Prince Estate Responds to Donald Trump Playing “Purple Rain” at Minneapolis Campaign Event

It’s been almost four years since the passing of Minnesota’s most iconic musician, Prince. This past week the current incumbent in office, Donald Trump, held a rally for his reelection campaign in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis, but he was greeted by a series of backlash after playing “Purple Rain,” during the campaign event. A representative from Prince’s estate posted a short tweet to late musicians Twitter stating that President Donald Trump has violated an agreement made last year which would not allow Trump or his campaign to use any of Prince’s music. The estate then posted another tweet explaining the situation with a picture of the letter from the firm agreeing not to use any of Prince’s music.

Prince is just one of number of musicians who refuse to let the president use their music for his campaign rallies. The list contains some of music’s most notable names including, Neil Young, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Steven Tyler, and Guns N’ Roses. But unfortunately Trump’s unauthorized use of “Purple Rain” is not the first case of him using a musicians music against their will. At the end of every Trump rally he plays “You Cant Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones, and despite the band’s several attempts to get the administration to stop using their music, he continues to play it. Neil Young also had a similar incident with his widely popular song, “Rockin’ In The Free World,” Steven Tyler of Aerosmith has even sent the administration a cease-and-desist order after ignoring his initial request to stop using his “Livin’ on the Edge” three years prior.

But one of the most controversial unauthorized uses of song by Donald Trump was his use of Pharrell Williams’ song, “Happy” at a rally in Indiana on the same day of a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh Synagogue. The singer and his team immediately filed a cease-and-desist order on the Trump administration stating, “On the day of the mass murder of 11 human beings at the hands of a deranged ‘nationalist’, you played his song Happy to a crowd at a political event in Indiana. There was nothing ‘happy’ about the tragedy inflicted upon our country on Saturday and no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose.”