In a series of tweets, Tracii Guns supported rock bands’ right to stop politicians from using their music without permission.
ABBA recently told Trump’s campaign to stop using their music at rallies. Eddie Trunk thinks artists who complain about this are just doing it for show. He says if they really cared, they would remove their music from royalty organizations.
“Are you serious? Artists don’t want casual listeners thinking they are associated with or support things they deeply disapprove of,” Guns replied to Trunk on X. “Has nothing to do with optics other than the optic of we are not associated with garbage.”
The Fairwell frontman Zach Myers also wrote, “It’s still hilarious to me that ANY musician thinks someone has to get ‘approval’ to play a song over the PA at literally any event. Lolz.”
“No. When complete garbage uses your music strategically to target the artists audience to try to appeal to them that is flat out an insult to the artist,” Guns again responded. “I’m talking about Trump. Laugh all you want. Artists give a sh*t about their music and how it’s perceived.”
Recently, Donald Trump played a Foo Fighters song at a rally. Then, the band said they weren’t asked for permission and wouldn’t have approved it. “Appropriate actions are being taken,” a spokesperson told Billboard.
Any money from this will go to the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign. The band also talked about it on social media and shared a screenshot of their reply to a user. The user asked them, “Hey Foo Fighters, did you let Trump use ‘My Hero’ to welcome RFK Jr. on stage.” The band replied by saying, “No.”
Earlier this month, Celine Dion’s team rejected the Trump campaign’s use of her song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at a rally. On August 10, Dion’s management and record label said they knew her song was used without permission at a Trump/JD Vance rally in Montana. The Trump campaign hasn’t replied yet.
Are you serious? Artists don’t want casual listeners thinking they are associated with or support things they deeply disapprove of. Has nothing to do with optics other than the optic of we are not associated with garbage.
— Tracii ⨁ 🇺🇸🇩🇰 (@TraciiGuns) August 29, 2024
No. When complete garbage uses your music strategically to target the artists audience to try to appeal to them that is flat out an insult to the artist. I’m talking about Trump. Laugh all you want. Artists give a shit about their music and how it’s perceived.
— Tracii ⨁ 🇺🇸🇩🇰 (@TraciiGuns) August 29, 2024