(In Case It Wasn’t Obvious) Neil Young Does Not Support Donald Trump

Our favorite Canadian musical pioneer, Neil Young, has always been one to speak his mind openly, not just through the brilliant tunes that he has penned over the last 55 years, influencing generations of artists that have followed.  Still very active, both as a performer and as an outspoken voice for his beliefs, Young has recently been an extremely vocal opponent of GMO powerhouse, the Monsanto Corporation, but being anti-corporate isn’t anything new for the 69-year-old song-writing legend.  In fact, the ever relevant sexagenarian experienced a bit of a revival in his career due to the release of the now-classic 1989 song, “Rockin’ In The Free World” from his 18th studio album, Freedom, a track that was crafted as a scathing commentary on the 1980s US political system under Republican President, Ronald Reagan. It even included a direct attack on his successor, George Bush Sr, referencing — not to mention, calling bullshit on — his “thousand points of light” rhetoric, specifically.  The lyrics of the song present a clear condemnation of Reaganomics, which offered huge tax cuts to the wealthy as both the poverty rate and national deficit increased at an alarming rate.  This song is anti consumer culture and a not so subtle attack on the administrations who supported it, while poverty grew; waste increased, adding to the environmental issues that we continue to face; and inner urban areas took a hit from all directions.

It’s safe to say that 2 of the last terms that we would ever use to describe Neil Young are “Right wing conservative” and “heartless corporate fatcat.”  That’s why it was so surprising that super wealthy business tycoon, television personality, and all around worthless dipshit, Donald Trump, chose to use “Rockin’ In The Free World” as his entrance music, when he made his official announcement as a US presidential candidate/long-shot, earlier today (Tuesday, June 16, 2015) — he actually played it in it’s majority, while he rode down an escalator… seriously.  It was also pretty clear that he chose to use Neil Young‘s work without the artist’s permission.  But, in the off chance that anyone actually believed that Young would have ever approved of a megalomaniac, who stands for absolutely everything that the song is championing against, to use it for their political campaign, a press release was just recently sent to us to clarify.  And the beauty of this press release is it’s simplicity; it’s definitely among the most straightforward and direct press releases that we have ever received.

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Official Statement from Neil Young:

“Donald Trump was not authorized to use “Rockin’ In The Free World” in his presidential candidacy announcement.  Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.”

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So, in short, nice try Donny, but here’s hoping that you have a lawsuit on your hands.  This is reminiscent of when, during the 2012 election, Mitt Romney‘s vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, expressed his love for Rage Against The Machine, prompting the group’s guitarist, Tom Morello, to publicly reject Ryan, claiming that he’s part of the very machine that they were raging against.  The main difference is that Ryan didn’t actually use their music without permission.

The worst part about this story is the reminder that Neil was born Canadian, because, if he was born in the states, we’d definitely be voting for him.  Well… that and the fact that Trump has enough money to stay in the race for awhile and buying up airtime to support his pipe dream.  With Hilary Clinton running, I’m sure that we can expect a healthy share of cringe-inducing misogyny.