Artists on the Right: The Smithereens’ Pat DiNizio Pt 1

Pat DiNizio, songwriter and vocalist for the successful rock band The Smithereens (“A Girl Like You,” “Blood and Roses,” “Only A Memory”), has long faced alienation from the liberal entertainment industry because of his semi-conservative views.

He says, “People who are extremely left wing, who think it’s an artist’s obligation to be extremely liberal and espouse that philosophy and they don’t get it from me, they hate me. I’m a traitor and they want to burn my records.“

Why do they think artists are obligated to be liberal? “I don’t know. You can still enjoy my music even if you don’t like my politics and I still deserve to work.”

Despite this opposition, his passion for making a difference led him to run for Senator on the Reform Party ticket in 2000.

ANTAGONISM FROM LEFT AND RIGHT

He says, “When I was trying to solicit campaign contributions for my Senate run, I called the head of a San Francisco record company distributed by Columbia Records. He said, ‘Sure I know the Smithereens. Sure I’ll help you. You are a Democrat, right?’ I said, ‘No, I’m Reform Party, I’m independent.’ He said, ‘Well, fuck you, fuck the Reform Party, and fuck your campaign because if you’re not a liberal Democrat, as far as I’m concerned, you’re a Nazi.’”

DiNizio continues, “That’s the tip of the iceberg of the attitude that prevails in the entertainment industry. I’m trying to help people, I’m trying to make a better world for my daughter and for other children, and I’m trying to be an honest person who will really represent the people, and this is what I get.”

Yet as a “rock and roller,” he is not necessarily accepted by mainstream conservatives either.  He says, “I’ll get into an elevator with a bunch of Republicans wearing blue suits and red ties, and they’ll look at me like I’m from another planet and step off the elevator.”

After losing his difficult New Jersey Senate race, which director Joshua Tunick recorded in his 2002 documentary film Mr. Smithereen Goes To Washington, DiNizio decided not to run for public office again, but he still has a strong interest in observing the political scene.

EARLY EFFORTS IN POLITICS AND MUSIC

DiNizio says he was “always a political creature.” His involvement began at age 18 as a two-term Republican Party Committeeman in New Jersey, where he was “being groomed for a political career.” However, at the time, “I saw corruption that would make your head spin and I didn’t want to be part of it.” He says such corruption exists everywhere because politics “attracts a certain type of people,” but “I’m sure that there are honest ones.”

Politics went on the back burner as he pursued a career in rock and roll in the early 1980s. The Smithereens’ debut album Especially For You landed them on the rock charts in 1986 with the hit “Blood and Roses.”

In April, 1987, the Smithereens opened for the Pretenders at Radio City Music Hall. Pat DiNizio recalls, “Radio City is beyond fabled, it’s the greatest venue in the world. To see our name on the marquee brought tears to my eyes. My Dad was sitting in the tenth row. I remember our drummer Dennis Diken’s wife Donna telling me, ‘Your father was singing every word to every song.’It was quite a moment.”

THE SMITHEREENS TODAY

The Smithereens, whose members are still the same musicians who first got together in 1980, have had continued success. They are putting the finishing touches on a new record produced by Don Dixon, due for release by Koch in April 2011. Basic tracks were recorded at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium studio in early October, with additional tracks to be recorded at DiNizio’s home in November, “probably in my kitchen.”

THE 2010 ELECTION

Pat DiNizio believes he has a unique perspective on the political mood of Americans today. He has conversations with people and listens to their concerns as he tours the United States throughout the year with his band, and especially when he performs solo “Living Room Concerts” at peoples’ homes.

Before Obama was elected, DiNizio would hear people comment that Bush was bankrupting the country. “There was such unhappiness regarding Bush, that people who would not normally have voted Democratic, especially for the most liberal Presidential candidate in the history of American politics, voted for Obama anyway.”

At that point people had hope that things would improve. In contrast, “Now, for the first time, I get a sense that people are afraid of their government.”

He mentions cameras on every street corner, phone calls being monitored. “I want to be left alone. I don’t want Big Brother and I think people are genuinely scared of the Obama regime.” DiNizio says that people are looking at history’s dictatorships and they fear our government may be becoming too powerful. “This is the sentiment, this is the feeling among people.”

Regarding the Tea Party, he says, “I think it’s healthy anytime anyone feels motivated or passionate enough to take part in the political process. The Tea Party is really Middle America, hard working taxpayers who feel underrepresentation from their elected public officials. They want the people they voted into office to respond to what they want. They are certainly unhappy with the Obama regime because they feel he surrounded himself with too many “Czars” who are accountable to no one but him in the White House, most of whom have socialist/Marxist leanings. They can smell it and they don’t like it.

“It’s like my mother used to say, tell me who you hang around with and I’ll tell you what you like.” Referring to Obama’s 20-year association with black liberation theology advocate Reverend Jeremiah Wright, DiNizio says, “It’s not healthy to have someone say, ‘Goddamn America’ and you defend them. Discourse is fine but not hate.”

DiNizio believes that Obama putting a very limited number of people to work fixing roads and bridges won’t solve today’s unemployment problems, and is mainly a payback to unions for supporting his campaign. “I’d rather see the roads fall apart a little more for the next couple of years and see some real sincere work, creating industry. We need to start making stuff that the rest of the world needs or we’re not going to have a country anymore.

“You’ve got a President who’s nationalizing the automobile industry. He’s taking over corporations like AIG. He fired the president of GM. When he demanded that he step down, I knew something was wrong. There’s something wrong with this, I’ve never seen it done this way in my life. People are frightened by it.”

DiNizio sums it up: “There is an amazing, inordinate amount of voter remorse out there. You’re going to see something extraordinary come November 2nd — if the voting machines aren’t tampered with.

“We’re going to see if the people are going to stand up and be counted. My friend from New Orleans said to me, ‘Pat, if you don’t stand for something then you’ll fall for anything.’”

Story continues in Part 2