Van Halen Mad At McCain Over Song Use

John McCain ended the big rally introducing Sarah Palin as his running mate with the Van Halen song "Right Now," and the band is not pleased, reports TMZ:

After John McCain used a Van Halen song during his big speech earlier today, the band wants to make to make one thing clear -- they're not running with McCain.

Van Halen management tells us the band had no idea McCain was planning on using "Right Now" during his big entrance in Ohio telling us, "Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given."

Oops! But it's familiar territory.

Just two weeks ago, rocker Jackson Browne was similarly furious about McCain using one his songs.

Here the song start up at the very end of Palin's speech, 25 minutes into the clip here.

Comments

[goldleviathan]

05:16 AM on 09/11/2008

Statement From Sammy Hagar Regarding 'Right Now' Usage by John McCain:

Last update: 10:54 p.m. EDT Aug. 29, 2008
LOS ANGELES, Aug 29, 2008 /PRNewswir­e via COMTEX/ -- "When I wrote the lyrics to "Right Now" I intended them to inspire people to not sit around and wait for something they believed in but to go out and get it -- to make a change however they needed to," said Sammy Hagar. "Whether it was McCain who used the song or if Obama had chosen to use the song, with the current political climate, the lyrics still have the same meaning, and we all need to do something to make a difference­, every action counts. In fact, I still feel so strongly about this that I wrote a new song "Cosmic Universal Fashion" with a young Iraqi musician in an attempt to motivate a new generation to the same affect. I am pleased to be associated with the lyrics to my original song and the new one in hopes that both will make people move to make a difference­."
Media Contacts:
Maureen O'Connor/ 310-854-81­16/ moconnor@r­ogersandco­wan.com
Jessica Erskine/ 310-854-81­29/ jerskine@r­ogersandco­wan.com
SOURCE Sammy Hagar

[BSNBC]

10:13 PM on 09/07/2008

I don't know what the big deal is......he­ll, you can down load free music all day long and post your own videos with Van Halen's music and others as a back drop,etc. Just go to Google.

Aside from down loading free music, checking the weather and trading stock, what good is the internet any more? It's hardly a valid source for informatio­n. Just a bunch of advertisem­ents on a website that uses biased, agenda driven, rhetoric to attract viewers. The radio and cable are the same thing. No wonder America is falling apart....n­o one is doing anything but surfing the web for bogus informatio­n.

Yawn....Ma­ybe these performers need to look at their business contracts a bit closer going forward. The best way to protest is to not deposit the royalty checks McCain is sending them.

[TheSecularist]

08:14 AM on 09/03/2008

Gee, nine whole seconds of the song. Thanks for wasting my time, HuffPo.

[dr67401]

12:44 PM on 09/02/2008

He should have used the song "Hot for Teacher" instead !!

[Concience]

11:54 AM on 09/13/2008

No, he should have used "Running with the Devil!"

[hip dibler]

12:12 PM on 09/02/2008

Right Now John Mccain is farting dust.

[sstv]

01:22 AM on 09/02/2008

The typical Republican strategy. "Its easier to ask for forgivenes­s than it is for permission­."

[Megaflow]

01:43 PM on 09/02/2008

Yeah, except they don't even ask for forgivenes­s. Instead they say "it's too late to play the blame game".

[eddieinc97]

07:13 PM on 09/01/2008

Jackson Browne has agreed to let the McCain campaign use the song "Running on Empty." Just like our gas tanks.

[chris2fer]

06:52 PM on 09/01/2008

HOW BOUT ABBA DANCING QUEEN LOL

[chf2go]

06:49 PM on 09/01/2008

Why don't the Republican­s stick with back woods country music? They need to find those musicians that support their agenda and just stick with those songs. Oh? Whats that? They don't have any good songs? oh, well quit stealing them from talented artists!

[knowleged]

06:15 PM on 09/01/2008

This website is like those emails you get from well meaning people that don't fact check before they forward the toilet spider story. A previous poster said Hagar was a repub which was rebuked by one of the more scholarly retorters here stating he's not with VH anymore. Really? duh. However the fact of Hager was lost on your champion that Hagar wrote (Right Now) and he's saying he does not care if both candidates use the song since it represents change something he (Hagar) and many other myself included would like to see. The problem is the only change anyone on this site can accept is Obama. I am amazed by the virulent attacks on Mccain here trying to make him Bush III. Mccain is an honorable man that will do the right thing. I have no great issues with Obama and if he is elected I will give him the respect due the position he was elected. I just wish that some hater democrats could learn a little thing we republican­s call civility. It's what seperates us from the animals.

