Internet tuning in to Jeffs — as a rock star
His voice, image making inroads in pop culture
Warren Jeffs merchandise is popping up on the Internet, from T-shirts featuring the Fundamentalist LDS Church leader dressed in stereotypical "pimp" garb, to Jeffs' voice fronting a song for an experimental rock group's latest album.
"His view of the world seems very twisted, and we wonder if he really believes what he's saying, or is it just rhetoric to control the flock?" Steve De Chiara of the Chicago-based group KinkZoid wrote in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News.
"Warren Jeffs Explains" is the single off the group's latest album. The group describes its style of mixing sounds, tape loops and instruments to "create a clash of audio imagery."
The song features a racist and homophobic sermon by Jeffs explaining the origins of rock music. Jeffs gave the lecture when he was principal of the FLDS-run Alta Academy school at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon in the 1990s. The Deseret Morning News obtained a series of tape-recorded sermons from the time that speak about arranged marriages for girls and Jeffs' version of the history of polygamy and the Mormon religion.
"So when you enjoy the beat of the rock music, maybe even toned down with an orchestra, you are enjoying the spirit of the black race," Jeffs said in his monotone voice, adding that listening to rock music will "rot the soul" and lead to immorality, corruption and godlessness.
"Thus, the whole world has partaken of the spirit of the Negro race, accepting of their ways," Jeffs said in that 1990s sermon.
KinkZoid decided to put Jeffs' words to a blues riff.
"It fit very nicely to a blues-type beat" because he is speaking very close to perfect 4/4 time, "and the irony of the content of his speech put to a primarily African-American music form (blues) made it all the more intriguing," De Chiara wrote.
Jeffs' biggest fan base won't likely hear his newfound fame as a rock star. Faithful followers in the FLDS-enclaves across the western United States have been told to shun all forms of media, including newspapers, TV and the Internet.
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