Neil Young Tells Donald Trump Not To Use His Music
By Andy Kahn Jun 16, 2015 • 8:42 pm PDT

Once again a popular musician is upset at a politician’s unauthorized use of a song while campaigning and this time it’s Canadian rocker Neil Young who’s not happy with Republican candidate for U.S. President Donald Trump. Young issued a statement after Trump took the stage today to announce his candidacy to the sounds of Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World.”

It’s remains unclear why Trump chose to walk to the lectern soundtracked by a song that takes a direct shot at former Republican President George H. Bush and contains other lyrics offering a bleak outlook on the lives of those far less fortunate than the supposed billionaire reality TV host. Nonetheless an irked Young offered the following statement through his management team:
Donald Trump was not authorized to use “Rockin’ In The Free World” in his presidential candidacy announcement. Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.
According to Rolling Stone, Trump’s camp claims to have obtained “a license agreement with ASCAP” and the “campaign paid for and obtained the legal right” for the use of “Rockin’ In The Free World” at today’s event, though they offered no proof payment or the agreement.
While Young was issuing a response to Trump, Billboard published responses it received from several corporations disparaged in Young’s forthcoming album recorded with Promise Of The Real entitled The Monsanto Years and due on June 29. All of the responses can be found via this link, but here is one sample from Monsanto:
Many of us at Monsanto have been and are fans of Neil Young. Unfortunately, for some of us, his current album may fail to reflect our strong beliefs in what we do every day to help make agriculture more sustainable. We recognize there is a lot of misinformation about who we are and what we do – and unfortunately several of those myths seem to be captured in these lyrics.

It’s remains unclear why Trump chose to walk to the lectern soundtracked by a song that takes a direct shot at former Republican President George H. Bush and contains other lyrics offering a bleak outlook on the lives of those far less fortunate than the supposed billionaire reality TV host. Nonetheless an irked Young offered the following statement through his management team:
Donald Trump was not authorized to use “Rockin’ In The Free World” in his presidential candidacy announcement. Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.
According to Rolling Stone, Trump’s camp claims to have obtained “a license agreement with ASCAP” and the “campaign paid for and obtained the legal right” for the use of “Rockin’ In The Free World” at today’s event, though they offered no proof payment or the agreement.
While Young was issuing a response to Trump, Billboard published responses it received from several corporations disparaged in Young’s forthcoming album recorded with Promise Of The Real entitled The Monsanto Years and due on June 29. All of the responses can be found via this link, but here is one sample from Monsanto:
Many of us at Monsanto have been and are fans of Neil Young. Unfortunately, for some of us, his current album may fail to reflect our strong beliefs in what we do every day to help make agriculture more sustainable. We recognize there is a lot of misinformation about who we are and what we do – and unfortunately several of those myths seem to be captured in these lyrics.