Steven Tyler has no sweet emotions when it comes to President Donald Trump playing Aerosmith’s music at his political rallies.
The rock band’s front man sent another cease-and-desist letter to the president on Wednesday demanding that Trump and the Trump Organization stop playing the band’s music at his rallies. The letter says that Trump does not have legal permission to play the songs.
A rally Trump held at the Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, W.V., played Aerosmith’s “Livin’ on the Edge” before the event began. CNN’s Jim Acosta shared a video of the song playing there on Twitter.
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
The cease-and-desist letter points out that this isn’t the first time that Tyler has asked Trump not to use his band’s music. “What makes this violation even more egregious is that Mr. Trump’s use of our client’s music was previously shut down, not once, but two times, during his campaign for presidency in 2015,” said the letter, which was first reported by Yahoo News.
As we have made clear numerous times, Mr. Trump is creating the false impression that our client has given his consent for the use of his music, and even that he endorses the presidency of Mr. Trump,” the letter said. “By using ‘Livin’ On The Edge’ without our client’s permission, Mr. Trump is falsely implying that our client, once again, endorses his campaign and/or his presidency.”
Doing so, Tyler’s attorney claimed, violates the Lanham Act, which prohibits “any false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact, which is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person.”
In 2015, when Tyler demanded Trump stop playing Aerosmith’s “Dream On” at his campaign events, Trump took a swipe at Tyler on Twitter. That same year, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe called Trump out for playing the band’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” without permission.
