Is It Really Last Call In America?

Fishbone, The (Dixie) Chicks, and the Boss teaching us what the artists are supposed to do in these hectic times.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 27: (L-R) W. Kamau Bell, Christopher Dowd, Angelo Moore, Tracey "Spacey T" Singleton, James Jones, John "JS" Williams II and Hassan Hurd attend An Evening with Fishbone at GRAMMY Museum L.A. Live on May 27, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Earlier this week I had the immense pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite bands ever, Fishbone, at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. It was a great evening. I interviewed them. We did an audience Q&A, and then Fishbone played some of their classic songs and a few songs from their new album, Stockholm Syndrome. It comes out June 27. Needless to say, I took this assignment very seriously. I wanted the band to have fun. I wanted the audience to have fun. I wanted the audience to learn surprising things about the band. I also wanted the obvious questions answered. As much as that may sound like a lot —especially given their complicated history— I could wake up out of a dead sleep and interview Fishbone. I’ve been preparing for this since I was 18. Before you ask the next question, yes you can watch the entire interview and some of the songs here.

While I have been a fan of Fishbone since I was 18 years old, last year I became friends with one of their founding members, Chris Dowd. We officially met after a Fishbone show in San Francisco where he informed me that he was going to be spending time in the Bay Area. So I introduced him to some folks, and we became fast friends. It can be surreal when the people from the album covers become your friends. I’ve had it happen a few times in my life. It doesn’t get any less surreal every time it happens.

One of the things I knew I had to discuss with the members of Fishbone, especially with founding members Chris Dowd and Angelo Moore, was that Fishbone has NEVER steered clear of being political in their music. Their very first release, the eponymously named EP Fishbone, features their first big song that got college and alternative radio airplay. It is called “Party at Ground Zero.” It was released in 1984, and it was about the world ending due to nuclear war. But because it was Fishbone, you could dance to it. You can watch them play it at the Grammy Museum, below. If you listen closely, you can hear me introduce them.

I’ve been thinking about artists being explicitly political a lot recently, as I’ve been on the road doing my stand-up comedy tour. As I’ve taken in more of the news of the day, I’ve felt the need to be more and more clear about what side I’m on and who is at fault. I don’t think I have been that unclear to begin with, but I’ve been thinking about how George Carlin got more acerbic and sharp as he aged. I’ve been thinking about how, when I opened for Dick Gregory (more than ten years ago in New York City), he was angrier about racism and injustice than any other Black comedian of the day. Let me be clear, Carlin and Dick were both very funny in these eras, but they just felt less compromising. As I have been thinking about the role of the artist in these too often painful political times, Bruce Springsteen gave all of us male artists an example of what you are supposed to do in these times.

On the opening night of his new tour in Manchester, England, the Boss pulled a Natalie Maines (you know her from the band formerly known as The Dixie Chicks, now known as The Chicks). Bruce gave a couple speeches, calling out our government, our political leaders (on both sides), and Trump himself. At one point he even quoted James Baldwin. It felt like Bruce wanted to make sure that we, the audience, knew that he had learned this righteousness directly from the source. Bruce was on fire. He said:

In my country, they're taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers, they're rolling back historic Civil Rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society, they're abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.

Here is the second of his speeches. You absolutely must listen to it.

Of course, the MAGA Americans, including the head MAGAT Doggrel Trump, got mad at him. Some of the Trump cultists raged against the Boss for getting political. As many have pointed out, the Venn diagram of people who hate what Springsteen said and people who think the song “Born in The USA” is a patriotic song is a circle. As we all know Bruce Springsteen emerged from his mother’s womb railing about how working people were being crushed by our politicians. While Bruce did get some bad press, because Bruce Springsteen is not a woman or a Black person, and Indigenous person, or person of color, he didn’t get even a small percentage of what happened to the Chicks when they spoke out against then-president George W. Bush.

Bruce Springsteen as a white, cisgender, old, famous, rich man who has a lot of privileges going for him that many of us (including The Chicks) don’t. The Boss is taking that credit he has built up and he’s spending it when we need him to the most. Also, the Boss isn’t afraid of Trump. Whatever you think of capitalism, Bruce earned his money in the system. Whereas Trump has consistently manipulated the system to get the most he can while doing the least. And he knows that one day the oligarchs and dictators who own his markers are eventually going to come calling.

This photo is from 2002. You can see that I’ve always been cute. Photo By Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

One of my most recent tour stops was in Boston. James Sullivan, a journalist from The Boston Globe, profiled me in the paper. I’ve known James for many years. He was actually the first mainstream journalist who ever wrote about me. It was in The San Francisco Chronicle way before I was worth writing about.

Back in 2002 when this article was written, this was James’ take on me (and my take on myself)

A contemporary stand-up comic who is also a black man, as opposed to a black comic in the rambunctious Def Comedy Jam mold. Which means: more jokes about the differences between men and women than the differences among races. "Put it this way," he says. "KMEL is a black station, but it doesn't play Jimi Hendrix. I'm like Jimi Hendrix."

At the time James wasn’t wrong. I had a big routine about how men’s magazines were different than women’s magazines. To be fair, while I was aiming high by comparing myself to Jimi Hendrix of all people, that was my goal: to be Black in public the way I wanted to be. I just hadn’t figured it out yet, but James saw something. And it was heartening to see that he still sees something in me. This is how James described my in the Boston Globe article.

He’s become known as a comedian who speaks bluntly about the forces that divide us as Americans, and the difficulties in overcoming them.

And here’s my 2025 take on me…

If only he [Bell] could be a benign, non-confrontational comedian, he said.

“I would love to be Brian Regan. I think Brian Regan is great, and I’m not saying Brian Regan should be doing what I’m doing.

“I’m just saying I feel compelled to do what I’m doing. And also, if you don’t like what I’m doing, Brian Regan is right over there, at a bigger venue that’s probably sold out.”

While that may sound defeatist. I feel really clear in what my role is, and I feel extremely lucky to have a role, thanks to my career success. And I feel even more fortunate to have a family and community that understands that I feel compelled to speak out and not to shut up and tell jokes. I feel super grateful for my kids for understanding, accepting, and sometimes even being proud of dada’s job.

As bad as things are, I feel quite sure what my role is as an artist. I sincerely hope artists of all genres, demographics, and levels who want to be on the correct side of history show up and speak out. Hell, I’m happy if Brian Regan figures out a way to make it plain in a G-rated Malcolm X style.

Who’s with me?

Who’s With Me? Stand-up Tour Rolls On

Also, here is more information about my benefit shows for local theater and dance organizations that Trump defunded through the National Endowment for the Arts.

My Pre-Show Playlist for the Who’s With Me? Stand-Up Tour

Can’t make it to a show? Or you did come and you wondered who put all that awesome pre-show music together? Or maybe you came and you want to relive the night. Welp, here’s the pre-show playlist. I change it occasionally, but this is where it stands for now. Enjoy!

Also, if you have any songs that you think should make the preshow playlist, let me know in the comments below.