British Rock band the Rollings Stones has announced that it is suing both the Trump Campaign and several prominent American Country Music stars, including Lee Greenwood and Garth Brooks over their music monopoly at Trump campaign rallies.
Citing U.S. antitrust laws, international trade law, and past Supreme Court decisions upholding the illegality of discrimination against persons or companies on the basis of national origin, the band says that it is illegal to allow only U.S.-based Country Music bands to perform at the president’s campaign rallies. In particular, they cited the recent decision in the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC – “PSY vs. Biden Campaign” – that forced Joe Biden to play K-Pop star PSY’s hit “Gangnam Style” during his acceptance speech at the DNC convention later this year.
Rolling Stones lead attorney Joe Barron explains:
“Look, it’s only a matter of fairness. If PSY can be belting out “Hey pretty lady” at Joe Biden’s acceptance speech, we can be singing “You can’t always get what you want” during Donald Trump’s acceptance speech. We all know he’s going to lose anyway, so the song is more than apropos for the failed president.
Besides, Country Music sucks big time. I mean, every song is the same: someone’s taking a train somewhere, or the cheatin’ missus ran away and took the dog with her. It truly is music for morons and imbeciles like the MAGA crowd. We in Great Britain have much better taste than that, and we have the right to prove it.”
It certainly remains to be seen whether the lawsuit will be successful, or even resolved in time for this fall’s election season. But one thing is for certain: how can it be possible that foreign musicians demand that their music is played at American political events? What’s Next? The British national anthem at NFL games?
