Joining aging fellow aging rockers Aerosmith and Neil Young as well as REM’s Michael Stipe – who is beginning to resemble the Unabomber – the Rolling Stones have demanded that Donald Trump stop using their music on the campaign trail. The Stones – fresh off of playing a huge free concert in Cuba – aren’t down with the Trump revolution despite seeming to have no similar qualms over Fidel’s. The band issued a statement stating that the presumptive Republican nominee does not have their permission to play their songs at his events. Liberals crowed over the news which was first reported by the British BBC.

Politico weighs in on the latest celebrity tiff with Trump in the story “Rolling Stones to Trump: Don’t start us up again”:

The Rolling Stones apparently get no satisfaction from hearing Donald Trump play their songs during the presumptive Republican nominee’s rallies and events.

“The Rolling Stones have never given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately,” a representative for the band said in a statement issued Wednesday, as reported by the BBC, hours after Trump took to the stage at Trump Tower to the strains of “Start Me Up.”

Trump has also used the Stones standard “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” on multiple occasions at his rallies, as well as “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Brown Sugar.”

During an interview with Billboard last September, guitarist Keith Richards called Trump “refreshing,” adding that he has “cut through a lot of crap.”

At the same time, he remarked, “Well, can you imagine President Trump? The worst nightmare. But we can’t say that. Because it could happen. This is one of the wonders of this country. Who would’ve thought Ronald Reagan could be president?”

It’s anybody’s guess as to whether the request is based on a sincere conviction and an opposition to Trump’s political views or just a chance to grab a ride on the anti-Trump gravy train in order to get some free publicity. The Stones plan to release a new album this year and it is inevitable that they will follow that up with another big concert tour to add to their already bulging coffers. It’s hard to see people getting excited over watching geriatric old men prancing around in spandex but it is the Rolling Stones.

Trump has responded that he has paid for the rights to use the songs, according to CBS News “Donald Trump: “We have the rights to use” Rolling Stones songs”:

Donald Trump is pushing back on the Rolling Stones’ request that he refrain from using their songs on the campaign trail, saying that he and his campaign “have the rights to use them.”

“You know, we use so many songs,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC early Thursday. “We have the rights to use them. I always buy the rights.”

Trump, who regularly walks on stage at campaign events to hit Stones singles, was responding to the rock band’s statement Wednesday that they had never given his campaign permission to use their songs. In the letter to the campaign, the Stones “have requested they they cease all use immediately.”

The self-proclaimed world’s greatest rock and roll band isn’t the first rock outfit to push back against Trump’s use of their music. There was the beef with Aerosmith and Neil Young aka the godfather of grunge demanded that his song “Rocking in the Free World” no longer be played at Trump events. The Donald was quick to respond to the geezer by calling him out as a “hypocrite” for denouncing him after his having shown up hat in hand to beg for money to finance his pie in the sky Pono music system – and Trump had photographic evidence too.

However the dispute plays out it is a win-win for both the Stones and Trump who got their names in the news and as the old saying goes – there is no such thing as bad publicity.