The Musical Box

guess who's not going backstage at the next foo fighters concert.

This probably doesn’t come as a news flash, but rock ‘n roll and the GOP don’t seem to be the best of pals this election year.

First John Mellencamp told John McCain to split from Pink Houses, the 1983 hit that, along with My Country, was played at campaign stops by the Republican presidential nominee last winter.

Then Jackson Browne filed suited against McCain and the Republican National Committee over the summer for using Running on Empty without permission in a campaign commericial.

And who could forget that stirring image of McCain and running mate Sarah Palin at the close of the Republican National Convention as the Heart hit Barracuda played in the background. Heart sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson were so taken by the moment that she shot an email to ew.com stating: “Sarah Palin’s views and values in no way represent us as American women.”

Now McCain has to turn that heathen rock ‘n’ roll down yet again. Seems he recently took a fancy to co-opting a decade-old Foo Fighters song, My Hero, for his campaign playlist. Well, Dave Grohl and company aren’t flattered. They released this statement yesterday:

“This isn’t the first time the McCain campaign has used a song without making any attempt to get approval or permission from the artists. It’s frustrating and infuriating that that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that My Hero was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song - and start asking artists’ permission in general.”