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Friday, January 26, 2007

Donnie Davies-Gate: Day Three… And Even I’m Losing Interest

posted by on January 26 at 8:09 AM

DonnieForReal.jpg

Radar got ahold of our drummer the prime suspect—the drummer in the band Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypies—and he naturally enough denied being Donnie “God Hates a Fag” Davies.

It’s looking more and more like “Donnie Davies,” the singer behind gay-hating sing-along “The Bible Says,” is a hoax. But one real-life musician accused of perpetrating it insists he’s innocent.

Yesterday, Good As You, an anti-discrimination website, made the case that Davies is actually a member of Chicago-area band Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypsies, listed as a “gay band” on the Love God’s Way website. While Good As You didn’t actually name the band member, a little digging revealed him to be drummer Colby Starck.

The only problem: Starck tells Radar he’s not the hoaxer. “While I’m getting a kick out of the hoopla, I’m not Donnie Davies,” he says. In fact, he adds, the photos in which he looks like Davies are several years old; Starck has since lost weight and shaved his mustache.

That would be the end of it, I suppose, if Starck hadn’t gone on to make a statement that sounds every inch like the Donnie Davies we’ve come to know and love:

“I’m not as fat as he is, but it’s really the love that I have in my heart for homosexuals that distinguishes us,” he says.

Hmm…

Check out the original video by clicking here. Then watch this video of Bobby Conn and the Glass Gypies in action. At the 1:08 mark, Starck is clearly visible and he’s a dead ringer for Davies. The likeness is better than the images at the top of the post.

In other Davies news…

Shane Kendall, Davies’ publicist got back to me today. Yesterday Kendall assured me that Davies would quickly respond to the questions I was asked to submit by email. Today Kendall wrote to tell me that…

Dan, I am sorry for the delay. Donnie has been swamped with work and all this other stuff as well. I could answer a lot of this stuff myself, but I feel I should wait for him. We are acutally working with one of the local news stations to do an interview. This should put to rest the rumors swirling around Donnie Davies being someone else. I don’t think he would mind me stating emphatically that any and all rumors that have been posted about him being someone else have all been false.

RSS icon Comments

1

Mika seems like a more deserving target of your obsession.

Posted by Gabriel | January 26, 2007 9:10 AM
2

Dammit Dan! Now I'm becoming a Glass Gypsies fan.

Tell me the sense humor exhibited in the song/video linked below isn't the same as God Hates a Fag. If its not then the gods are pretty darn coincident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmSWNWRZg4Q&mode=user&search=

Posted by mirror | January 26, 2007 9:13 AM
3

Um, his publicist could put a stop to all the speculation in five seconds by providing a street address for "Love God's Way", or some other evidence that this ministry actually exists, or some other evidence that "our national network of online Christian ministries" exists.

There's a lot of thought and effort that went into the initial blast of this thing, but there's usually nothing behind the curtain, nothing left to show us. Real ministries don't work this way.

Posted by Fnarf | January 26, 2007 9:30 AM
4

Damnit, I thought you guys totally nailed it with the BobbyConn thing...it's gotta be him.

Posted by JessB | January 26, 2007 9:40 AM
5

If I can't cum on Donnie Davies, I'll settle for the Colby dude.

Posted by Tom C. | January 26, 2007 9:44 AM
6

God hates a publicity stunt. Or maybe that's just me.

In the lyrics of "The Bible Says," it actually says "there's no back door" to heaven. Mm-hmm.

*cough*

Posted by Pope Nyx | January 26, 2007 9:47 AM
7

Satire satire satire. To what end, I don't know. But it's definitely the same dude.

Posted by Baxter | January 26, 2007 9:57 AM
8

No, no, no. Davies is not Colby Starck. Nor is he Todd Quillen. And most of you amateur armchair detectives are asking the wrong questions as you furiously attempt to make sense of this mess. The big wrong question: it is brilliant performance art, or is Donnie for real? The fault lies in the second half of the question. No -- "Donnie" is not for real, but that does not prove that he is lampooning fundamentalism's take on homosexuality. My theory: the man who calls himself Donnie Davies is in fact a Christian -- not the garden variety fundamentalist type that we can easily get a handle on, but the renegade, dangerous, irrational type -- the kind that can find a Bible verse to justify bombing an abortion clinic. His message is VERY sincere -- God hates homosexuality. And if that statement isn't enough shock and awe for you, he quickly follows it up with a knife-twist by informing us that if you are one of them, God hates you personally [in the video, this line is delivered each time with a particularly insidious and evil smile]. The name of the song is "The Bible Says," which speaks strongly to his bottom-line message: The Bible definitively condemns homosexuality. The Bible, people.

