Tom Petty’s Family Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Trump After Using ‘I Won’t Back Down in Presidential Campaign
Well, it seems President Trump has crossed a line again.
Trump is known for his controversial tactics and the big news of the weekend was his campaign rally held in Tulsa, OK on Saturday. In addition to de-emphasizing the use of masks, Trump also played the Tom Petty song “I Won’t Back Down” to support the campaign without Petty’s family’s permission. The President was sent a cease and desist letter as a result.
In addition to sending out the cease and desist letter, the family also released the following statement on Tom Petty’s Twitter account. "Trump was in no way authorized to use this song to further a campaign that leaves too many Americans and common sense behind. Both the late Tom Petty and his family firmly stand against racism and discrimination of any kind. Tom Petty would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. He liked to bring people together.”
"Tom wrote this song for the underdog, for the common man and for EVERYONE," the Petty family statement added. "We want to make it clear that we believe everyone is free to vote as they like, think as they like, but the Petty family doesn't stand for this. We believe in America and we believe in democracy. But Donald Trump is not representing the noble ideals of either. We would hate for fans that are marginalized by this administration to think we were complicity in this usage."
The statement was signed by Petty’s daughters Adria and Annakim, his widow Dana Petty and his ex-wife Jane Benyo.
It seems that Petty is not the only artist who has had issues with Trump using their music without permission. He also used Prince’s Purple Rain during his campaign rally in Minneapolis.
Apparently, this was the second time he used the artist’s music in a political setting. After the first time using the music, he was asked to stop and promised to do so, but he went back on his word. As a result, the following statement was released on Prince’s Twitter account.
"President Trump played Prince’s 'Purple Rain' tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music. The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs."
The tweet included a picture of a letter lawyer Megan Newton sent Trump requesting that he "refrain from using Prince's 'Purple Rain,' or any other Prince music, in connection with Campaign rallies, or other Campaign events."
Pharrell Williams also had to send a cease and desist letter to the president after he used his song ‘Happy’ at a political event in the Midwest just hours after a dozen people were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Aerosmith, REM and Queen also join the ranks of artists who have had to tell the president to stop using their music.
Hopefully, in this respect, Trump will back down.
