, but if you’re trying to make a link between Lucifer and Thom Yorke, then I’d suggest you’ve probably made some sort of drastic leap in logic somewhere along the line.
Now, even though many might treat the Radiohead frontman with indie rock reverence, like most people who walk this earth, he isn’t the most saintly individual all of the time. For example, letting out the odd F-word in songs might seem like a minor misdemeanour to most, but would most likely offend the man upstairs. In a more serious transgression, Yorke has been embroiled in controversy for doubling down on his decisions to perform in Israel and throwing a hissyfit when a fan attended a show with a Palestinian flag in support of Gaza, which is a far more distressing point of view for his fans to have to grapple with.
However, whether we’re talking about bad language or ill-informed geopolitical alliances, there isn’t a whole lot of evidence that supports Thom Yorke being a Satanist – so why did a Christian fundamentalist group use his likeness to illustrate the devices that Satan employs to enslave and destroy humans?
In 2016, a fundamentalist Twitter account operating under the name Generation For God posted an image of Yorke with eight labels surrounding his face that outline all of the sinful vices that Satan uses for his nefarious ploys to steer mankind further from God. Surrounding the musician’s head were: pornography, atheism, avarice, disobedience to God’s law, witchcraft & tarot, idolatry, drugs and unforgiveness.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen Yorke as being the poster boy for any of the above, and there are probably countless other musicians who would have been a better choice of scapegoat for illustrating how the devil dangles these carrots in front of our faces. Perhaps you could argue that atheism isn’t too much of a stretch, with songs such ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ and ‘Pyramid Song’ both exploring themes of death and questioning the existence of an afterlife. It’s also not hard to find evidence that Yorke has dabbled with illicit substances in the past either, so drugs might be a reasonable vice to pin on him.
However, we then delve into murkier territory with sins such as witchcraft and pornography. There’s very little that points to Yorke hexing others, and whether he watches adult material in his own time is not my business to investigate, nor should it be anyone else’s. Avarice is an interesting thing to accuse Yorke of as well, considering there are many supposedly devout Christians who are much wealthier and more powerful than he is committing far more sinful acts in the world. And let’s be honest, who isn’t guilty of worshipping or looking up to someone other than God, and therefore committing idolatry?
If Generation For God had perhaps chosen, say, Marilyn Manson as the face of their anti-Satanic campaign, then this article would’ve been a non-starter, but their decision to emblazon Yorke’s face on the infographic is perhaps one of the most curious displays of trying to illustrate evil. If anything, they’ve just made him look ten times cooler.
