Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has often resisted the encouragement of conservative politicians.
Johnny Marr condemns Donald Trump for using a The Smiths song in his election campaign. The band’s guitarist shared a tweet with a corresponding video. In the recordings, the song “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” can be heard playing during a 2023 Trump rally in South Dakota. “Never in a million years would I have thought something like this would happen,” Marr wrote. “Consider this shit stopped.”
Music world against Donald Trump
Smiths songs had already been played in this context before, most recently in New Hampshire at the beginning of the week. Johnny Marr is also not the first musician to speak out against his music being used at Trump events. Adele, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Queen and Pharrell Williams, as well as the heirs of Prince and David Bowie, also opposed the use of their music at events. The Rolling Stones and Tom Petty even took action against it with cease and desist orders. In the cases of the Rolling Stones and Prince, however, Trump’s campaign team did not always stick to this rule.
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Johnny Marr takes a stand against conservative politicians
Johnny Marr co-wrote “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” (1984) with The Smiths frontman Morrissey. The latter had in the past spoken out in favor of Brexit and the right-wing British party For Britain. Marr, on the other hand, shared contrasting opinions. He told former British Prime Minister David Cameron, who called “This Charming Man” one of his favorite songs: “Stop saying you like The Smiths, you don’t. I forbid you to like the music.”
In his biography, Set The Boy Free: The Autobiography, he wrote: “All our fans know that we were against everything he and the Conservative Party stood for.”