Rock band Aerosmith has been rather vocal about their distaste for seeing Donald Trump use their music at his campaign rallies. In fact, band member Steven Tyler has hit the incumbent President with a cease-and-desist letter demanding he stops playing his music at his events.
Dina LaPolt, Tyler’s lawyer, writes in the letter that Trump’s persistent usage of “Livin’ On The Edge” implies its creators endorse his rhetoric, writing, “By using ‘Livin’ On The Edge’ without our client’s permission, Mr. Trump is falsely implying that our client, once again, endorses his campaign and/or his presidency, as evidenced by actual confusion seen from the reactions of our client’s fans all over social media.”
Tyler has threatened legal action should Trump fail to comply with his request. He also took to Twitter to clarify why he wants Trump to stop using his music, explaining that this isn’t a partisan issue, it’s one of songwriters’ rights:
Politicians using artists’ music without their blessings is a recurring problem. Mitt Romney accrued complaints from Al Green, K’Naan and Silversun Pickups for playing their work during his rallies back during the 2012 presidential election. Trump has perviously utilized popular music tracks during his rallies to the ire of their artists; in fact, this isn’t even the first time Tyler sent him a cease-and-desist letter.
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Dear Mr. Tallarico,
I'm a fellow 'Masshole' who grew up on the South Shore. I'm old enough to have bought a few Aerosmith albums on vinyl. And I bought ALL of your albums on cassette tape. And I bought ALL of them again on CD. And over the years, I went to see you in concert at least a dozen times.
I bought LOTS of tee shirts and swag over the years and was therefore a walking billboard for your band through much of my youth. I was thinking maybe I'd take a Vegas trip to catch you again sometime soon.
But now you've made your preferences clear... you've decided that Trump supporters shouldn't listen to your music. You decided to give the middle finger to half the country. And it's actually worse than that... you gave the middle finger to the WRONG half.
You just insulted the working middle class Americans that buy your albums and go to your shows. Because it's NOT the inner city and college kids flocking to see you. And it sure ain't the wealthy elite that's tailgating in the parking lots before your shows. It's "Joe Sixpack". It's the Harley riding grease monkeys. It's the electricians and plumbers and factory workers. It's all the folks that voted for Trump... and you just told them to eff off.
Okay... we're done. See ya later Steve.