Father John Misty reacts to hearing his song on “The Voice”

Daughtry or FJM? The Voice contestant Aaron Gibson recently covered Father John Misty’s “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings.” And it was truly, indelibly bad. Reminiscent of an early 2000s American Idol performance, Gibson belted out a strange rendition of the Fear Fun (2012) staple tune.

In a post to Facebook that he later deleted, Father John Misty reacted to the performance stating “why, God, why.” I find myself asking the same question. Why and how did the outspoken, tongue-in-cheek, and anti-establishment FJM have his song disassembled to resemble a 2003 Nickelback song, and then presented to the world on the platform of a mass-produced pseudo-artistic television program. Why?

In a series of tweets following the deletion of his original theistic questioning, Misty proceeded to use “The Voice” as a metaphor for the America of today. Among other things, he graciously asserted that he is “happy for anyone to sing any of [his] songs and it is more important now than ever that we not be apathetic about who we vote for on game shows.”

While FJM has taken the high road, I still think that we should collectively try as a society to not add the butchering of Father John Misty to the fast-growing list of reasons for why “2016 Sucks.”

Check out the original version of “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” here: