Electronic music duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. have retried the Dale Earnhardt in their moniker, and today re-christened themselves as simply JR JR. Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott have used the name — with the famous NASCAR driver’s blessing — since 2009, but today have decided to clean things up a bit and cut loose the ongoing confusion the name has caused to this day.
Epstein and Zott made the announcement this afternoon via a lengthy social media post, in which they start by re-posting a letter sent by the actual Dale Earnhardt Jr. back in 2011.
“The exceptionally good natured spirit of the man himself lifted everyone’s spirits about the name,” the duo writes. “We were proud to keep it, and create under it. To this day, Dale Earnhardt Jr has been nothing but gracious and cool about things. And y’know…he didn’t have to be. It was perfectly within his right to look at these two weird kids from Detroit and say ’no way’, or to just have an intermediary shut things down on his behalf. But he didn’t. He was a legitimately warm human being about it all. He was kind. A couple of times when asked about us, he even mentioned that he likes the music we make. This, we thought, was the best case scenario.”
But the pair cite ongoing confusion from race fans and others who didn’t get the joke, or travelled many miles to see the band when they thought they were seeing the race car legend (or someone affiliated with him). And they stress that no one — not a label, not a lawyer, and definitely no one from the Earnhardt camp — is forcing this on them.
“We recognize that we created this situation and that the name has been a part of getting to where we are now,” they add. “It stirred up some attention for us in the modern internet world of over-stimulation, and we aren’t complaining about any of it — good and bad. The name has become it’s own personality, though. Almost, another member of the band. But as time has passed, we have grown into ourselves, both as artists and individuals. Each of our perspectives have gotten stronger, and we’ve found that there is no longer room for a third, ubiquitous member of the project.”
It also seems like Epstein and Zott are fearful of some resistance from fans.
“We hope this doesn’t bum you guys out too much,” they write. “In our mind, changing our name to JR JR allows us to take back our voice in a way. To us It is all about empowerment, and being who we feel we need to be moving forward. At the same time, we don’t want to run away from what we’ve done under this name with all of you in the past. If you need us to remain Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr for your own reasons, we have no problem with you calling us that. After all, nobody is forcing us into this change, so we’re able to do it at our own pace. Functionally, we will go on performing as Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr for a short while longer so that nothing feels imminently different when we announce shows. We probably even have a few t-shirts with the old name left that we’ll burn through the last of in the coming months. … The past is passed, and we are so excited about the future. We hope there is nothing mournful about this.”
Again, read the full letter here.
Respek.