Atheists/Skeptics of Classic Rock

Atheists of classic rock is a topic that I haven’t covered much on my blog and it’s surprising I haven’t already because I am an atheist myself. My journey from Jew to atheist is an interesting one. My parents are an interfaith and interracial couple and they left it up to me to decide what religion to choose and I thought Judaism sounded cooler.

No one in my family really goes to synagogue, at least not on a regular basis anymore, although that was something they kept up in my dad’s generation. So it was weird when my grandpa told my dad he has to sign me up for Hebrew school even though he wouldn’t pony up the money and he’s not that observant. My dad dragged his feet as long as he cold because Hebrew school isn’t cheap. My parents chose the nearest synagogue and the rabbi lived in our neighbourhood. We went to her house to enrol me in Hebrew school and that was when I first saw how dumb and arbitrary religion was. She told my parents I must convert because I’m not a “real Jew”. The conversion process isn’t taking a pledge and you’re done, no there’s a whole ritual and you can look it up. It’s a lot for a 10 year old to go through and it’s uncomfortable and creepy. Anyway, I found Hebrew school boring and stopped going after a year because we moved and I was going through some personal stuff.

It made no sense to me why I wasn’t considered a real Jew even though that’s all I ever identified as. That law is arbitrary and out of date because back then there was no way to prove paternity. But isn’t religion about what you identify as? Anyway, it didn’t take long for me to see how none of the god stuff made sense. I left religion and never turned back. I only have a limited time on this planet, why spend a significant portion of it in a synagogue listening to stuff that doesn’t make sense?

In this blog post, I’ll share stories of openly atheist classic rock musicians and whatever I can find about them being an atheist: quotes, stories, and why they’re an atheist.

Alex Lifeson: Guitarist of Rush. When asked in a 2016 interview if he believed in god, he said this:

“No. When I was younger I did. My mother is not super-religious but she has a belief. My father was the total opposite. He thought religion was a crock. In my early teens I started to question it all. I had friends who were Jesus freaks, others were just very spiritual, and we had these great long discussions about these things. But as I get older it just becomes a less and less sensible thing to think about.”

Ani DiFranco: 90s folk rock musician who has her own record label called Righteous Babe Records. She is bisexual, a feminist, and an atheist. In interviews she has mentioned she is an atheist when asked questions like “What song proves to you there is a God?” or “Is there a God?” Here’s one quote from an interview:

“Well, it depends on how you mean. In my book, no. I guess the quick answer would be “no” for me. I think, whatever my spiritual leanings are, that the deities are many and that we possess them. I do not assign responsibility to a higher being. I think that we’re responsible to each other, and God is a metaphor.“

Aviv Geffen: Israeli rock musician who started his career in the 90s. He is an outspoken public figure of the Israeli left wing movement and refused to serve in the IDF. He is known for his androgynous style and I think he’s very Lou Reed/David Bowie like. He said this in an interview with a Dutch magazine:

“I am Jewish, but one hundred percent atheist. Religions and gods disperse people; music brings people closer together. Music is therefore my god.”

Right on! I find that religion divides people more than it unites, causing more harm than good.

Billy Joel: The Piano Man was born to Jewish parents, but was not raised Jewish. His grandfather was an atheist. Rather, he went to a Roman Catholic church with some friends and was baptised in a Church of Christ when he was 11 or 12. But he became disillusioned when he saw people blaming the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Jewish people. He started reading a lot, inspired by his well-read maternal grandfather and that’s how he found his way to atheism. A quote from him about why he’s an atheist:

“As an atheist you have to rationalise things. You decide first of all that will not ask Daddy – meaning God in all of his imagined forms – for a helping hand when you’re in a jam. Then you have to try and make some sort of sense out of your problems. And if you try and find you can’t, you have no choice but to be good and scared – but that’s okay! When animals are afraid, they don’t pray, and we’re just a higher order of primate.”

