Foo Fighters have chosen to contribute the royalties from their song “My Hero” to Kamala Harris’ campaign following its use by Donald Trump at a rally.
By Website Content Manager
The band disapproved of Trump’s use of their hit song for his campaign.
Foo Fighters are standing up on their own terms during challenging times. On Monday, August 26, a representative for the band confirmed to PEOPLE that they will donate the royalties from their song “My Hero” to Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. This decision comes after former President Donald Trump used the song at a rally without the band’s permission.
According to the band’s spokesperson, “Foo Fighters were not asked for permission, and if they had been, they would have denied it.” The spokesperson also mentioned that the band—consisting of Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Josh Freese, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, and Rami Jaffee—plans to contribute any royalties earned from the song’s unauthorized use by the Trump campaign to the campaigns of Harris and Governor Tim Walz.
Just one day earlier, Trump played Foo Fighters’ hit song at a rally in Arizona to introduce former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had recently endorsed Trump. The band addressed Trump’s use of “My Hero” on X (formerly Twitter) on August 23, responding to a user query about whether they had permitted its use. The band’s reply was a straightforward “No,” accompanied by the message, “Let us be clear.”
Foo Fighters aren’t alone in their response to unauthorized use of their music by the Trump campaign. On August 20, Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, posted a video on his X account featuring the former president disembarking from a plane to Beyoncé’s track “Freedom” from her 2016 album Lemonade. The video, captioned “Touchdown in Michigan!! @realDonaldTrump,” quickly drew online attention, particularly because the song has also been featured at several campaign events for Kamala Harris.
On Wednesday, August 21, Rolling Stone reported that the Trump campaign had not obtained permission to use Beyoncé’s song and that the singer, 42, had threatened to issue a cease-and-desist letter to the Republican presidential nominee’s team.
PEOPLE reached out to Beyoncé’s representative for comment at the time. While the “Halo” singer has not formally endorsed Kamala Harris, she has expressed support for the Democratic Party in the past. Notably, in 2013, she performed the national anthem at Barack Obama’s inauguration and shared a social media video urging voters to support Joe Biden in 2020.