Donald Trump has drawn the ire of musical acts like Neil Young, Aerosmith and R.E.M. for using their songs on his presidential campaign trail.
But it appears Trump has finally found an ally from the music industry in the form of Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, who explicitly gave the billionaire mogul, who currently leads the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, permission to use their 1984 hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as a campaign rally cry.
Snider told Canadian Business that Trump called and asked for permission to use the song, a gesture that he appreciated.
“I said, ‘Look, we don’t see eye to eye on everything — there are definitely issues that we’re far apart on,'” he said. “But thinking back to when I wrote the song and what the song is about, it’s about rebellion, speaking your mind and fighting the system. If anybody’s doing that, he sure is.”
Snider said that Trump and Democratic candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are “raising holy hell and shaking everything up” as representatives of two extreme ideologies, and those two embody the spirit of “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”
Trump and Snider have worked together in the past, with the former firing the latter on “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” in 2013. The singer doesn’t hold grudges now, and even considers Trump a friend.
“I have spent time with Donald and his family,” he said. “I don’t think either of us expected that we would like each other, but you know, Donald Trump is a pretty chill guy. He’s a frontman. When that camera goes on, he furls his brow, he does his thing. Off-camera he’s very self-deprecating. He makes jokes about being too orange and about his hair.”
The 60-year-old rocker is no stranger to working around politics. Any fan of MSNBC has probably heard his voice quite often and didn’t even realize it.
“I’ve done documentaries, commercials, I was the voice of MSNBC for a year,” Snider said. “I was the one saying, “‘Hardball’ with Chris Matthews, tonight at 8 on MSNBC.”
