Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan has told Nikki Haley not to use his iconic song Eye of the Tiger after she unveiled her presidential campaign with it this week.
On Wednesday, the former Trump administration ambassador announced her 2024 candidacy when she took the stage in Charleston, South Carolina, to the tune of the hit 1982 song that the Rocky franchise helped to popularize. Almost immediately, Survivor guitarist, Frankie Sullivan, the song’s co-writer, asked her to stop using it, adding that he did not give her permission. Sullivan previously sued former presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee for using the song.
“No, fuck them. Write their own [songs]. Half of them don’t know what the hell to do, why don’t they try writing songs? They’ll probably be lousy songs but they won’t be any lousier than the way they run everything else,” Sullivan said, as reported by the Daily Mail. “They don’t belong going anywhere near Eye of the Tiger. That song stays with the Rocky franchise.”
Nikki Haley’s walk-on music at her Charleston rally is Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” Very Gen-X on brand. pic.twitter.com/Hf9Ibd00M2
— Anthony Zurcher (@awzurcher) February 15, 2023
Sullivan said that Haley will likely get a “slap on the wrist” before “it all goes away.”
“Get it down. I don’t want it up there. It’s up on YouTube. I didn’t look but I know. I’m sure it is,” Sullivan continued.
Though Sullivan wants it taken down from YouTube, he admitted that it would be a “bitch” to pull that off.
Line Outside Nikki Haley Launch in Charleston, South Carolina:
Matt Boyle
The songwriter said that he wanted the footage from the rally removed from YouTube but conceded that doing so would be a “bitch.”
“I would never let a fucking politician use that song because entertainment and politics don’t mix,” he said.
Sullivan described former President Trump as “affable” when he asked him to stop using the song while he had to take Huckabee all the way to court.
Recently, Journey guitarist Neal Schon had a public feud with the band’s keyboardist, Jonathan Cain, over the latter’s performance of the song at Mar-a-Lago.
“Although Mr. Cain is free to express his personal beliefs and associations, when he does that on behalf of Journey or for the band, such conduct is extremely deleterious to the Journey brand as it polarizes the band’s fans and outreach. Journey is not, and should not be, political,” the cease-and-desist order said.
“Mr. Cain has no right to use Journey for politics. His politics should be his own personal business. He should not be capitalizing on Journey’s brand to promote his personal political or religious agenda to the detriment of the band,” it added.
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