Does Joe Exotic Actually Sing His Songs in “Tiger King”? An Investigation

Tiger King has raised a lot of important questions, and this is chief among them.

There’s a lot going on in Netflix’s latest true crime documentary series Tiger King. We don’t want to spoil too much for those who haven’t watched it yet, but it’s filled with murder plots, intense rivalries and a whole lot of tiger cubs.

However, it’s the show's titular Oklahoma zookeeper Joe Exotic (aka Joseph Maldonado-Passage) who viewers really can’t look away from. More specifically: his music videos. As we come to learn, the ostentatious Joe loves the spotlight, and as evidence, he’s uploaded a bunch of country songs to YouTube for us all to admire.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the tracks are all about big cats, though he brings some pretty heavy allegations to "Here Kitty Kitty" and takes a more soulful approach on "I Saw a Tiger". Not only are the tunes exceptionally catchy, but the vocals are actually pretty decent.

Check it out for yourself. Oh, and make sure you pause it at 1:39 for a particularly powerful shot.

If you’ve watched that video, and heard how Joe Exotic actually sounds during Tiger King, it’s highly likely that you’re wondering right about now: Is that actually Joe Exotic singing?

That's the burning question we all want answered. So, let’s figure this out together. (It's Vanity Fair that did a lot of heavy lifting in uncovering the truth about Joe's singing, so you can head here to learn more). 

Can Joe sing?

While it was never suggested in the Netflix doco that Joe wasn’t singing the songs, apparently he cannot hold a tune.

According to Rick Kirkham, who was hired by Joe to produce his prospective reality show, Joe insisted that he was definitely the vocalist on the tracks.

"It was absolutely ridiculous," Kirkham said in an interview with Vanity Fair.

"One time, Joe got a little bit drunk and high, and we actually coaxed him into singing part of one of the songs. He couldn’t even hold a tune. It was just so ludicrous. It was a big joke within the crew and staff that it wasn’t him [singing in the videos]—but he was damned insistent to anyone and everyone, including us and my studio crew, that that was him."

In saying that, the creator of the Joe Exotic: Tiger King podcast, Robert Moor, revealed that Joe contributed to his music by singing "softly over the top of the vocal track".

A few pieces of trivia, for people who just watched #TigerKing on Netflix.

1. Joe did not write or sing those country songs. It was an outfit called the Clinton Johnson Band. Joe just sang softly over the top of the vocal track: https://t.co/s4ak4itmUM

— 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐫 (@robertmoor_) March 22, 2020

Tiger King directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin also told the Los Angeles Times that they struggled to find out the truth about Joe’s music.

"With certain songs, it became super confusing. And then our fact-checker told us we were wrong, he was actually singing on certain songs. It was tricky to determine which he was on."

It’s all very mysterious.

Does he at least play the guitar?

Sorry to disappoint, but it looks like Joe doesn’t do that either.

Romeo Dupuy, a producer who moved to Oklahoma to work with Joe told Vanity Fair that the performer didn’t play the instrument at all.

"I’m a musician myself, and I was just flabbergasted by the sheer fakeness of his presentation," Dupuy said.

"He couldn’t even play the guitar. So we would pose him. When we shot him playing these songs, he would be behind grass to cover up his hands. Then he’d lip-sync."

Ah, that explains this shot in "I Saw a Tiger".

Okay, so who does write and sing the songs?

That would appear to be musicians Vince Johnson and Danny Clinton, who are both listed in Tiger King’s credits. Known as The Clinton Johnson Band, Johnson told TMZ that they responded to one of Joe’s ads to make a theme song for Joe’s television show.

He explained that Joe would give him a theme, he’d write it up, Clinton would sing it, and they'd send it to Joe. Johnson had agreed to work pro bono in exchange for the potential exposure his music could get.

Except, Johnson didn’t realise he wasn’t going to get any credit.

"I had no idea he was going to Milli Vanilli the songs," he told Vanity Fair via email.

"It was a couple of months and two or three songs [into the collaboration] when I was on YouTube one night and just happened to look up Joe Exotic. And there he was, lip-syncing and acting like the ghost of Elvis [in these music videos]."

Johnson pointed out that since the doco premiered, he’s been getting lots of media attention. But sadly, Clinton passed away last October from a heart-related issue.

You can hear Clinton's vocals in the band's song "Then I Saw Me".

Tiger King is now streaming on Netflix.

Header Image: YouTube (JoeExoticTV)