The Rolling Stones Demand Trump To Stop Using Their Music

How many bridges do you think Donald Trump has burned? Two? Five? 10? Maybe more? While the exact number is difficult to count, we can add the Rolling Stones to that list. Although Donald Trump hasn’t exactly burned the bridge with the Rolling Stones, the band have issued a statement on Wednesday, asking for Mr. Trump to stop using their music at his rallies and events. According to a report by NBC, the Stones have “never given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately.” It seems the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is fond of two Rolling Stones tracks — “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Start Me Up” — and plays them frequently at his events since launching his campaign almost a year ago.

Interestingly, it seems the “Make America Great Again” slogan creator has no qualms with the Stones’ request. “Certainly I have no problem. I like Mick Jagger. I like their songs,” he said Thursday morning on CNBC. However, in true Trump fashion, he contradicts himself, saying that he and his campaign “have the rights to use them.” He claims he has never seen the statement, but clarifies that he and his campaign have bought the rights to use The Rolling Stones’ music. Political campaigns don’t need the artists’ direct permission to use their songs; as long as the campaigners in question acquire a “blanket license” under performing organizations like the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) or Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI), all music is fair game. That said, musicians can still send a cease and desist letter, or sue for false advertising if the musician believes their music supports a candidate.

This isn’t the first instance of Musician vs Political Figure. The most notable example is American rock star Bruce Springsteen versus President Ronald Reagan. While campaigning for reelection in 1984, Reagan announced to the crowd, “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts. It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.” This line comes as a reference to “Born in the U.S.A.,” which Reagan had requested to use in his campaign, but was denied by Springsteen, who spoke out against the president. “I think people have a need to feel good about the country they live in. But what’s happening, I think, is that that need—which is a good thing—is getting manipulated and exploited,” Springsteen said to Rolling Stone in 1984 in regard to the president’s request.

The Rolling Stones aren’t the only musicians that are prohibiting Trump from using their music. Acclaimed pop singer Adele, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, and Canadian rocker Neil Young have objected to Trump’s campaign using their music, issuing statements of their own of the same vein as the Rolling Stones’. R.E.M frontman Michael Stipe was vexed with Trump, whose campaign has incited protests across the country; the band’s revered hit “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” was played at a rally last September as Trump sauntered on the stage. Stipe took to social media to say, “Do not use our music or my voice for your… moronic charade of a campaign.” Curiously, Trump and his campaign have honored all of those requests. So what makes the Rolling Stones different?

As the Washington Post states, “At this point, the Rolling Stones haven’t mentioned a lawsuit. But, if Trump refuses to stop playing the band’s songs, a precedent for one has certainly been set.”

[Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images]