Slash, Melissa Etheridge, Jack Black Protest California's Prop 8

Two months ago, voters in California approved Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriage in the state. Since then, a wave of protests have popped up throughout the state in opposition to the new law. Many rockers have weighed in on the situation, including Slash, who made the video above with his wife Perla to drum up support for a protest several weeks ago. "I married my sweetheart," Perla says as her husband plays "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the background. "You should be able to marry yours too."

Others have joined in the fight. Melissa Etheridge, who posted a long anti-Prop 8 screed on her website in the days before the election, has vowed to not pay taxes as long as Prop 8 is law. "Okay, I get it," she writes. "51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books." Meanwhile, new dad Pete Wentz issued a statement that said, "I believe that this is, and has always been, a civil rights issue. We should not allow inequality like this in America." Christina Aguilera also called the decision "descrimination."

Composer Marc Shaiman has gone a step further, recruiting Tenacious D's Jack Black and Walk Hard star John C. Reilly for "Proposition 8 - The Musical," which recently premiered online at FunnyOrDie.com. It features the argument over gay marriage in song, until Neil Patrick Harris shows up to remind everybody that gay marriage could fix the economy. Check it out below.

Related Stories:
• Same Sex Setback: Why the Activists Who Opposed Proposition 8 Ran a Lousy Campaign
• Melissa Etheridge Blasts California's Prop 8 as "Blatantly Hateful"

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

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