Good News for Campaigning Politicians: At Least You Can Use Skillet’s Music
You may soon hear Skillet at Trump rallies.
The Trump campaign has run into a lot of objections from musicians whose songs he plays at rallies. Swedish pop group ABBA recently made headlines for releasing a statement demanding in a statement to The Associated Press:
“ABBA has recently discovered the unauthorized use of their music and videos at a Trump event through videos that appeared online.
“As a result, ABBA and its representative has promptly requested the removal and deletion of such content. No request has been received; therefore, no permission or license has been granted.”
The Trump campaign countered that they had the legal right to use the song due to their agreement with BMI and ASCAP, following in Trump’s long history of continuing to do things when consent was clearly denied. The ABBA song that Trump used at a rally was “The Winner Takes It All,” unfortunately, and not “Dancing Queen” as I had hoped because I really want to see Trump walk on stage to that.
Other artists to object to Trump using their music include Celine Dion because Trump used “My Heart Will Go On,” Isaac Hayes for “Hold On, I’m Coming,” The White Stripes for “Seven Nation Army,” and Foo Fighters for “My Hero.” What the fuck did Trump use “My Heart Will Go On” for? It’s the theme to Titanic. Please tell me he didn’t do his own version of the “Draw me like one of your French girls?” scene because I don’t want to see him playing either role in that scene.
While it’s not technically illegal, in a lot of these cases, for Trump to use these songs, it’s not a good look for him. Then again, tanning lotion and a tribble wig isn’t a good look for him, and that’s never stopped him. But if he wants to maybe use someone’s song who’s given their express permission, then he can apparently use pretty much anything buy Christian metal band Skillet, for better or worse I guess.
In a recent interview with On the Road to Rock podcast (transcribed by Blabbermouth), Skillet frontman John Cooper, was asked if he was okay with Skillet being used at political rallies, to which he replied:
“This is my personal opinion, and this could change. I don’t want somebody later to say, ‘Well, you said blah blah blah.’ My personal opinion at today, I don’t care who plays my song at their political rally, because I believe in America over party. I believe in the foundations of this country. And plus, we have this thing called social media, and let’s just say, hypothetically, let’s say that you’re running for president, and you’re playing my song, and let’s just say that I don’t like your platform. I can always go on social media and say, ‘Hey, I wanna make it clear, this dude may be using my song, and I’m happy for him to use it. It doesn’t mean that I’m supporting his presidency, but I love America.’ You can do that. There’s a lot of ways you can go around it. Now, I do think there’s a difference. Let’s just say that you then wanted to use my song on one of your paid advertisements on a commercial. Now we’re getting into something. But if you’re playing my song at a political rally and you’re walking out and my song’s playing, I go, hey, you know what? Go America. It’s the best country in the world, and we can disagree on some things.”
Skillet does have a song called “Fire and Fury” that would be just perfect.
We haven’t really been picking on Cooper as much as he deserves in recent years, and so if you only get your news from here (and, if you do, dear god why?) you might have missed the time in 2023 when he said “I believe that queer theory is literally the end of all things,” which is an understated opinion for sure. Or the time in January when he called Demi Lovato’s pro-choice song “pure evil.” So we can disagree on some things, but if we do we’re pure evil and destroying all things? Yeehaw! Go America indeed.
