The sound of Joe Exotic: the Milli Vanilli of country music
Tiger King‘s Joe Exotic is still going. Over the last few months, he announced his transphobic mess of a presidential campaign, continued his plea for a fair retrial, and called on NFL’s Joe Burrow to lend him $20,000 to help him get out of federal prison. After the infamous Netflix series effectively worsened his chances for positive public reception, one of his most bizarre career choices remains a significant point of interest.
In 2020, Exotic’s hopes for Netflix’s hottest new docu-series were clear: show everybody a first-hand account of his life and career and have everybody see his point of view. Season one, in particular, was an absolute smash, and Exotic was well on his way to becoming a beloved household name. Things took a turn, however, when more people started to side with Exotic’s arch-nemesis, Carole Baskin, all while pinning many of the show’s questions posed around animal cruelty on him instead of her.
Aside from various, almost unbelievable conditions that both the animals and zoo workers found themselves in, Exotic alluded to a side hustle that many found even more hilarity in – music. Despite the show’s various plots, including murder-for-hire and the suspicious circumstances of Baskin’s husband, Exotic poured a lot of passion into his budding music career, showcasing potential hits like ‘Kitty Kitty’ and ‘I Saw A Tiger’.
If Exotic had not gone to prison, maybe we could be listening to more hits by the former zookeeper than we could dream of. After all, viewers were stricken by Exotic’s angelic voice as he sang about his hatred for Baskin and his love for tigers. Wait, that’s definitely Exotic’s voice, right?
Well, not exactly. As much as it may disappoint many, no, that’s not Exotic’s singing voice. According to Vanity Fair, musicians Vince Johnson and Danny Clinton were the masterminds behind the tunes, unaware that Exotic would utilise their voices in the track. Johnson and Clinton revealed they were approached by Exotic to compose country songs, and they agreed without knowledge of their inclusion in his music.
“I had no idea he was going to Milli Vanilli the songs,” the Johnson admitted. “It was a couple of months and two or three songs [into the collaboration] when I was on YouTube one night and just happened to look up Joe Exotic. And there he was, lip-syncing and acting like the ghost of Elvis. I called him up; I was hot… And he bamboozled me about his reality show — that it was coming soon and he would make everything right as rain. I just wanted the proper credit.”
While Exotic could’ve embraced his position at the forefront of his music, employees from his team claimed he went to extreme measures to persuade them of his singing abilities. Mateusz Gugałka, who produced some of Exotic’s music videos, recounted an instance where he informed staff that he had spent the weekend recording a new song in Dallas. However, he had actually remained at home in Oklahoma.
Producer Rick Kirkham also detailed the revelation of Exotic’s lip-syncing career as an openly known fact: “It was absolutely ridiculous,” he mused. “One time, Joe got a little bit drunk and high, and we actually coaxed him into singing part of one of the songs. He couldn’t even hold a tune…It was a big joke within the crew and staff that it wasn’t him [singing in the videos] — but he was damned insistent to anyone and everyone, including us and my studio crew, that that was him.”
