Isaac Hayes’ family granted emergency hearing for injunction against Trump

25 August, 2024

Donald Trump Isaac Hayes family

The family of Isaac Hayes has been granted an emergency hearing for an injunction request against Donald Trump over the use of the song ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’.

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Yesterday (August 24), in a tweet by Isaac Hayes III – the son of Hayes and a representative of his estate – he shares the news with a message for the former president: “See you in court.”

“If I repeatedly used any of [Trump’s] IP without permission, he would sue the shit out of me,” he notes in another tweet.

Earlier this month, Hayes’ family threatened to sue Trump for $3million to prevent him from using ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ at rallies. The song is usually played at rallies before and after Trump’s speeches.

According to a letter sent to Trump and his team, which was shared by Hayes’ son on social media, they will file a lawsuit for 134 counts of copyright infringement. They are also demanding $3million (£2.4million) in licensing fees for the campaign’s repeated uses of the song between 2022 and 2024.

In their letter, Hayes’ family claim they’ve “asked repeatedly” for Trump to stop using the song, citing 134 alleged occasions when he did so regardless.

Their lawyer, James Walker, alleged that the Trump campaign has “wilfully and brazenly engaged in copyright infringement” and demanded that the campaign remove any videos featuring the song. He also demanded they issue a full statement acknowledging that Hayes’ family have not “authorised, endorsed or permitted” the use of his music.

Walker added that the $3million settlement is a “heavily discounted” figure because of how many times ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ has been used.

The letter also added that if there was no resolution and a lawsuit was filed by August 16, the Hayes family would seek damages of $150,000 per use of the song, which would total over $20milion (£15.7million). Since that date has passed, the Hayes family are now attempting to make good on their promise.

This isn’t the first time that the Trump campaign has come under fire from artists whose music has been used at rallies. Early August, Celine Dion’s team stated that Trump used ‘My Heart Will Go On’ without authorisation at a rally and that she “does not endorse this”.

Meanwhile, earlier this year after The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ was played at one such event, Johnny Marr made his thoughts clear: “Consider this shit shut down right now.”

Most recently, Foo Fighters also made clear they did not consent to Trump using the song ‘My Hero’, which he did at a recent rally.

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