President Donald Trump's Campaign Rallies Derailed: 8 Musicians That Don't Want Him To Use Their Music

President Donald Trump has attended campaign rallies as he readies to face former Vice President Joe Biden in the November 2020 election. However, his supporters may experience a noticeable difference at the political events moving forward due to the fact that several musicians have since asked the former "Apprentice" star to refrain from using their music.

Panic! At The Disco frontman Brandon Urie
On Tuesday, Urie took to Twitter to tell Trump and his team to stop playing "High Hopes," his band's 2018 song, after the former reality star used it during Tuesday's campaign stop in Phoenix.

"You're not invited. Stop playing my song," he wrote in a tweet addressed directly to the Trump campaign, which can be seen here.

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Urie then followed up his first tweet by stating that the president "represents nothing we stand for" and that the "highest hope we have is voting this monster out in November." The follow-up was also accompanied by a link to Headcount.org, which is a "non-partisan organization that uses the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy."

The president's use of Urie's song is not the only time that a member of the Trump family has used "High Hopes" as an entrance theme. As seen in the tweet below, The Recount also highlighted the fact that Donald Trump Jr. has also used it himself in recent months. Previously, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg had additionally used the song during his own run for the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

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R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills
Prior to the "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" musician telling Trump and his staff to stop using his music, other artists have also made the same request, Mills also expressed his own annoyance at his songs being played at campaign rallies when he tweeted that had started "exploring all legal avenues" to prevent the 45th president from continuing to do so.

Rihanna
Back in 2018, the "Umbrella" singer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trump and deployed legal action after "Don’t Stop the Music" was used during an event in Chattanooga, Tennessee. As reported by Rolling Stone, the letter stated that the use of the music created "a false impression that Ms. Fenty is affiliated with, connected to or otherwise associated with Trump."

Elton John
According to The Guardian, the "Rocket Man" singer revealed in 2016 that he too had instructed President Trump to stop using his songs at his rallies. However, the reasoning was not due to any public political affiliations. "I don’t really want my music to be involved in anything to do with an American election campaign. I’m British. I’ve met Donald Trump, he was very nice to me, it’s nothing personal, his political views are his own, mine are very different, I’m not a Republican in a million years. Why not ask Ted [expletive] Nugent? Or one of those [expletive] country stars? They’ll do it for you," he said.

The Rolling Stones
Previously, The Rolling Stones also had an issue with Trump's musical decisions, as outlined in a 2017 report by CNN. In a statement made to the publication, Fran Curtis, the band's publicist, stated that they had "never given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately."

Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams' attorney Howard King asked the former NBC star to stop playing "Happy" at his political rallies in 2018 shortly after 11 people were killed in a mass shooting inside a Pittsburgh synagogue. In his own cease-and-desist letter through King, which indicated that the unauthorized use was copyright and trademark infringement, CNN reports that the letter added that "no permission was granted for your use of this song for this purpose."

Prince's Estate
After Prince's "Purple Rain" was used at a reelection campaign event, his estate also revealed their own thoughts about the move, saying that the "Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs."

Tom Petty's Estate
Over the weekend, Trump also used Petty's "I Won't Back Down" at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This too resulted in a cease-and-desist letter, along with a statement on Twitter confirming that the usage was "in no way authorized." Additionally, it then said that "Tom Petty would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. He liked to bring people together."

However, according to NPR, most politicians are free to use music as they please as long as they pay for the rights, so the aforementioned negative feelings about the GOP candidate using their music may not have any true weight on the final outcomes.