Joan Baez Urges Pop Stars to Use Their Voices to Speak About Politics: 'Just Take That Little Step'

During an appearance on the 'Wiser Than Me' podcast with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the singer and activist claimed only "a few are willing to speak out"

NEED TO KNOW

• Joan Baez wants pop stars to speak up about politics
• During the Wiser Than Me podcast with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the singer and activist mentioned how Brandi Carlile and Maggie Rogers have been willing to do so
• Baez noted that only “a few are willing to speak out”

Joan Baez wants pop stars to use their platforms to speak about politics.

During the Wednesday, May 27 episode of the Wiser Than Me podcast with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the singer and activist was asked by the host what she thought about artists who haven't spoken out against the Trump administration.

“There's a whole generation of really talented artists who are quite silent about the current assault on democracy,” said Louis-Dreyfus, 65. “Do you find that unbelievably frustrating, or do you understand, perhaps, where those artists are coming from?”

Baez, 85, said she could "understand where they're coming from."

"It's revealing that the one song that's used in all of these demonstrations is ‘The Times They Are a-Changin.' The level of that writing from back then hasn't been approached. No one has approached it. You can't summon that up, I don't think," she said.

Baez then praised young people for writing "amazing stuff" right now.

"A few are willing to speak out. Brandi Carlile is. And Maggie Rogers, my pal, put [it] right out there front and center on the stage at a rally against ICE. I sort of cock my head at these stadiums filled with brilliant young women songwriters, and why can't they just take that little step?" she asked.

Baez continued, "Because they're already richer than God, you know, most of them. So, that little step.”

The Sheep Detectives star then asked Baez what she wishes she knew about activism in her earlier years.

“What comes to my mind is not about activism, it's about the singing,” Baez said. “I don't know what I sang, but I sang something for the Shriners and they got quiet and they actually listened. Some old guy came up to me afterwards and he said, ‘You know honey, don't sign cheap. You're okay honey, you're going to do good.'”

In March, Baez appeared alongside Rogers, 32, and Tom Morello to perform "The Times They Are A-Changin'" at the No Kings rally in St. Paul, Minn.

That month, the "Diamonds and Rust" performer also participated in the Artists United for Our Freedoms event in March, protesting Trump's changes to the Kennedy Center.

In a 2019 interview with PEOPLE, Baez spoke about how she initially became involved in activism.

"I first got involved in nonviolent action through my parents when I was 15," she said. "They were picketing a war movie, and I went with them. I was constantly surrounded by talk of violence and nonviolence, and for whatever reason, at a very early age, I thought that nonviolence was the only thing that ever made any sense."

Baez continued, "I have two gifts, one is my voice, and the second, bigger one is how I chose to use it, and I choose to use it in a way that made personal growth sort of extraordinary. It gave me wings."

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