[By Popular Demand, the Definitive Rush-Rand Paul Interview]

Earlier this month we learned that Rush's legal team had asked the Rand Paul Senate campaign to stop using Rush's music at campaign rallies and in campaign videos. The original article from the Louisville Courier-Journal which broke the story was short on details and left many a Rush fan along with Rand Paul supporters scratching their collective heads as to why Rush would take this action. Readers of The Atlantic's Joshua Green were particularly curious and pushed Green into doing a bit of investigative journalism of his own. Green ended up tracking down Rush's lawyer Bob Farmer and had a long and extremely enlightening interview with the jovial lawyer (thanks Dave T). He talks about how the Rand Paul campaign has yet to contact him and reiterates the point that this was strictly a copyright issue:

... As you probably know, Rush controls its music very tightly. This was simply a copyright thing. I mean, first of all, they're Canadians, what do they know about American politics? They can't vote down there. The other problem was, Rand Paul was quoting the Rush lyrics in his campaign speeches ... because he found some kind of convergence or something between whatever it is he believes--I really don't know his politics--and these Rush songs. Well, you know, he probably thinks "American Pie" is about food! [Laughs heartily] You can't control what people think your music is about. So to us this is simply a copyright issue. ... this goes back to interpreting music in different ways. There's no way you can make a conclusion about various things. It's a simple issue, and, for me, a legal issue: he's using the music in ways that are illegal. ... Rush is one band that is open to a lot of interpretations, and if I had to start dealing with all the interpretations of Rush lyrics I'd never get anything done during the day. ...

You can read the entire interview at this link. He also includes a copy of the letter that he sent to the Rand Paul campaign, which - as I was surprised to see - uses rushisaband.com as a source! You can check out the letter at this link. I had to close down comments on the last post dealing with this subject due to way too many inflammatory remarks. So I ask everyone in advance to be civil in the comments; disagreement is ok but name-calling is not. Be nice. :)

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