“Only the Good Die Young” has these lyrics:

“They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait
Some say it’s better, but I say it ain’t
I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
The sinners are much more fun
You know that only the good die young”

Björk: Icelandic singer-songwriter known for her eccentric and eclectic music and fashion. As a child, she lived on a commune with her mother, who was an environmental activist.

She said this about religion to Hot Press in 1994:

“If I get into trouble, there’s no God or Allah to sort me out. I have to do it myself.”

Before Ireland struck down its outdated blasphemy laws, atheists in the country used quotes from Björk among others to challenge it. Blasphemy was punishable with up to a €25k fine, until the law was removed in 2018 after a referendum where 65% of voters voted to remove the archaic law.

The Björk song “It’s In Our Hands” is considered an atheist anthem and from the title alone I can see that. It’s not in the hands of a higher power, it’s us.

Bob Geldof: Lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, star of Pink Floyd: The Wall, and organiser of Live Aid. Of his identity, he told the Manchester Jewish Telegraph:

 “I was a quarter Catholic, a quarter Protestant, a quarter Jewish and a quarter nothing — the nothing won.”

Keep in mind in those days if you were in the UK or Ireland, you were treated like a mixed race person if you even just had one Catholic parent and one Protestant parent. Makes no sense to me. At the end of the day, are they even all that different?

Makes me think of this Family Guy scene:

Brian Eno: Musician who got his start in glam/art rock band Roxy Music in the early 70s before going on his own and making avant-garde rock and ambient music. He also worked with David Bowie, Robert Fripp, and the Talking Heads. You might also know him for composing the Windows 95 startup sound. He’s a big fan of technology and even made phone apps and created sound installations exhibited around the world. He describes his music as godless.

Not only does he call out religion, he also called out something a lot of spiritual, but not religious people believe in, astrology. Imagine that, people using birthdates to determine what they think a person is like and making big life decisions based on what they think the positions of the planets and stars are! Astronomers are laughing at this pseudoscientific belief.

“Well, I’m an atheist, and the concept of god for me is all part of what I call the last illusion. The last illusion is someone knows what is going on. That’s the last illusion. Nearly everyone has that illusion somewhere, and it manifests not only in the terms of the idea that there is a god but that knows what’s going on but that the planets know what’s going on. Astrology is part of the last illusion. The obsession with health is part of the last illusion, the idea that there’s that if only we could spend time on it and sit down and stop being unreasonable with each other we’d all find that there was a structure and a solution underlying plan to it all, for most people the short answer to that is God.”

Caetano Veloso: Tropicália singer-songwriter and political activist from Brazil and one of a few Brazilian celebrities who is openly atheist. He grew up Catholic, but later left the religion, saying that he didn’t want to “lie to his own intelligence” by believing in God. He said that Brazil would be better off if most people were atheist or non-religious. Of atheism, he has said:

“I don’t like being deceived. I don’t like seeing people being deceived.”

David Bowie: No introduction needed for this music genius and style icon who was known for his various eras: The Man Who Sold The World, Ziggy Stardust, Thin White Duke, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Jareth the Goblin King.

He wasn’t raised religious and it’s hard to pin down what he actually thinks about politics and religion. He was a mysterious person and would go through phases of being a recluse.

When asked in an interview in 1973 if he believed in god, he said:

“I believe in an energy form. I wouldn’t like to put a name to it.”

In his song, “Seven”, there’s this one Nietzsche like lyric: “The gods forgot that they made me/So I forget them, too/I dance among their shadows/I play among their graves”

David Gilmour: Guitarist of Pink Floyd, a band with pretty much all atheist members. Politically, he is a leftist and describes himself as a socialist. He said this about his views on religion and if there’s an afterlife:

A quote from John Lydon:

Kathleen Hanna: Riot Grrrl pioneer and lead singer of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. In an interview, she said that there is no God and it doesn’t have an appearance, because it doesn’t exist. However, she said she believed in a good force in the world that makes you feel good, be it a song that makes you happy, good artwork, or conversations that you have with your friends that make you happy that you are all alive.