Even if it wasn’t streaming at a time when coronavirus concerns were keeping Americans at home and watching TV, “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” would likely still be an obsession. The too-crazy-to-make-up true crime tale involves a big cat collector who goes by the name of Joe Exotic, a murder-for -hire scheme, a feud between Exotic and another big cat theme park owner whose former husband mysteriously disappeared, and, of course, Exotic’s do-it-yourself country music videos.

Now, in news that probably won’t surprise anybody who’s seen the outlandish “Tiger King,” it’s reported that -- gasp! -- those videos feature music made not by Joe Exotic, but by a band from Vancouver, Washington.

As Vanity Fair reports, the musicians who really performed such tunes as “I Saw a Tiger," and “Here Kitty Kitty,” are Vince Johnson and vocalist Danny Clinton (Clinton died in October 2019, according to TMZ), who lived in Vancouver, and were known as the Clinton Johnson Band.

The Vanity Fair piece goes on to say that Exotic lip-synched and pretended to play the guitar in his low-budget videos, but he tried to make everyone believe that he was the man behind the music.

The report says that Exotic found Johnson and Clinton and “convinced them to produce customized cat songs for free. The musicians had a proven record personalizing lyrics to clients’ needs—Johnson said that a song they wrote about Meineke’s poor service, commissioned by an unhappy customer, was what won over Joe — but had not yet broken through any major market as recording artists. Joe contacted Johnson, explained that he was a large-cat owner operating a private zoo in Oklahoma, and said he needed music for a reality show that was the subject of a bidding war between Animal Planet, Discovery, and National Geographic. Johnson agreed to work pro bono in exchange for the potential exposure his music could get on cable TV.”

Vanity Fair says Johnson wrote in an email that he had no idea Exotic was going to “Milli Vanilli the songs,” and that once Johnson found the videos, he contacted Exotic, wanting to receive “the proper credit.”

Once it became obvious that Exotic wasn’t actually going to produce a show for a TV network, Johnson said he wasn’t interested in working with a “con man kook," though Johnson added in his email to Vanity Fair that “Joe, all in all, was likable. Most people just bore the hell out of me. They have the personality of a lobster. He’s a seedy shyster, but he’s got personality.”

The “Tiger King” phenomenon has also cast light on a big cat collector known as Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who turns up in the documentary series as the proprietor of his own wildlife preserve. As a post on the Too Fab website reports, Antle can be seen in the background during Britney Spears’ notorious performance in 2001 at the MTV Video Music Awards.

As the Too Fab piece reports, “Over the weekend, writer Evan Ross Katz drew attention to some old photos from the event, where Antle can be seen behind Spears wrangling a tiger as she performed ‘I’m a Slave 4 U.’ Both the tiger and the snake she infamously danced with were on loan from the founder and director of the Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species wildlife preserve.”

As if that wasn’t enough noise, Florida law enforcement authorities are hoping the attention generated by “Tiger King” may help them solve the case of what happened to Jack “Don” Lewis, a self-made millionaire who was married to Carole Baskin -- Joe Exotic’s nemesis -- before Lewis disappeared, in 1997.

As People reports, “Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister asked on Twitter Monday morning that anyone with any information on Lewis’ disappearance come forward.”

Baskin has denied involvement in Lewis’ disappearance, and has also refused to take a polygraph test.

As of today, “Tiger King” is still listed as the most-watched show in Netflix’ Top 10 in the U.S. list.

-- Kristi Turnquist

kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist

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