Queen Slam Donald Trump for Using Their Music
Queen have once again criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s organization for using their music without permission. Lynyrd Skynyrd has responded similarly to an unofficial Trump-supporting video fictitiously depicting the President engaging in violence to their music.
In a new round of complaints, Queen objected to the use of “We Will Rock You” in an officially-sanctioned campaign clip, while Lynyrd Skynyrd distanced themselves from an unsanctioned video reported to show Trump on a shooting rampage in the “Church of Fake News,” killing rivals including former President Barack Obama and members of the press.
“We Will Rock You” was used in its entirety in a promotional tweet that showed Trump speaking at various political rallies. Rolling Stone said it had been viewed 1.7 million times by Oct. 14, at which point it became unavailable. A spokesperson for the band said they’d “already entered into a processionals to call for non use of Queen song copyright by the Trump campaign.”
In 2016 the band issued a statement after “We Are the Champions” was played as Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention, saying they objected to having their “music associated with any mainstream or political debate in any country.”
A spokesperson for Trump said that the President hadn’t seen the “Church of Fake News” video, which was shown at a rally in Miami that was attended by his son, Donald Trump Jr. Billboard reported that the clip showed Trump Sr. “murdering reporters and anchors from CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Buzzfeed, PBS, Politico and many other media organizations using a handgun and a knife,” and it also showed him “attacking, striking and killing such political rivals as former Pres. Barack Obama, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, late Sen. John McCain, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a member of Black Lives Matter. The video ends with a smiling Trump putting the head of a CNN reporter on a stake.”
“The use of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Freebird' in the video as depicted was unauthorized,” the band said in a statement released to Billboard, while a Trump spokesperson said he “has not yet seen the video, he will see it shortly, but based upon everything he has heard, he strongly condemns this video.”