Rolling Stones tell Donald Trump to stop using their music

The Rolling Stones (Image credit: Getty)

Rolling Stones have told Donald Trump to stop using their songs during his presidential campaign.

The band issued a statement saying: “The Rolling Stones have never given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately.”

The Republican candidate has been playing the veteran rock band’s hits for months at his rallies – with 1969’s You Can’t Always Get What You Want being a particular favourite.

He previously came under fire for using Adele’s Rolling In The Deep and Aerosmith’s Dream On, with registered Republican Steven Tyler insisting it gave “a false impression” of him backing his bid. Neil Young had also objected when Trump used Rockin’ In The Free World to announce his intention to run for the White House last summer.

And REM’s Michael Stipe slammed Trump last year for using It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), saying: “Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign.”

Political candidates don’t need express permission from musicians to use their songs on their campaign trail – just as long as they obtain a blanket license under performing rights organisations such as ASCAP or BMI. But Trump has so far honoured artists’ cease-and-desist requests.

Trump is now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, after his last Republican rival John Kasich quit the race on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones are lined up to play an all-star three-day concert along with The Who, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and Neil Young in Indio’s Empire Polo Field in California from October 7-9.

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.