Rock legend Neil Young has slapped a Trump fundraising committee with a $10 million lawsuit over the use of his song, “Rockin’ in the Free World,” at an Ohio rally this month.
According to the five-page filing obtained by Rolling Stone, Trump was “personally
aware that a license would be required” to play the song at an event, and he also knew Young “has not and would not grant the required license.” The unauthorized use happened despite a prior lawsuit and 2020 settlement in which Trump allegedly agreed never to use Young’s music without permission, the new complaint states. (Trump is not named as an individual defendant in the Monday complaint.)
“‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ is a blistering anthem that contrasts the hollow promises of American political rhetoric with the harsh realities faced by the poor, homeless, and forgotten,” Young and his lawyers, Robert Besser and Scott Simmons, wrote in the new complaint. “The 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’t shared by all.”
They added that the 1989 song, which was named Rolling Stone’s best vintage rock song of 2026. “is the opposite of everything that Donald J. Trump stands for.”
There 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.
Young’s 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.
“Donald Trump was not authorized to use ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement,” a Young spokesperson said in a statement then. “Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.”
When Trump played the song again in 2018, Young objected again. “I asked him then, in a widely shared, public letter to cease and desist,” Young wrote on his websiteat the time. “However, 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.”
Young, 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.
Young is far from the only artist to challenge Trump over the use of music at his political events. The White Stripes, Rihanna, Axl Rose, Pharrell Williams, Linkin Park, and the estates of Tom Petty and Sinéad O’Connor have all publicly objected to his use of their songs.
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