| A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop | |
| Type: | Single |
| Artist: | Neil Young & Promise of the Real |
| Album: | The Monsanto Years |
| Released: | June 29, 2015 |
| Recorded: | February 11, 2015 |
| Studio: | Teatro, Oxnard |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 5:00 |
| Label: | Reprise Records |
| Producer: |
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| Prev Title: | Who's Gonna Stand Up? |
| Prev Year: | 2014 |
| Next Title: | Wolf Moon |
| Next Year: | 2015 |
"A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop" is a song recorded by Neil Young and Promise of the Real. It is a protest song aimed at the companies Starbucks and Monsanto. The piece comes from the concept album The Monsanto Years, which primarily criticizes the company Monsanto.
The song was released as a single in May 2015 and is the first song on the album The Monsanto Years.[1] [2]
It refers to the lawsuit by Monsanto against Vermont due to the state's attempt at passing a GMO labeling law.[3] The song also references "the poison tide of Monsanto" and a farmer who signs a GMO deal when Young sings, "I want a cup of coffee but I don't want a GMO. I'd like to start my day off without helping Monsanto."[4] [5]
In a brief review of the song, Stefan Schmidt in The National Singles Round-Up also remarked that song did not hold back against critiquing Starbucks and Monsanto and suggested that Young hadn't lost his appetite for tackling political issues.[6]
Young also introduced an acoustic version of the song in Maui while performing at "OUTGROW Monsanto", a festival held to protest Monsanto's business practices in Hawaii.[7]
Moreover, the song was also featured in Young's July and October 2015 tours, for which Promise of the Real served as his backing band.[8]