Hoke and the Mentors gained international notoriety in 1985 as a result of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's hearings led by the Parents Music Resource Center's Tipper Gore, the wife of then-Senator Albert Gore, Jr. (D-Tennessee) into the proliferation of "obscene" lyrics in popular music. During the hearings, the Rev. Jeff Ling recited the lyrics to the Mentors song, "Golden Shower" to musician Frank Zappa, who opposed the hearings. The lyrics, which included the line, "Bend up and smell my anal vapor/Your face will be my toilet paper" elicited howls of laughter at the Congressional hearing and prompted Zappa and others to denounce the hearings as a farce. The hearings, however, ultimately led the music industry to adopt voluntary labeling of records containing objectionable lyrics - the widely recognized "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" label (jokingly referred to as a "Tipper sticker").