Joan Baez appeared on the debut episode of John Mulaney’s new Netflix talk show “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney,” and took the opportunity to speak her mind.
The famed folk singer and activist paused Mulaney’s show “to set the context” that she finds herself in after the comedian asked her a question about her friendship with the late Martin Luther King Jr.
“You said I could say anything I want out here,” Baez said, after receiving reassurance from Mulaney. “We’re all here to be silly and have fun, as long as we recognize the fact that our democracy is going up in flames and we’re being run by a bunch of really incompetent billionaires.”
The audience cheered and applauded for Baez, who did not name the “incompetent billionaires” that she referenced.
“Joan, thank you for saying that and please, anyone say whatever you want on this show,” Mulaney added, speaking to his other guests sitting next to Baez, which included Michael Keaton, Fred Armisen and personal finance columnist Jessica Roy.
Baez went on to tell a story about King Jr., saying that he, like her, “had the image of always being serious,” but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
She went on the recount a time when she picked up the legendary activist and his cohorts from the airport in South Carolina ahead of a conference that they were all attending, with a march planned for the days that followed. Baez said she was looking forward to hearing from King Jr. and his team about getting “the inside story on how these guys do these marches and civil disobedience.”
Instead, Baez said, “they all start telling dirty jokes” while they were in the car together. “I’m not supposed to say that but they did, from the airport to his favorite little restaurant where they ate.”
Mulaney chimed in to ask what everyone else was thinking, which is whether she remembered any of the jokes she heard.
Baez admitted that yes, indeed she did, but “I can’t tell them here.”
