Grace Slick Licensed A Starship Hit To Chick-Fil-A So She Could Donate The Fee To LGBTQ Charity

Vince Bucci/Getty Images

Grace Slick Licensed A Starship Hit To Chick-Fil-A So She Could Donate The Fee To LGBTQ Charity

Vince Bucci/Getty Images

Starship’s 1987 song “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” was used in a Chick-fil-A ad that aired during the Grammys, and Jefferson Airplane and Starship singer Grace Slick recently published an op-ed in Forbes explaining that she licensed the song to the infamously conservative fast food chain in order to donate their fee to an LGBTQ organization.

“Instead of [Chick-fil-A] replacing my song with someone else’s and losing this opportunity to strike back at anti-LGBTQ forces, I decided to spend the cash in direct opposition to ‘Check’-fil-A’s causes – and to make a public example of them, too,” she writes. “We’re going to take some of their money, and pay it back.”

“See, I come from a time when artists didn’t just sell their soul to the highest bidder, when musicians took a stand, when the message of songs was “feed your head,” not “feed your wallet,” she continues. “We need that kind of artistic integrity today, more than ever.”

The proceeds from the commercial are going towards Lambda Legal. And for those thinking Slick is being opportunistic in accepting Chick-fil-A’s money:

You might think I’m writing this just to cover my ass for allowing a company whose practices many find morally objectionable to use Starship’s music. Well, I haven’t covered my ass since the day I was born (except, maybe, in a pair of white Levi’s). From the moment I agreed to license the song, I knew I wanted to set an example for other artists.

more from News