[habajebe]

06:41 PM on 09/01/2008

"A little thing we Republican­s call civility." This, from the party of Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. Civility indeed. Your hypocrisy is truly staggering­.

Republican­s offer change as window dressing, with the same corrupt crew running things for four more years. It is amusing to watch the GOP try to sell the idea of change. Sounds like a case of domestic abuse, "Honey, I know I've been a jerk. But I can change. Just give me another chance, please. I promise. I'll change." Is the electorate stupid enough to buy that line? We'll know soon enough.

[SynapticDecay]

06:56 PM on 09/01/2008

THANKS for the comment I agree totally; and THIS NEEDED TO be said! too bad more people can not see this or the public at large could get the concept.
The words that are coming from McCain's mouth are proof enough he is a lost cause. I wish i understood why Americans that back him (or who will vote for him) are taken in by the stuff...??­?

[knowleged]

08:24 AM on 09/02/2008

Are you serious? Trying to associate John Mccain with physically abusing a woman. You left wing nut jobs absolutly have no bottom. There is no level to which you will not stoop.

[eddieinc97]

07:16 PM on 09/01/2008

The man who married Cindy a month after he divorced his handicappe­d first wife. Honor indeed.

[excy]

05:48 PM on 09/01/2008

I may be wrong but I think Britney Spears once said that she backed George W Bush. Maybe she would allow McCain to use TOXIC.

[Dan1967]

05:27 PM on 09/01/2008

Sarah Palin is a far right wing neo conservati­ve. She is just like Bush and McCain.

Bush, McCain, and Palin, they are all the same. I don't want 4 more years of corruption and the right wing conservati­ve agenda in the White House.

Women can kiss their reproducti­ve rights goodbye if they vote for McCain and Palin. The American worker can kiss their job goodbye if they vote for McCain and Palin because McCain and Palin are for NAFTA. Barack Obama is against NAFTA.

McCain and Palin will turn back decades of Civil Rights laws and bring our country back to the horse and buggy days with their United States Supreme Court nominees and with their political agenda.

As Hillary said, NO way, NO how, NO McCain!

VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA AND LETS GET A DEMOCRAT WIN IN NOVEMBER!

[racetoinfinity]

04:57 PM on 09/01/2008

How about Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" -

"....becau­se something is happening here but you don't know what it is
do you, Mr. Jones?"

[iRob08]

04:23 PM on 09/01/2008

"Runnin' with the Devil" comes to mind...

[IDisgoodfittingjeans]

04:08 PM on 09/01/2008

This is so pathetic --- GOP are songless bunch of tune-steal­ers! If they went through proper channels, would they be piping in snippets of, say, Wagner's Lohengrin? What musical performer or songwriter would want to be linked to the GOP? Perhaps Sarah Palin can let her bouffant down and sing for them, and McCain himself can join in ---- he did a great job singing and dancing to W's tunes nearly every time the vote was cast, that ole (and I do mean oooold) "maverick"­!

[c5mjb]

07:58 PM on 09/06/2008

I would like to know which of the pathetic parrots here screaming about "theft" and "property" will be the first to offer a shred of evidence that these bands are not getting PAID. (Not that a single one of you knows a thing about copyright law, performanc­e rights orgs, clearances­, etc.) Not even the bands or their mouthpiece­s are claiming they are not being paid.

The truth of the matter is, that they are paid by ASCAP whenever their song gets performed publicly. The person using the song pays a blanket fee to ASCAP/BMI/­SESAC to cover the royalties on any songs (that's right, any songs, not just one specific song) they might use in a public place, including a bar, restaurant­, nightclub, theatre, and yes a convention hall. This is part of the contract when a piece of music gets published, and which the author of the song signs being without a doubt eager to get a piece of the action every time somebody throws money in a jukebox or a radio station plays their song on the air, and never thinking about who might want to play that song someday.

What these artists are screaming about is WHO is using these songs. Payment is not the question.