In a now quite familiar song-and-dance, Kenny Loggins requested Donald Trump not use his song “Danger Zone.” The tune served as the soundtrack for a recent AI-generated video the president posted on his Truth Social page in response to the weekend’s “No Kings” protest. In objecting to Trump’s use of his music, Loggins joins a long list of artists who have done the same, including but not limited to Adele, Elton John, Neil Young, Nickleback, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, the Rolling Stones, and the estates of Prince, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, and Sinéad O’Connor.
“This is an unauthorized use of my performance of ‘Danger Zone.’ Nobody asked me for my permission, which I would have denied, and I request that my recording on this video is removed immediately,” Loggins said in a statement on Monday (via Variety). “I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us. Too many people are trying to tear us apart, and we need to find new ways to come together. We’re all Americans, and we’re all patriotic. There is no ‘us and them’—that’s not who we are, nor is it what we should be. It’s all of us. We’re in this together, and it is my hope that we can embrace music as a way of celebrating and uniting each and every one of us.”
His statement is more measured and eloquent than the president’s message by several orders of magnitude. The AI video posted depicted Trump in a jet (with “Danger Zone” playing as a nod to the song’s use in Top Gun). He flies over protesters and dumps literal shit all over them. It’s the kind of video you might expect to see on the social media of your most incorrigible middle school-aged nephew, not from the President of the United States. But then, the level of political commentary in this country has indeed been in the toilet for quite some time. Maybe Kenny Loggins should take a run at the office, and see if he can elevate the discourse.
