Rock & Roll Hall of Fame singer Neil Young filed a $10 million lawsuit against President Trump’s fundraising committee over alleged copyright infringement for the use of “Rockin’ in a Free World” at a campaign rally.

Young alleges the song was played just before Trump took the stage at an Ohio rally on October 12.

According to The Guardian, it’s the second time Young has sued Trump over the unlicensed use of the hit song.

Trump settled in 2020, according to Young’s suit, to never use “Rockin’ in the Free World without a license and permission from Young,” the outlet noted.

More from The Guardian:

Filed on Monday in the US district court for the eastern district of Virginia, the suit states that Trump’s ongoing use of the song meant that Young, a very vocal critic of the president, “has suffered damage to his reputation and brand as a result of the implication that he supports Donald J Trump in any way”.

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Trump’s administration has not yet responded to the suit.

Young’s case outlines how diametrically opposed his 1989 song is to Trump’s values, calling it “a blistering anthem that contrasts the hollow promises of American political rhetoric with the harsh realities faced by the poor, homeless and forgotten.

“The lyrics pain vivid street-level portraits – a mother discarding her baby, addicts lost in despair, garbage piling in the shadows of prosperity – while the repeated chorus delivers a savage irony, celebrating freedom that clearly isn’t shared by all. In short, the song is the opposite of everything that Donald J Trump stands for.”

Lawyers for Young cite the playing of the song at the president’s rally in Ohio on 12 October but state that it has been played “numerous times at other rallies designed to encourage Republican votes in the upcoming mid-term elections”. Young also seeks an injunction against further public performances.

Young, who was born in Canada and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, is a two-time inductee in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Young was inducted in 1995 as a solo artist and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield.

The Hill shared further:

Young wrote in a 2018 message on his website that he first requested Trump stop using his songs at campaign appearances in 2015.

“I asked him then, in a widely shared, public letter to cease and desist,” Young wrote at the time.

“However, he chose not to listen to my request,” he added, “just as he chooses not to listen to the many American voices who ask him to stop his constant lies, to stop his petty, nasty name calling and bullying, to stop pushing his dangerous, vilifying and hateful rhetoric.”

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