Ted Cruz: I stopped liking rock music after 9/11

"I didn’t like how rock music responded"

Published March 24, 2015 3:19PM (EDT)

  (CBS News)
(CBS News)

One day after launching his 2016 presidential campaign, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made the rounds on the morning news shows, where he talked up his conservative credentials and his plans to rescue America from the tyranny of Nobama. During Cruz's appearance on "CBS This Morning," co-host Gayle King also afforded Cruz an opportunity to discuss how he occupies his time when he's not shutting down the government or campaigning to strip gay people of their rights. The Tea Party favorite revealed that he just finished the third season of "House of Cards," and assured viewers that Washington isn't as murderous as the Netflix series portrays.

And music?

"You know, music is interesting. I grew up listening to classic rock, and I’ll tell you sort of an odd story. My music tastes changed on 9/11," Cruz said.

The senator continued: "And it’s a very strange — I actually intellectually find this very curious. But on 9/11, I didn’t like how rock music responded. And country music collectively, the way they responded, it resonated with me. And I have to say, it just as a gut level — I had an emotional reaction that says, ‘These are my people.’ And so ever since 2001, I listen to country music."

Cruz didn't specify what he didn't like about how rock responded to the attacks, which the founder of the university where he launched his campaign blamed on "the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America."

Watch Cruz explain his change in musical tastes below, courtesy of "CBS This Morning":


By Luke Brinker

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