Immigration issue draws Oberst

Conor Oberst has always been into political causes.

But now, he says, it's getting personal. Because of time spent in Mexico and friendships with Mexican natives, he's ratcheting up his activism, speaking out against new laws cracking down on illegal immigration in Fremont and in Arizona.

Oberst, an Omaha native, recently recorded an album in Mexico and on the Texas border. He named his Mystic Valley Band after the Valle Místico near Tepoztlán and recently wrote “Coyote Song,” a tune about two lovers separated by the border.

And he's outraged at the situation of a close family friend who came to the United States illegally from Mexico decades ago. She recently returned to Mexico so she could come back here legally, and though her three daughters and husband are citizens, she can't return to the U.S. for 10 years.

“That blows my mind,” Oberst said this week in his first interview with The World-Herald since 2006. “I don't see how that serves society. I don't see any justice in that. I don't see what the point is.”

Fremont supporters of the law — which would fine employers and landlords who hire and rent to illegal immigrants — said they were motivated by jobs lost to illegal immigrants and by the rising costs of law enforcement, medical care and education springing from illegal immigration.

The issue motivated Oberst to sponsor Saturday's Concert for Equality in downtown Benson, with proceeds going to a fund to fight the Fremont law in court.

It's the latest example of the marriage between politics and celebrities, with stars using their fame to promote pet causes — think Ted Nugent and the right to bear arms, or Elton John and the fight against AIDS — and celebrities such as political commentators using issues to further their careers and sell merchandise.

Coincidentally, conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham appeared in Omaha on Thursday to promote her new book, “The Obama Diaries,” which pokes fun at the president with fake diary entries.

Protest songs and benefit concerts have been a big part of rock history — the Concert for Bangladesh, USA for Africa, Farm Aid, Tibetan Freedom Concert, Live Aid.

But Scott Anderson, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor who teaches a rock 'n' roll history class, can't recall anything drawing the kind of ire expressed over the Arizona and Fremont immigration laws.

Along with Oberst, more than 200 artists have joined the Sound Strike boycott of Arizona performances. And 14 local and national artists — and possibly more special guests — will perform at Saturday's Benson concert.

“I've never seen a law spark this kind of reaction from the artistic community the way that this one has,” Anderson said Thursday. “When I think about the concerts that have been held or — in the MTV age — music videos that have been made, they were almost always in the spirit of helping in a situation when something catastrophic has happened. But nothing that I can think of actually crossed into the realm of a law.”

Anderson's happy to see rockers voice their opinions.

“I'm glad that rock has found its conscience again,” he said. “It's kind of a calculated risk, I suppose, though I doubt they're going to alienate any of their current audience.”

Some observers, of course, question whether performers have the pedigrees to influence public opinion on serious issues.

Ingraham, for instance, has said she thinks the “cultural elite” should keep their opinions to themselves. In 2007, she released a best-selling book about celebrities and their political causes — and what she thinks they should do with them — called “Shut Up & Sing.”

“Because they have hit the big time in music, on screen, on stage, or on the page, they think this entitles their political views to special attention and respect,” Ingraham wrote.

For his part, Oberst said he doesn't think he knows more just because he's famous or that he should speak all of his opinions simply because he has a large following. He just believes he can't be silent on issues he cares about so deeply.

“I think it's an individual choice for everyone. I mean, it's not something I started doing. It's something that I grew into doing,” he said. “It's not something I enjoy doing, to be honest, but occasionally I feel compelled to speak out on certain issues that are close to me, that I feel passionately about. This is one of those times.”

The emotive singer-songwriter who has been a favorite of critics will back up those beliefs at the Saturday concert benefitting the American Civil Liberties Union. The sold-out show will feature Oberst's band Bright Eyes, Cursive and the much-anticipated reunions of Lullaby for the Working Class and Oberst's Desaparecidos, among others.

“The Desaparecidos idea occurred first. We haven't played in eight years and it seemed like an appropriate time to play again,” Oberst said. “A lot of issues are what we were singing about, what the band's about. It seemed like a chance to do something good and effect some kind of good change, but also to play music again.”

In the interview, Oberst called the Fremont law “dangerous.”

“It's immoral, it's un-American, it's unconstitutional, it's unenforceable, it's hurtful, it's hateful, it's racist and it's going to create far more problems than it's going to solve,” he said. “It's going to create racial tension in Fremont and across Nebraska.”

In Fremont, a town of 25,000 about 30 miles west of Omaha, 57 percent of the voters supported the restrictions.

“I think Conor Oberst is the one that is racist,” said Susan Smith of the Nebraskans Advisory Group, who also called the singer anti-American. “I have real issues with his comments and he owes Americans across this country an apology. ... Of course, he's free to exercise his opinion.”

Smith and others in her group who campaigned for the Fremont law plan a protest at the concert. The group's website encourages protesters to boycott the bands involved and suggests making signs reading “Deport Conor Oberst and the ACLU,” among other slogans.

On July 23, Oberst performed with his Mystic Valley Band at a California concert with Rage Against the Machine. That concert got buzz everywhere from MTV to CNN to Rolling Stone. It raised funds for Puente Arizona, an immigration rights group, and the Florence Project, a group that provides legal advice to people facing deportation in Arizona.

Of late, UNL's Anderson has noticed that musicians are involved in more and more protest concerts and movements, including Oberst and Rage Against the Machine's efforts as well as Lady Gaga's concerts protesting Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, to name a few.

“I was really racking my brain for a similar situation in the history of rock 'n' roll, and there really isn't anything,” he said.

Protest songs by artists such as Neil Young, Bob Dylan and John Lennon had their place in rock 'n' roll, “but they were after the fact,” Anderson said.

Oberst has always been proactive as well as reactive. He was part of the Vote for Change Tour with Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., John Fogerty and Young. The 2004 tour railed against then-President George W. Bush and urged fans to cast votes for Sen. John Kerry.

He also penned the anti-Bush song “When the President Talks to God,” which he performed on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” in 2005. It includes lyrics such as “When the president talks to God / Are the conversations brief or long? / Does he ask to rape our women's' rights / And send poor farm kids off to die?”

And in 2008, Oberst performed with Jim James of My Morning Jacket and singer-songwriter M. Ward at a pair of rallies for Barack Obama.

Oberst is willing to take his cause as far as necessary, he said in the interview. In recent writings, he said he'd boycott his native city and state if Nebraska passed a similar statewide law.

Was he serious?

“Yes, and you can quote me on that,” Oberst said.

Contact the writer: 444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com

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