Joe Exotic’s songs are a hit on Spotify. Oh, dear.
If you haven’t seen Tiger King on Netflix yet, your quarantine has been deeper than others. If that’s the case, you’re excused from reading the rest of this post because it won’t make any sense to you. However, if you’re fascinated by this gay, polygamous, mullet-topped, redneck, gun-loving, egomaniac, tiger breeder, please stay with me.
One of the many weird features of Tiger King are Joe Exotic’s music videos. It appears that he’s singing about his tigers and other weird obsessions–there are two albums for sale in the gift shop at Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park–but in fact is he had almost nothing to do with these songs.
The, er, credit for those tracks (which, if we’re honest, aren’t entirely terrible) goes to The Clinton Johnson Band, a country-rock outfit from–wait for it–Vancouver. They were commissioned to write songs for Joe who then either lip-synced or sang softly along with the lead vocal. The videos, though, are his creation.
Vince Johnson, one of the two founders of the band (Danny Clinton died in October 2019), never expected to make any money beyond the original order from Joe. But since Tiger King exploded, so has interested in songs like these.
An audio version of “I Saw a Tiger” was added to Spotify on March 30. Two weeks later, the song is something of a hit in all 79 countries in which you can get Spotify.
Here are the top markets for Joe’s music.
- Denmark
- UK
- Ireland
- Iceland
- Norway
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Sweden
- USA
- Canada
TMZ reports that the state with the most Joe Exotic fans is North Dakota, followed by Mississippi, Montana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. People in California are listening the least.
As of April 13, Joe is getting an average 18% daily boost in listening, mostly from people between the ages of 25-29.
If you’re a fan, try this singalong version. Hey, you’re alone in quarantine. Who’s gonna know?
