Keep on suing in the free world.

By Miles Salter

Feature photo by Man Alive!, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neil Young is taking Donald Trump to court over use of the song Rocking In The Free World. Young’s song was used by Trump supporters (known as Trump 47 Committee). Young’s lawsuit says use of the song amounts to an ‘unauthorised public performance’. The song was played at a political event in Youngstown, Ohio on 12 October.

It’s not the first time that Young has been unhappy with Trump. In 2020, he sued the Trump re-election campaign over its use of the same song and another called Devil’s Sidewalk. Young said the matter was settled in the weeks that followed.

Music used at campaign rallies in the US often needs to be accompanied by a public performance licence, even if a campaign has already purchased a legal copy of the recording.

The irony of Trump using the song has not been lost on Neil Young. Rocking In The Free World, which speaks to retaining freedom in a world that can be callously indifferent, is, says Young, ‘the opposite of everything that Donald J Trump stands for.’ Trump’s crackdown on immigration, with ICE officers causing consternation in American cities, is the antithesis of the song. Bruce Springsteen has railed against this at his recent live events.

Trump attended Neil Young’s concerts in the 1980s and 1990s. Young posted about the lawsuit on his website on Tuesday 27 October. ‘I’m sorry it came to this, but money and transactions are something you understand,’ he pointedly said.

Young is not alone in his concern about Trump using music. The Rolling Stones, Rihanna, Adele, R.E.M. and Prince’s estate have all previously criticised the president for using their songs at campaign events.