MY MONTANA
'Three-day joke' gets The Clintons eight years of attention
Traci Rosenbaum
trosenbaum@greatfallstribune.com
Although Bill Clinton was in office when The Clintons formed in 1999, the Bozeman-based band didn't choose its name in honor of the 42nd president.
"When we named our band, we had no intentions whatsoever of being political because none of us are political," said the band's lead singer, John McLellan. "Clinton actually was an invisible dog that we blamed everything bad on. For instance, 'My beer disappeared.' 'Well I didn't drink it. It was Clinton.'"
Although there was nothing political about its choice, The Clintons endured a million questions and gibes about its name. The band thought the hubbub would die down once Bill Clinton was out of office.
Fast forward to 2008, when Hillary Clinton made her bid for the Democratic nomination. By then, the band had six albums, had played more than 1,000 shows and had lived on the road making music, and the questions flared up again.
True to The Clintons' witty and whimsical style, they decided to embrace the political connection with its own unique twist. So drummer Levi Kujala called McLellan in February 2008 and said, "I want you to write a love song to Hillary Clinton."
McLellan was resistant at first, and Kujala encouraged him to be as silly and tongue-in-cheek as he wanted. McLellan's answer was to write the tune as a straight-ahead, beautiful love song.
Kujala called on a Wednesday. That evening, McLellan wrote the song and recorded it in his living room. On Friday, he flew to Great Falls to play a gig. The next morning, inspired by the frozen-over Missouri River, The Clintons decided to shoot a video for their newly recorded tune.
The real explosion happened when "Love Song for Hillary Clinton" hit YouTube.
"Of course, Clintons fans are in on the joke that we're not a political band," said McLellan, "but everyone that didn't know who The Clintons were (were) just coming out of the woodwork … it would've been two weeks later that local media picked it up, and a day or two later, CNN ran the story."
Fox News also got a hold of the story and asked McLellan to go live. Although his views do not coincide with those put forth on that station, McLellan did the interview anyway.
He laughed recalling when interviewer Greg Kelly tried to bust his statement that the band is not political by playing the following section of the song:
"Our economy will never grow/with an energy supply that's shrinking/but unlike Congress, baby, I'm debt-free/and you'll never find anything shrinking on me."
As soon as the interviewer realized the pun he had just played live on air, he immediately cut the interview off. McLellan got a call from his father after the interview aired.
"He calls me up and leaves me a voicemail saying 'John, on Fox News, my son got a cut about peak oil, congressional overspending and erectile dysfunction,'" McLellan said. "And then he paused for a second and he goes, 'Son, I've never been prouder of you.' Click."
Well, Hillary didn't get the nomination. So once again, the band thought the controversy would die. Wrong.
Eight years later, Hillary Clinton is running for president, and it's starting all over again. McLellan has even been asked if he would play the song at Clinton's inauguration if she wins, to which he replied, "I would have to politely decline because I don't feel like being escorted out of the White House by Secret Service."
"If I could go back in time," McLellan said, laughing, "I would name us 'Anything But Politics.' That would be the name of our band."
Reach Tribune Staff Writer Traci Rosenbaum at 791-1490. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_TRosenba.
Catch The Clintons in concert at the Harvest Howl for Camp Rotary Friday, Sept. 9, and the Harvest Hops benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters Thursday, Sept. 15.