Neil Young has clarified his Donald Trump comments on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but didn’t necessarily mince words on how he feels about the controversial politician. Young was maligned for saying that he was fine with Trump using his song “Rockin in the Free World” during his campaign, but expressed that while the Republican candidate has a legal right, he still isn’t happy about it.
Initially, according to NME, Young issued a cease and desist order through his publicist in order to block Trump from using the song. But Trump’s campaign fired back and said they had paid ASCAP and BMI for legal rights to use the song, but stopped using it “out of respect to Young.” Following this, Young gave Bernie Sanders permission to use the song in his rallies.
Young then went back on his cease and desist order in an interview, according to Consequence of Sound, saying, “Once the music goes out, everybody can use it for anything.”
He further said, “The fact that I said I was for Bernie Sanders and then Trump didn’t ask me to use ‘Rocking in the Free World’ doesn’t mean he can’t use it. He actually got a license to use it. I mean, he said he did and I believe him. So I got nothing against him.”
While Young is a Canadian citizen, he still supports Sanders, and according to Consequence of Sound has said, “He’s the only one talking about the issues, about issues that matter to me, the issues on my mind - problems of corporate control of democracy and everything slipping away and not being able to have six major companies owning all the media in the United States.”
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