Axl Rose of Guns ‘n Roses (photo from Pinterest)
By Megan Friedman || Every election season, it’s the same old tune: Liberal musicians get outraged that conservative politicians use their music at rallies. Dozens of artists have called out Donald Trump over the years, and this weekend, Rihanna even spoke out about it after Trump used “Don’t Stop the Music” at a Tennessee rally. Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose also spoke out about Trump’s music choices this weekend in a Twitter rant that actually helped explain why this keeps happening.
On Sunday, Rose tweeted Guns N’ Roses had “formally requested” Trump no longer play their songs at his rallies, because they and other artists are “opposed to the unauthorized use of their music at political events.” But because certain venues have different licenses when it comes to playing music, campaigns can take advantage of what he calls “loopholes” to play any song they want. Those licenses “were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters’ consent.”
“Can [you] say ‘shitbags?!’” he tweeted, adding an appropriate poop emoji.
He said he spoke up because people were telling him they heard “Sweet Child of Mine” playing at a rally. “As a band we felt we should clarify [our] position,” he wrote.
Later that day, Rose tweeted once more to clarify his political position—and noted that fans of any political persuasion can listen to Guns N’ Roses. But that’s not going to stop him from speaking out against Trump.
[bunch of screen shots of Twitter messages … go to the article to read them]And anyway, nobody should be surprised Axl Rose is a liberal. His most recent tweet before this thread was a photo of his absentee ballot, with the caption, “Vote Blue…Bitches!!”
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a24678729/axl-rose-guns-n-roses-music-trump-rallies/