John McCain Isn’t The Foo Fighters “Hero”

Posted by Albert Costill on Oct 8, 2008 in News | Comments

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John McCain may be a hero to a lot of folks, but don’t throw the Foo Fighters in that group.

Dave Grohl and company have told the McCain campaign to stop using “My Hero” at rallies. Here’s what the band had to say: “The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential”. The band also added, “To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song”.

The Foos are the most recent group to tell the McCain campaign to stop using their music. Heart blasted the use of “Barracuda” for Sarah Palin. Jackson Browne went even a stop further. He took the RNC and Ohio Republican Party to court over the use of “Running On Empty”.

Actually, this isn’t a new phenomenon. Back in 1984 The Boss wasn’t too happy with the Regan campaign when they used “Born in the USA”. Which is pretty comically since the song isn’t one that you would exactly call patriotic.

OK, back to the Foos.

If the McCain did any sort of research, which they seem to lack at times, they would have found that the Foo Fighters did a lot of fund raising for John Kerry in the 2004 election. Why would they think that a band that is on the liberal side of the spectrum allow the use of one of their songs?

While we’re all about getting your music out their in various mediums here at Evolvor, there is a valuable lesson here. Protect your music at all cost. It’s yours. So you decide you can and can’t use your music.