According to Consequence, Neil Young has spent more than decade telling Donald Trump to stop playing “Rockin’ in the Free World” and now, the artist has said that the president and his political operation have allegedly once again ignored a legal agreement. Young filed a new copyright infringement lawsuit against the Trump 47 Committee on Monday after the song was allegedly played without a license before Trump took the stage at an October 12 midterm campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio.
The complaint seeks $10 million in damages and an order barring the committee from using Young’s music going forward. This is not Young’s legal team’s first trip around the block. The artist has previously sued Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign over its alleged use of “Rockin’ in the Free World” and “Devil’s Sidewalk” at campaign events. According to the new complaint, that case was resolved after the campaign promised not to use “Rockin’ in the Free World” again without a license.
Young’s latest filing also argues that the song itself makes for an especially strange fit with Trump. The 1989 track contrasts its anthemic chorus with images of poverty, addiction, homelessness, and social decay. The complaint puts its position clearly: “In short, the song is the opposite of everything Donald J. Trump stands for.”
Young filed the suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The next development will likely come after the Trump 47 Committee is formally served: under federal court rules, defendants generally have 21 days from service to answer a complaint or file a motion challenging it. No hearing date has been set.
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