Tom Petty's family asks Trump to stop using his music for 'campaign of hate'

After playing the Tom Petty classic "I Won't Back Down" at a rally in Tulsa on Saturday night, the Trump campaign received a cease and desist notice from the Petty family, saying the late singer-songwriter "would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. He liked to bring people together."

Petty's daughters, Adria and Annakim, his widow Dana, and his first wife Jane issued a statement via social media, saying that Trump was "in no way authorized to use this song to further a campaign that leaves too many Americans and common sense behind. Both the late Tom Petty and his family firmly stand against racism and discrimination of any kind."

"I Won't Back Down" was written "for the underdog, for the common man, and for EVERYONE," the statement reads, and while the Petty family believes "everyone is free to vote as they like," they "would hate for fans that are marginalized by this administration to think we were complicit in this usage."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Several artists have sent the Trump campaign cease and desist notices for playing their music at events, including Neil Young and R.E.M. Oftentimes, a campaign can get around this if a singer or group signed a blanket licensing agreement that gives venues permission to play their music, CBS News notes. However, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) said legal action could be taken on the idea of false endorsement, where usage "implies that the artist supports a product or candidate."