Singer-songwriter Graham Nash on Saturday denounced Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s organization for using his song “Chicago” in an advertisement for an upcoming anti-vax rally in Washington, D.C.
In a Saturday Instagram post, the 79-year-old rock legend strongly condemned his song’s inclusion in the ad and alluded to retaliating with legal action:
“The use of my song ‘Chicago’ by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense movement in a video to promote his organization’s rally in Washington, D.C. tomorrow is not authorized and I am taking steps to cause the cessation of its use,” Nash wrote.
Nash went on to clarify, “I do not support [Kennedy’s] anti-vaccination position as the history of the efficacy of the Covid19 vaccines is well documented. When I wrote ‘We Can Change the World’ I did not expect that an institution such as this one that claims that it fights for individuals’ freedoms would so readily and recklessly infringe upon and, by its association with its cause, mischaracterize the intellectual property rights of a songwriter for its own purposes.”
A longtime advocate against various public health programs, Kennedy founded Children’s Health Defense in the mid-2010s. During the pandemic, the environmental lawyer and son of Robert F. Kennedy has been an outspoken critic of the COVID-19 vaccine.
He made headlines for repeatedly attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci for “catastrophic mismanagement” of the pandemic and has circulated unproven and incorrect conspiracy theories about the virus and the CDC, including the false suggestion that Fauci is a Moderna investor.
On Jan. 23, Children’s Health Defense is scheduled to stage a rally at the nation’s capital under the banner “Defeat the Mandates: An American Homecoming.” According to its website, the demonstration intends “To stop the Covid vaccine mandates. To say never again to the lockdowns!”
Nash closed out his post with an unequivocal statement of his values: “I believe in science and facts, and do not support such blatant disregard for either, nor for my rights as a musician.”
