‘Barney’ Music Director Got Death Threats Over Insufferable Songs
Generations of children, their parents and their grandparents have all run screaming from the room when the sickly sweet strains of Barney’s “I Love You, You Love Me” ooze out of televisions and iPads. (Ask just about any kid what they think about that particular song, and you’ll find out they hate it just as much as you do.) The guy who’s responsible for a lot of the music on Barney & Friends understands that his songs made blood boil.
“When I was nominated for a Grammy, a local talk radio station said, ‘Hey, this is great,’” explained musical director Bob Singleton on an episode of the Generation Barney podcast, as reported by People. “Then someone called in and said, ‘I wish I could get my hands around the neck of that guy. I would really like to take him out.’”
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But it’s not that funny when you’re not sure if people are joking. Unfortunately for Singleton, the radio caller wasn’t alone. As more people in the ‘90s discovered ways to reach total strangers online, the Barney music guy got more threats. “My email address was out there, and I was getting people sending me emails ... threatening me and my family with horrible, horrible death and dismemberment and terrible things,” Singleton remembered.
“It was frightening,” he continued. “I remember going to a luncheon once, and they’ve got us sat at a table. I said I had been the music director on Barney and this one guy — and I’m sure he was well-meaning — said, ‘Wow, my kids loved you, but I just wanted to kill you.’”
Singleton is self-aware enough to understand that for most people, “I wanted to kill you” was a darkly humorous way of saying, “Those songs drove me nuts.” But was that true of everyone making the threats? “In that moment, I have to think, ‘Okay, is this somebody that I need to watch for in the parking lot, you know?’” Singleton said. “So it was awkward.”
The hate wasn’t solely directed at Singleton either. It was such a phenomenon that Peacock did a two-park docuseries called “I Love You, You Hate Me” about viewers’ ire toward the show.
Other creator complaints are similar. “They were gonna come and find me and they were going to kill me,” claimed Bob West, one of the actors who voiced Barney. The documentary also discussed a parody novel called The Jihad to Destroy Barney and a first-person-shooter video game with the purple dinosaur as a target.
The Peacock series wants to paint the Barney hate as representative of something darker happening in society and that’s no doubt behind some of the outrageous behavior. But why wasn’t there a similar backlash against more popular children’s shows? Sesame Street never got this kind of blowback. Barney’s ‘90s contemporaries — Arthur, Rugrats, Blue’s Clues — remained beloved. What was it about Barney?
Let’s be clear — no one deserves threats of physical violence. But admit it, Singleton: Your songs are pretty dang insufferable.
