Tiger King Could Sing: Revisiting Joe Exotic’s Country Music Career

Mike Wass | March 29, 2020 2:50 pm

EDIT: Gutted! It turns out, Tiger King couldn’t actually sing. Instead he pulled off a Milli Vanilli-type hoax with a little help from The Clinton Johnson Band. Strangely, this just makes me like Joe even more. Find out more about the actual singers here.

First things first, free Joe Exotic! The man might be guilty of a lot of things, but that murder-for-hire charge is as bogus as the zoo operator’s 2016 presidential bid. If you haven’t watched Netflix’s Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness yet, you probably don’t know who I’m talking about. Which is frankly your loss because Joseph Maldonado-Passage (his real name) is the gun-toting, mullet-wearing, openly gay anti-hero of 2020. Not only is his life story wilder than any telenovela, he also dabbled in country music.

Once you get past the hilarious home movies doubling as video clips, Joe’s music isn’t as excruciating as you might think. Tiger King can sing. He can even write a not-entirely terrible song when feels like it. And, if nothing else, his tunes come from the heart. “Here Kitty Kitty” is a ruthless takedown of Carole Baskin (the video has to be seen to be believed), “I Saw A Tiger” is about his passion for big cats, “Because You Love Me” is dedicated to the men in his life, “This Is My Life” covers much of the same territory and “Pretty Woman Lover”… well, that one’s pure fiction.

Sit back, relax and make your way through a selection of Joe Exotic’s country classics below. Is it too late to give him a retrospective Grammy?

“Here Kitty Kitty”:

“I Saw A Tiger”:

“Because You Love Me”:

“This Is My Life”:

“Pretty Woman Lover”:

What was Joe’s greatest “hit”? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Facebook and Twitter!