Steven Tyler Sends Trump A Cease And Desist Letter

Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler is fed up and is demanding that Trump immediately stop playing the band’s songs at his rallies.

The band’s 1993 hit song Livin’ on the Edge was playing while people entered the venue at Trump’s rally held at the Charleston Civic Centre in West Virginia on August 21.

Tyler sent a cease-and-desist letter through his lawyer Dina LaPolt to the White House accusing Trump of willful infringement in broadcasting the song, which was written by Joe Perry, Mark Hudson and Tyler.

Variety first broke the story, reporting that:

Citing the Lanham Act, which prohibits “any false designation or misleading description or representation of fact … likely to cause confusion … as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person,” Tyler’s attorney contends that playing an Aerosmith song in a public arena gives the false impression that Tyler is endorsing Trump’s presidency.

Continuing, Variety added that:

The matter has come up previously with another Aerosmith song, “Dream On,” which Trump used during his 2015 election campaign. Following a similar letter stating, “Trump for President needs our client’s express written permission in order to use his music” and that the campaign “was violating Mr. Tyler’s copyright,” BMI drove the point home and pulled the public performance rights for the song. Public performance rights for “Livin’ on the Edge” are administered by ASCAP.

The Daily Beast published the following addition in their report: “It should be noted that the letter comes directly from Tyler, and not the band collectively, as Tyler’s bandmates, Joe Perry and Joey Kramer, are Republicans.”

The Hill weighed in as well, reporting that: “Trump said in 2015 that he had found a ‘better’ song to play instead of ‘Dream On,’ and boasted that the scandal gave Tyler ‘more publicity … than he’s gotten in 10 years.'”

Ultimate Classic Rock added that this was not the first instance of Trump having issues with the unauthorized use of songs by popular artists:

Trump ran afoul of other artists during his campaign for allegedly using their music at events without permission. Queen, Elton John, the Rolling Stones and Neil Young called him out on it, though Trump reserved particular vitriol for Young, who had apparently met with the then-candidate in search of what Trump referred to as money “for an audio deal” (presumably Young’s Pono service). The president-to-be called Young a “total hypocrite” for not allowing him to play “Rockin’ in the Free World” at his events.

CNN reporter Jim Acosta captured the song being played a tweet:

The scene in WV before Trump’s rally. Aerosmith’s “Livin’ on the edge” playing. pic.twitter.com/HW1qr9TBgE

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 21, 2018

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