It is clever only in the sense that Davies realized that he could speak his mind in song and get away with it if he couched his message in some sort of Christian ministry package -- and that posing as a reformed homosexual might bring some credibility to the whole ruse. We find it hard to believe there are such losers in this world; we don't want to believe they are out there. But listen to this man: God hates fags. Whoever Donnie is, he really does mean it, and he must be happy that he's getting away with saying it right now.

To those who say it's parody because there are "humorous" double entendres in the lyrics, lines like "there is no backdoor to heaven" actually support my argument. As for his "gay music" and "safe music" lists, I don't find them humorous enough to be satirical -- in fact, they just sort of have the ring of a homophobe's hate list. "But why is Cyndi Lauper on the safe list?," you irony theorists ask. Well, for starters, she is a born-again Christian, and was rumored to be gay in the past.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, hate is as hate does. All you intellectual snobs who pity the humorless irony-challenged folks like me who "just don't get it" need to wake up and smell the vitriol.

Posted by Chadboulet | January 26, 2007 10:19 AM
9

the blonde gentleman at the control board in "The Bible Says" video looks a lot like the blonde guy in the Glass Gypsies promo shots, sans beard.

Posted by famousmortimer | January 26, 2007 10:52 AM
10

I bet "Donnie" is surprised anyone thought it was anything but a joke. Come on, people!

Posted by Levislade | January 26, 2007 11:11 AM
11

Colby Starck is not Donnie Davies, as he's made clear, and is suprised by this whole thing as anyone.

For a more recent look at Colby Starck, here's he and the rest of Bobby's band in the recent video for "King for a Day," title track of Bobby's upcoming album - proof that Colby no longer looks anything like Donnie Davies (look for Colby at around 00:18) and also proof that Bobby Conn should have probably been farther up on Donnie's list of "Gay Bands" to watch out for.

KING FOR A DAY party version

Colby has already said it very clearly, but as Bobby Conn's (and by association Colby's) publicist, I'll say it again, Colby Starck is not Donnie Davies. Colby says, "While I'm honored to be a part of a viral internet sensation, I'm kind of bummed that they think I'm some kind of hateful-christian-rocker."

Posted by Jamie Proctor | January 26, 2007 12:16 PM
12

Yawn.

Posted by Lola | January 26, 2007 12:20 PM
13

Mr. Procter, as the band's publicist, please nip the idea in the bud that anyone was ever accusing him of being a homophobe. He and others keep defending his record against homophobia, but what he was thought to have done was satirize ex-gay/anti-gay ministries.

Posted by G-A-Y | January 26, 2007 12:30 PM
14

and since when does thrilljockey have publicists?

Posted by mischka | January 26, 2007 12:44 PM
15

I've seen a lot of accusations and defenses flying around about this whole thing, so apologies if I mistakenly implied the implication of anything

Posted by jamie proctor | January 26, 2007 1:09 PM
16
Posted by arlopop | January 26, 2007 1:23 PM
17

"[Jesus] does love you, but God hates you, and that's just the bible."

And the CHOPS logo? Come on now, this is hilarious - intentionally hilarious - stuff.

Posted by Levislade | January 26, 2007 1:39 PM
18

From the new video: "I could dunk a basketball."

HOAX.

Posted by Deb Occle | January 26, 2007 1:39 PM
19

Agreed w/ #18. The new video is too much.

Posted by Aislinn | January 26, 2007 1:52 PM
20

I think CHOP must be related to BASH, Betty Bowers' ministry. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see that Donnie were a True Christian™ and member of Landover Baptist Church.

Posted by Alan | January 26, 2007 2:09 PM
21

Did anyone catch the CHOPS logo at the end of the new video?

That is the best new facet to this piece of theatre.

Posted by arlopop | January 26, 2007 2:19 PM
22

Chadboulet: "My theory: the man who calls himself Donnie Davies is in fact a Christian -- not the garden variety fundamentalist type that we can easily get a handle on, but the renegade, dangerous, irrational type -- the kind that can find a Bible verse to justify bombing an abortion clinic."

What you fail to realize is that two brothers living in the Redding area had the exact same 'comical' ideology. They insisted that God demanded the death sentence on gays and them went out and murdered a totally innocent man who had been in a long term relationship. You self-righteous demigods on the right are playing with fire and will never know the true damage you feed with your sick hate and bigotry. Gerry Spence's new bestseller addresses this issue specifically.

Posted by Tom | January 26, 2007 4:35 PM

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