Moe Tucker

[[File:The Moe Tucker Band (2).jpg|thumb|right|165px|Tucker (center) in 2010]]
{{uspolitics}}
'''Maureen "Moe" Tucker''' {{lived|1944}} is an [[United States|American]] [[music]]ian best known for her work as drummer of The Velvet Underground. In recent years, she has stopped recording and largely fallen out of the public eye but has come out in support of the [[Tea Party movement]].

==Music career==
Tucker joined The Velvet Underground in 1965 at the request of guitarist Sterling Morrison after the original drummer, Angus MacLise, quit. Her style of drumming was considered unique: she played standing up and with mallets, and her kit consisted of tom-toms, a snare drum, and an upturned bass drum, and she rarely used cymbals.

Tucker took a hiatus from the band in early 1970 when she was pregnant with her first child. Later that year, she returned to tour North America and Europe with the band but ultimately left for good in 1971.

Tucker moved to Phoenix, [[Arizona]], with her husband in 1971 and had four more children. She released her first solo album in 1981. After divorcing sometime in the early 1980s, she moved to Douglas, [[Georgia]], where she found work at a [[Wal-Mart]] distribution center. In 1989, she quit this job to tour Europe with the band Half Japanese and also released her second solo album.

Throughout the 1990s, Tucker released several more solo albums, in addition to making guest appearances on a number of records. She reunited with the Velvet Underground for the European leg of its 1992-1993 reunion tour.

==Tea Party activism==
In April 2009, Tucker was interviewed by a local news crew at a [[Tea Party movement|Tea Party]] rally in Tifton, Georgia, stating: "I'm furious about the way we're being led towards [[socialism]]. I'm furious about the incredible waste of money when things that we really need and are important get dropped 'cause there's no money left."<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEt-IaRbcVY</ref> 

In 2010, the news segment was posted on [[YouTube]], igniting speculation as to whether the interviewee was the Maureen Tucker of Velvet Underground fame. When contacted by ''[[The Huffington Post]]'', Tucker confirmed that it was indeed her but declined to comment further.<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/moe-tucker-former-velvet-_n_750838.html</ref> Later, in an interview with the ''Riverfront Times'', she opened up about her political views.
<ref>http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2010/10/moe_tucker_interview_2010_politics_tea_party_velvet_underground_video.php#</ref>

Tucker has a profile page on the {{wpl|Tea Party Patriots}} website on which she states, "I have come to believe (not just wonder) that [[Barack Obama|Obama's]] plan is to destroy America from within" and urges people to send letters to the [[White House]] addressed to "King Obama."<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/01/velvet-underground-tea-party-us</ref>

Tucker explained in an interview that she used to be a [[Democratic Party]] voter, though her views became more anti-establishment as she got older.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20101022024449/http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2010/10/moe_tucker_interview_2010_politics_tea_party_velvet_underground_video.php</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Moe}}
[[Category:Musicians]]
[[Category:Right-wing activists]]
[[Category:Tea Party]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Leftists who turned right with age]]

Categories: Musicians, Right-wing activists, Tea Party, Living people, Leftists who turned right with age