David Byrne, lead singer of the rock band Talking Heads, has filed suit against the Charlie Crist senatorial campaign, alleging that Crist has used a song that Byrne wrote, "Road to Nowhere," in a commercial without having received permission from Byrne to do so.
Check out the County Grind report from earlier today, if for no other reason than the marvelous Photoshop job at Crist's expense.
In a journal posting today, Byrne explained why he took action against Crist:
Besides being theft, use of the song and my voice in a campaign ad implies that I, as writer and singer of the song, might have granted Crist permission to use it, and that I therefore endorse him and/or the Republican Party, of which he was a member until very, very recently.
The general public might also think I simply license the use of my songs to anyone who will pay the going rate, but that's not true either, as I have never licensed a song for use in an ad. I do license songs to commercial films and TV shows (if they pay the going rate), and to dance companies and student filmmakers mostly for free. But not to ads.
