For anyone eagerly awaiting an “alternative” to the Super Bowl halftime show featuring Bad Bunny, the “All-American Halftime Show” appears to be on, and for the same day, Feb. 8.
But contrary to what you may have seen on social media, Joan Baez and Neil Young, at the very least, will not be part of it.
AI slop continues to seep into social media, with Boomer-era musicians continually depicted in false photos. As Rolling Stone has previously reported, bogus images of classic rockers in hospitals or singing at the graves of other rockers have flooded the internet — fooling some fans in the process and provoking laughs in just as many. (No, Steven Tyler did not visit Robert Plant in a hospital after he “collapses on stage.”)
The lineup for Turning Point USA‘s “All-American Half-Time Show” — “celebrating faith, family and freedom” — hasn’t yet been announced. (One can, however, go to TPUSA’s website to vote for which category of music you’d like to see and hear, which includes, tellingly, “Anything in English.”) But that hasn’t stopped the AI machine from churning out at least one fake TPUSA half-time ad announcing that Baez and Young will be co-headlining “a heartfelt and patriotic alternative to the Super Bowl 60 halftime event” that will “honor the enduring legacy of Charlie Kirk.” To ram home the point, a football field and large American flag are shown in the background. In overblown language familiar to anyone who tracks such things, the post adds, “With Joan’s golden voice and Neil’s grace-filled harmony, the All-American Halftime Show will turn the world’s biggest stage into a moment of hope and homecoming.”
Reps for Young and Baez declined to comment, much like reps for Bob Dylan, Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, and others who have passed on making statements about AI imagery that’s hoodwinked whatever percentage of their fan bases.
The inclusion of Baez and Young, two particularly devoted Trump bashers, is especially amusing in light of Young’s new anti-Trump protest song “Big Crime” and Baez’s criticisms of the president. And let’s not forget their participation in the L.A. stop of this year’s Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, where they were also joined by Maggie Rogers. There, Baez sang the folk song “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” with updated Trump-era lyrics ( “Ain’t gonna let no white supremacists turn me around”) and Young led the crowd in a sing-along of “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
Another bogus post claims that “six legends” of country, including Willie Nelson, will be partaking in the same bizarro-universe halftime show. “More AI horseshit about Willie,” a rep for Nelson tells Rolling Stone. “They obviously don’t know anything about Willie, do they?”
To quote one commentator on the Young-Baez fabrication: “I don’t think so, but nice try, dingbats.”