“Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were they would not have granted it,” band says of hit blared at an Arizona campaign stop where Trump introduced RFK Jr.
Many artists have objected to hearing their songs used to soundtrack Trump rallies. On Friday, that included Foo Fighters, whose 1997 hit “My Hero” played at an Arizona campaign stop to welcome Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage. RFK Jr. had announced that he was suspending his campaign for the presidency and supporting Trump in the November election.
Foo Fighters denounced the usage of their song and said they did not give their permission. But on Monday, a Trump spokesperson claimed the opposite. “We have a license to play the song,” Stephen Cheung wrote in an email to political site The Hill. He also tweeted at the band, using their song titles to poke at Dave Grohl and co.: “It’s Times Like These facts matter, don’t be a Pretender,” he wrote, tagging Foo Fighters and linking to an article in the Independent about the licensing issue.
Since the campaign’s rebuttal, the band reiterated that they did not authorize the use of “My Hero.” “Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and again, even if they had been, they would not have granted it,” a rep for the group said in a statement.
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Last week, Foo Fighters said they would be taking “appropriate action” to stop the campaign from using their music in the future, and pledged to donate any royalties they received from “My Hero” being played at the Arizona rally to the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz campaign.
This is far from the Trump campaign’s first issue with allegedly unauthorized music usage. Last week, Beyoncé threatened a cease-and-desist against the campaign after her song “Freedom” was used by Cheung in Trump video on Twitter. Harris has been using “Freedom” as her unofficial campaign song.
