Dee Snider of the rock band Twisted Sister is not happy that Mitt Romney’s running mate Rep. Paul Ryan used Twisted Sister’s song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” at a recent Pennsylvania rally.
Snider issued a statement to Talking Points Memo, saying: “I emphatically denounce Paul Ryan’s use of my band Twisted Sister’s song, ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It,’ in any capacity. There is almost nothing he stands for that I agree with except the use of the [workout program] P90X.”
Twisted Sister is not the first band to take issue with Romney and Ryan using their songs. Somali-Canadian artist K’naan and the Silversun Pickups have both objected to the use of their songs in the GOP campaign.
Ryan did not even have to use a Rage Against the Machine song to upset Rage guitarist Tom Morello. Morello penned an Op-Ed last week after hearing the Ryan was a fan of the band.
“He is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades,” Morello wrote for Rolling Stone. “Ryan claims that he likes Rage’s sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don’t care for Paul Ryan’s sound or his lyrics.”
These acts are certainly not the first bands to reject Republican politicians. In 2008 the Foo Fighters, Jackson Browne and John Mellancamp all asked Republican candidate John McCain to stop using their songs.
Alternately, during the 2008 campaign Barack Obama had no trouble getting support from rock acts. Obama used songs by U2, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne and John Mayer in his campaign without any objections.
Listen to Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” below:
