{"id":947952,"date":"2026-10-27T08:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T08:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/947952\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T08:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T08:40:11","slug":"neil-young-sues-trump-committee-for-10-million-over-song-use-at-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/947952\/","title":{"rendered":"Neil Young Sues Trump Committee for $10 million Over Song Use at Rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRock legend Neil Young<\/a> has slapped a Trump fundraising committee with a $10 million lawsuit over the use of his song, \u201cRockin\u2019 in the Free World,\u201d at an Ohio rally this month.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the five-page filing obtained by Rolling Stone, Trump was \u201cpersonally aware that a license would be required\u201d to play the song at an event, and he also knew Young \u201chas not and would not grant the required license.\u201d The unauthorized use happened despite a prior lawsuit<\/a> and 2020 settlement in which Trump allegedly agreed never to use Young\u2019s music without permission, the new complaint states. (Trump is not named as an individual defendant in the Monday complaint.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018Rockin\u2019 in the Free World\u2019 is a blistering anthem that contrasts the hollow promises of American political rhetoric with the harsh realities faced by the poor, homeless, and forgotten,\u201d Young and his lawyers, Robert Besser and Scott Simmons, wrote in the new complaint. \u201cThe lyrics paint vivid street-level portraits of a mother discarding her baby, addicts lost in despair, garbage piling in the shadows of prosperity, while the repeated chorus delivers a savage irony, celebrating freedom that clearly isn\u2019t shared by all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey added that the 1989 song, which was named Rolling Stone\u2019s best vintage rock song of 2026<\/a>, \u201cis the opposite of everything that Donald J. Trump stands for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere was no immediate answer to a request for comment sent to the White House, the Trump 47 Committee, and the Republican National Committee, which partnered with Trump to create the joint fundraising committee.<\/p>\n

\n\tYoung\u2019s legal sparring with Trump dates back to 2015, when Trump used the track during his now infamous Trump Tower announcement that he was running for president. Young immediately condemned the move.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDonald Trump<\/a> was not authorized to use \u2018Rockin\u2019 in the Free World\u2019 in his presidential candidacy announcement,\u201d a Young spokesperson said in a statement<\/a> then. \u201cNeil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Trump played the song again in 2018, Young objected again. \u201cI asked him then, in a widely shared, public letter to cease and desist,\u201d Young wrote on his website <\/a>at the time. \u201cHowever, he chose not to listen to my request, just as he chooses not to listen to the many American voices who ask him to stop his constant lies, to stop his petty, nasty name-calling, and bullying, to stop pushing his dangerous, vilifying and hateful rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tYoung, 80, filed the latest lawsuit in federal court in Virginia, where the fundraising committee is based. He said the song was played on Oct. 12 at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where Trump made a speech. <\/p>\n

\n\tYoung is far from the only artist<\/a> to challenge Trump over the use of music at his political events. The White Stripes, Rihanna<\/a>, Axl Rose, Pharrell Williams<\/a>, Linkin Park, and the estates of Tom Petty and Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor have all publicly objected to his use of their songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rock legend Neil Young has slapped a Trump fundraising committee with a $10 million lawsuit over the use…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,7562,17537,1376,75,30305],"class_list":["post-947952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-controversy","tag-courts-and-crime","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-neil-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}