Watching Mike Huckabee have a jam sesh with Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch is kind of like seeing your uncle play “Guitar Hero.”
It doesn’t make sense, mostly because “Guitar Hero” hasn’t been popular for a decade and partially because you didn’t know Uncle Mike was musically inclined. But here you are.
Last week, the former presidential candidate turned TV host spoke with Welch on his show. It was all fun and games until Huckabee said, “About five and a half, six years ago, you and I first met. I interviewed you, and I said then, ‘Hey, we gotta do music together sometime.’ Remember that? And you said you would do it. You’ll still do it, right?”
Welch agreed, and Huckabee already knew it was going to get weird.
“I realize that when the two of us are on stage together, it may not look like that we actually blend,” he said, “but we do.”
And then, here we are, suddenly watching Huckabee and Welch rock out together to “Blind.”
Known primarily for his long dreadlocks and his conversion to Christianity, Welch is an unlikely yet understandable partner for Huckabee. The clip is odd, but at least Huckabee found a musician who likes him. It can be hard for Republicans.
Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello famously denounced Paul Ryan in 2012, writing a Rolling Stone op-ed after the former presidential candidate said he was a fan of the rock band.
“Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades,” Morello wrote.
On the other side of the political spectrum, Katy Perry loves Hillary Clinton, John Legend loves former President Barack Obama, and Bon Jovi is already supporting 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. (Someone has to.)
Viewers may have roasted Huckabee’s collaboration, but you’ve got to give the erstwhile politician credit for making friends in the music industry. As one more positive viewer wrote, “Rock on.”
