Mike Huckabee Paying $25K Settlement For Playing “Eye Of The Tiger” At Kim Davis Rally
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Lately, we’ve seen a ton of stories about musicians asking politicians not to play certain songs at their rallies. We haven’t seen many about the politicians having to pay the musicians, but here’s one. Last year, when the Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis got out of jail after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the then-presidential candidate Mike Huckabee held a rally in her honor. At that rally, he played Survivor’s 1982 rock anthem “Eye Of The Tiger,” and the members of Survivor were pissed. Huckabee’s campaign never sought permission to play the song, and now they have to pay.
As CNN reports, Rude Music, a company owned by Survivor guitarist Frankie Sullivan, sued Huckabee’s campaign for copyright infringement. They settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. But when Huckabee dropped out of the presidential race in February, his campaign expenses went public as part of the federal election records. As it turned out, Huckabee was ordered to pay Survivor $25,000. He’s already paid the band $12,500, but he’s still paying off his campaign debts, and he has yet to give the band half of the money he owes.
I sure hope it was worth all that money to get the crowd all fired up at his bigotry party.