Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his musical alter ego

You could say Antony Blinken went into the family business. His father was a U.S. ambassador. His uncle was one as well. But, even though he rose through the ranks of diplomacy to become the U.S. Secretary of State, he still wishes he could have rebelled and become a rock musician. Oh, well, now he just plays for people who have to pretend to enjoy it so they can avoid a war.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Peter Sagal: Enough politics, let's get to why you're really here, which is to talk about your music career.

Secretary of State Blinken: This will be a very short conversation

We were like, why would he want to be on the show? Because you want to talk about ABliken, which is the name under which you put out music on Spotify. And if you're listening at home and you're tired of the show, you can go to Spotify and listen to four tracks, I think?

There are three tracks. But if anyone actually follows up at home, I'll have my fourth listener. Which will be huge!

And that's wonderful, because I know you're on a government salary, so I'm sure the Spotify income really helps

I look for that check every month

So, these are songs you wrote. How would you describe your music?

I'm not sure how I would describe it. Let me just say that for for someone who's been passionate about music all my life, just because I happen to wind up in this job and put music on Spotify, you know, some of the most illustrious publications actually took note of it, including Rolling Stone. And I think they called it something like "more-or-less credible Dad Rock." I took that as high praise.

Dulcé Sloan: So, you're telling me that you're out here diplomat-ing...and you've got a side gig?

Hey, a guy's gotta make ends meet