David Rovics

David Stefan Rovics (born April 10, 1967) is an American indie singer/songwriter.

Rovics has also written a song on Francis Hughes, a Provisional IRA combatant who died in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, in his song "Up The Provos".

In 2021, Rovics interviewed white nationalist activist Matthew Heimbach and posted it on his YouTube account, hosted a conversation with musician Gilad Atzmon on the same account, and appeared on the podcast of conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett.

As a result, Rovics has been accused by anti-fascists It's Going Down and Shane Burley of promotion of individuals associated with white nationalism, Holocaust denial and antisemitism.

Rovics temporarily removed the interview with Heimbach from his site, but responded that Atzmon is not an antisemite and Heimbach not a fascist, and that it is important to understand why people are drawn to the far right.

In 1985, Rovics enrolled at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, but dropped out and moved to Berkeley, California.

He worked in occupations such as a cook, barista, secretary and typist, while pursuing his musical interests as a street and subway performer and in small clubs and bars.

He immersed himself in leftist counterculture and made contact with other songwriters and performers on the underground circuit.

By the early 1990s he was a full-time busker in the Boston subways.

From the mid-1990s, Rovics has spent most of his time on concert tours around the world.

Rovics tours regularly on four continents, playing for audiences large and small at cafes, pubs, universities, churches, union halls and protest rallies.

He has had his music featured on Democracy Now!, the BBC, Al-Jazeera, Acik Radyo and other networks.

His essays are published regularly on CounterPunch and Truthout and the 200+ songs he makes available on the web have been downloaded more than a million times.

Although Rovics' work has not gained major commercial success, it has been acclaimed in sections of the press.

His music concerns both topical subjects such as the 2003 Iraq war, anti-globalization, anarchism, and social justice issues, and also labor history.

Rovics has been an outspoken critic of former President George W. Bush, the Republican Party, John Kerry, and the Democratic Party.

Rovics is critical of the United States government's policies and claims that the "U.S. government's foreign policy represents U.S. corporate interests" and that "the U.S. government does not like democracy either at home or abroad."

Although some of Rovics' work is not self-published, and much of it is commercially distributed, Rovics has made all of his recorded music freely available as downloadable mp3 files.

He encourages the free distribution of his work by all non-profit means to promote his work and spread political messages, and speaks out against websites or programs like iTunes that charge money for downloading his songs.

Rovics has also advocated the performing of his songs at protests and demonstrations and has made his sheet music and lyrics available for download.

David Rovics was born in New York City.

His family moved to Wilton, Connecticut when he was young.

Rovics was politically inspired during his adolescence by his experiences with the conservative-oriented, Christian milieu of his home town.

His parents, both classical musicians and educators, were liberal in their outlook.

Perhaps for this reason, while in his teens Rovics acquired interests in nuclear disarmament, vegetarianism and other counterculture issues.

He has described himself as an "anti-Zionist Jew from New York".

He currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his family and has a daughter, Leila, who was born in 2006.