‘CHILL NORMAL DUDE’

Rock Legend Humiliates Elon Musk With Damning New Song

The Grammy winner used Elon’s own words against him.

David Byrne, 74, has taken on technocrat Elon Musk—in song.

Byrne and composer Daniel Pemberton, 48, teamed up with filmmaker Alex Gibney, 72, to write a song for Gibney’s documentary Musk, which investigates the SpaceX founder’s descent into MAGA’s conspiratorial realm. The musicians created “Let Me Sell You a Dream,” out now on Matador Records.

Instead of writing a “personal editorial” about his own thoughts on Musk, Byrne’s lyrics are exclusively verbatim quotes from the Tesla founder. Byrne said in a Grandstand Media statement that he wanted to “let the character in the song be the one who describes himself.”

“I thought, ‘Let’s see if we can get inside Elon Musk’s head and imagine what he’s thinking, how he feels, what he thinks of himself and what he’s up to,’” Byrne added on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “And I thought, ‘OK. He makes lots of really quotable quotes.’ He puts them out there.”

Byrne pulled Musk quotes from the film itself, from Gibney, and from the internet. After finding so many of Musk’s odd statements, Byrne knew they “got the lyrics right here,” he told Meyers, 52.

“He says, ‘I eat a glass sandwich. I do it every day,’” Byrne said of Musk. “I couldn’t make that up. But he said it.”

Byrne arranged Musk’s proclamations into winding verses, while Pemberton produced the fast, sardonic punk score behind the lyrics. Pemberton is an Oscar nominee who composed scores for movies like Project Hail Mary and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Together, he and Byrne sought to channel Musk’s breakneck bizarreness.

“Now I’m running human and imitation mode / I’m a chill normal dude / I just have to keep going,” Byrne sings. “Let me sell you a dream / Do you think I’m insane? / I eat a glass sandwich / I eat them every day.”

A psychedelic bridge follows. Byrne sings, “Multi-planet exploration / I’m a human emulation / I’m a total simulation.”

Play Video

The Talking Heads frontman used a similar songwriting technique for Here Lies Love, his Broadway collaboration with Fatboy Slim, centered on Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines. He drew lyrics from Marcos’s own words and the words of members of her inner circle.

Gibney said in Grandstand’s statement that he’s a longtime fan of Byrne and “desperately wanted an uptempo song for the end of the film that would channel the chaotic spirit of Elon.” He added Byrne and Pemberton “conjured up musical magic.”

Pemberton added, “We find ourselves in a messy, complicated moment in history where the richest and most powerful use unrealistic promises, dreams and deflection to consolidate their wealth and control rather than to work towards a genuine better future for anyone else.”

“Let Me Sell You a Dream” puts Byrne in the race for Best Original Song at this year’s Oscars. His primary competition is likely Taylor Swift for her Toy Story 5 song, “I Knew It, I Knew You.” Byrne previously won an Oscar for Best Original Score with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su for The Last Emperor in 1988; he won a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for the same movie.

Meyers had one final question for Byrne during his interview. He wanted to know whether Musk would try to share credit for the song, since the lyrics came from his mouth first. Musk has slammed Gibney’s documentary “hit piece” and threatened legal action.

“If he does that rather than sic his lawyers on me, I’ll take it,” Byrne said. “That’s a perfectly good outcome.”

Obsessed with pop culture and entertainment? Follow us on Substack and YouTube for even more coverage.

Dana Herrnstadt Editorial Intern, Obsessed

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.