Foo Fighters have clarified they did not endorse the Donald Trump campaign to use their song ‘My Hero’ during a rally this week.
On Friday night (August 23) in Glendale, Arizona, Trump welcomed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the stage after the independent presidential candidate suspended his campaign and threw his weight behind Trump, and ‘My Hero’ blazed over the speakers as Kennedy came out.
After the event, a Foo Fighters fan asked the band on X (formerly Twitter) whether they had given permission for the song’s use, to which the band responded: “No”.
Let us be clear. pic.twitter.com/gexHWjPMYh
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) August 24, 2024
A spokesperson for the band later told Billboard: “Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were, they would not have granted it.”
They added that “appropriate actions are being taken” against the Trump team, and that any royalties received as a result of the usage would be donated to the Harris/Walz campaign.
It is the latest in a long line of examples of the Trump campaign using copyrighted music without the writers’ permission. Just this week, Beyoncé reportedly threatened the former president with legal action for using her song ‘Freedom’ in a social media video.
Thay same song is now being used – with permission – by Kamala Harris as the official anthem of her presidential campaign.
The estate of Isaac Hayes have also threatened to sue for Trump’s use of ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’, Celine Dion said she did not endorse his use of ‘My Heart Will Go On’, Johnny Marr “shut down” his use of The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’, and Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, Queen and The Animals have all made similar objections in the past.
Trump also addressed the controversy around his use of AI images of Taylor swift “endorsing” his campaign this week, claiming, “I didn’t generate them”.
The posts included screenshots of women wearing shirts with the slogan ‘Swifties For Trump’, and an image of Swift made up like Uncle Sam, with the banner: “Taylor wants you to vote for Trump”.
“Somebody came out. They said, ‘Oh, look at this’. These were all made up by other people. AI is always very dangerous in that way,” Trump said. “It’s happening with me, too. They’re making — having me speak. I speak perfectly, I mean absolutely perfectly on AI, and I’m, like, endorsing other products and things. It’s a little bit dangerous out there.”
Foo Fighters, meanwhile, made headlines last week as an Irish hitchhiker who is supposedly responsible for the formation of the band in the mid-1990s was identified.
