Dropkick Murphys: We're not out to sue Scott Walker
Don't expect Dropkick Murphys v. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on a legal brief anytime soon.
The Celtic punk band posted a statement Monday night on Facebook to explain the cease-and-desist tweet to Walker for using I'm Shipping Up to Boston during the Iowa Freedom Summit for presidential hopefuls this weekend.
"The bottom line is: when a politician uses our music to walk out to, for better or worse, it brands us with that person," the band said, noting they'd be upset if the Montreal Canadiens — rivals of their fave Boston Bruins — took to the ice to their tunes.
"We feel that we have the right to ask to not be associated with certain events or people — we don't think that's too much to ask," the Dropkick Murphys continued. "This isn't a legal issue to us — we're not looking to sue someone."
As for the harshness of the "we literally hate you" line on Twitter, there is history behind the unusually personal sentiment.
Jeff Fitzgerald — then a U.S. Senate candidate, Assembly speaker and a Walker ally -- walked out to I'm Shipping Up to Boston at the 2012 Wisconsin GOP convention. At the time, the band said Fitzgerald's song choice was "like a white supremacist coming out to gangsta rap!" Ouch.
The song, Take 'Em Down, was released by the band to show support for the Wisconsin union workers upset with Walker's budget that took away collective bargaining rights. (That was the issue that drove the attempt to boot Walker out of office, which he beat back by winning a 2012 recall election.)
"The band has stood for and aligned itself with certain principles since its inception in 1996, so people who react as though we're jumping on some sort of political bandwagon simply don't know the history of the band," the Dropkick Murphys said on Facebook.
One hint for presidential hopefuls: Hire a lawyer who understands copyright law.
The brouhaha over I'm Shipping to Boston isn't the first — nor likely the last — time a musician or band got upset about their songs being played at political events. Michele Bachmann, Charlie Crist, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan have all been on the receiving end of missives like the one the Dropkick Murphys sent to Walker.