‘Disgraceland’ Looks At ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic’s Country Music Career

Disgraceland host Jake Brennan, like so many others, recently binge-watched the addictive Tiger King documentary series on Netflix, so on this episode, he explores the story of Joe Exotic, the “polygamist, politician, padlocked, Prince-Albert-wearing protagonist” whose insane life story captivated a nation under quarantine. Jake dives into his past as a police chief, his campaign for governor, his animal farm the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, his relationships with his husbands Travis Maldonado and John Finley, his rivalry with Big Cat Rescue animal activist Carole Baskin, and of course, his country music career, recently discovered to be a total fraud – except for the music videos he made.

Joe’s tumultuous personal life led to several ill-fated unions: his first husband, Brian, died from complications with AIDS; his second husband, JC, was abusive and volatile, eventually convicted of murder; but his third and fourth husbands, John and Travis, were more under Joe’s thumb than the other way around. “Like John, Travis wasn’t even really gay...also like John, Travis like the meth a little too much. It clouded things, made it all blue-y in his head.” Joe wanted to write a song for Travis, so he posted a request on Craigslist. When he got the track, “he heard his future calling him,” Jake says. “The song was perfect, so on brand. So Joe.” He ended up making music videos of these songs, taking full credit for them, unbeknownst to the band who was actually creating them. And one of those videos featured him wearing a priest outfit, feeding limbs, meant to represent his nemesis Carole Baskin’s husband, to his tigers. 

Carole had been trying to get Joe’s zoo shut down for animal abuse, but Joe thought she was a hypocrite; her Big Cat Rescue farm had tigers and lions, so why shouldn’t he? And he, “like others, was convinced that Carole was the actual criminal,” accusing her of murdering her husband by feeding him to her tigers. But Carole managed to win a lawsuit against Joe for copyright infringement, requiring him to pay her $1 million in fees. She was bleeding Joe dry. She had to go. Joe made a plan with an employee, ex-convict Allen Glover, to get rid of Carole, but he “ran out of f**ks to give decades before running into Joe Exotic and his band of Misfit Toys at the G.W. Zoo;” he only agreed to the job because then he would “own Joe.” Though Allen ended up blowing off the assignment, Joe couldn’t escape the consequences of the plan or of his treatment of the big cats at his farm. Listen to this episode to hear all about the many twists and turns in the Tiger King story, who’s really responsible for his music career, his ill-fated campaign for governor, and much more on Disgraceland. 

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