Clive Palmer has hit back at Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, claiming his visa should be cancelled in the wake of their recent copyright controversy.
Just last week, an ABC reporter questioned Twisted Sister in regards to whether they had approved the use of their 1984 song ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ for some recent commercials from Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party.
Soon, both frontman Dee Snider and guitarist Jay Jay French chimed in, explaining that “Twisted Sister does not endorse Australian politician Clive Palmer”, and that they are “contacting our legal team to address this.”
The controversial ads see the lyrics changed to “Australia ain’t gonna cop it,” while criticising Australia’s NBN service, and the lack of money spent on farmers.
After Clive Palmer’s use of the song made headlines around the world, Dee Snider again took to Twitter to explain that Palmer’s team had contacted Twisted Sister’s publishers in regards to licensing the track, only to record their own version without authorisation when informed they would have to pay fees for the track.
Oh it's worst than that! @CliveFPalmer @PalmerUtdParty contacted my publishing company @UMG about licensing the song (which means they were aware that they had to) were told the licensing fee…THEN WENT OFF AND RECORDED IT WITHOUT A LICENSE! They can't even claim ignorance! https://t.co/dLAfOhCWLi
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) January 3, 2019
Dee Snider again addressed this issue on Facebook recently, posting a since-deleted message (via Blabbermouth) in which he slammed Clive Palmer’s knowledge of copyright law.
“Clive Palmer clearly does not understand copyright law; he thinks it’s the right to copy,” Snider began.
“I’m glad Clive likes my song, but Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ is a protected work and he has received a legal notice form Universal Music to cease and desist from any further use.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised by his failure to respond. From what I’ve seen, Clive seems to have little understanding of either the truth or the law.”
“It appears he has caused hundreds of great Australian workers to lose their jobs and benefits by running his nickel business into the ground and, allegedly, fraudulently converted its assets to bolster his flagging political endeavors. Shame on him.”
Check out Twisted Sister’s ‘I Wanna Rock’:
“I gather he compares himself to Donald Trump?” Dee Snider continued. “Well, at least Trump’s clothes are tailored to fit and his golf resorts and hotels are prestigious. None of them are mosquito-infested, bankrupt rat havens.”
“I also note that Clive has yet to respond to my challenge to debate him. To be clear, this is not a debate about Australian politics; I have no place in such a discussion. I want to confront him on theft of services, misuse of creative property and his ‘bull-in-a-china-shop’ approach to copyright laws.”
“If public opinion finds him to be the winner of such a debate, I will write Clive an entirely new song for his campaign. Which, sadly, may be the only way to get this scofflaw to stop using my song illegally.”
“Meanwhile, I hope Australians will vote against this blowhard and truly keep Australia great, as it always has been.”
Check out the offending ad from the United Australia Party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFtLrB6Z5HI
Now, things have been kicked up a notch, with Clive Palmer calling for Dee Snider’s upcoming run of Aussie performances to be cancelled in light of this controversy.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Clive Palmer claimed that ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ was not actually an original Twisted Sister song, but rather a rip-off of a centuries-old hymn.
“The song ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ as an alleged musical work was not written by Dee Snider,” Clive Palmer stated. “The music was originally arranged as a cappella piece from the hymn ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ first composed in the mid 1700s.”
“Others may have documented the instrumentation, but the melody was already present.”
“As Twisted Sister never remunerated the original arranger, we do not understand how they have ever had any claim to its copyright.”
“It seems Universal Music Group may have been misled at the time of paying the group’s front man Dee Snider money for something he never owned,’’ Clive Palmer continued. “Maybe Universal should consider commencement of proceedings against Dee Snider or seek a refund of any money they have paid to him.”
Clive Palmer further explained that since the lyrics in the controversial ad were composed by him, he owned copyright of the song, and explained that Dee Snider’s upcoming tour should be axed following the singer’s comments.
“We are concerned about defamation and threats made by Dee Snider and as such believe the minister for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton should reject his visa, given the current crackdown,’’ Clive Palmer concluded.
At this stage, Dee Snider’s Australian tour is set to kick off later this month as planned, though there’s no word yet if he and Clive Palmer will meet in person to hash this problem out.
Check out Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’:
