Mike Huckabee will be getting an official cease and desist letter after his campaign used the famous “Eye Of The Tiger” song without authorization, Survivor’s co-founder says.
As political theater goes, it was near-perfect. Legally, not so much.
As Kim Davis, incarcerated for contempt of court for six days, slowly moved her way out of the Carter County Detention Center door, up the stairs and onto the stage after being introduced by Mike Huckabee, her thousand or so Christian activist supporters went wild. And as she mounted each step, the crowds cheers were nearly drowned out by the famous battle song of champions, “Eye of the Tiger.”
The band Survivor recorded the song in 1982, and it was used as the theme song of “Rocky III.” But the producers of the hit movie likely paid a pretty sum for the rights to use the hit single, and Mike Huckabee’s staff probably just plugged in their iPhone to a speaker system, bypassing all those messy contracts.
Well the band is furious.
Last night Survivor frontman Frankie Sullivan told TMZ he was outraged, and he told his Facebook fans in no uncertain terms just how outraged he was.
“NO! We did not grant Kim Davis any rights to use ‘My Tune -The Eye Of The Tiger,'” Sullivan wrote on the band’s Facebook page. “I would not grant her the rights to use Charmin! C’mom Mike, you are not The Donald but you can do better than that,” he added, leaving one last, possibly threatening, send-off. “See Ya really SoooooooonnnnnnN!!!!!!”
And now we learn Survivor co-founder Jim Peterik is equally angered, but he’s taking action, as Newsweek tonight reports.
Noting that the use of their song “does not reflect my views,” Peterik tweeted, “I have not authorized the use of Eye of the Tiger for use by Kim Davis and my publisher will issue a C&D.”
C&D is shorthand for a cease and desist letter, and those can be used as the foundation of a lawsuit.
“I was gobsmacked,” Peterik told CNN today. “We were not asked about this at all. The first time we saw it was on national TV.”
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Will Huckabee or his campaign actually get sued? It depends on how angered the band and their publisher are, and if he ignores the warning.
“Neither Davis nor her attorney have commented on the matter,” Newsweek reports, but Huckabee has publicly stated his people had been “on the ground” for days organizing the event.
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Image: Screenshot via Courier-Journal