Isaac Hayes Estate Granted Emergency Hearing Over Trump’s Unauthorized Song Use

A federal judge has granted the Isaac Hayes estate an emergency hearing in their $3 million demand against Donald Trump, who has continually used “Hold On, I’m Coming,” co-written by Hayes, on the campaign trail. 

Earlier this month, the Hayes estate filed a cease-and-desist and asked for $3 million related to Trump’s unauthorized use of the Sam & Dave classic which, by the estate lawyer’s count, had been played “over one hundred times” at Trump rallies since 2022.

In an August 10th tweet, the singer’s son Isaac Hayes III wrote, “Today, on the anniversary of my father Isaac Hayes’ death we have repeatedly asked Donald Trump, the RNC and his representatives not to use ‘Hold on I’m Coming’ written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter during campaign rallies but yet again, in Montana they used it.”

Hayes III added, “Donald Trump represents the worst in integrity and class with his disrespect and sexual abuse of Women and racist rhetoric,” and warned, “We will now deal with this very swiftly.”

The estate and their lawyer James Walker weren’t joking when they said “very swiftly,” as they managed to serve the documents to a Trump campaign office in Delaware, setting the wheels in motion for the emergency preliminary injunction hearing at an Atlanta courthouse just after Labor Day.

“The Federal Court has granted our request for an Emergency Hearing to secure injunctive relief,” Hayes III tweeted Saturday. “Donald Trump, the RNC, Trump, Trump for President Inc.  2024, Turning Point and The NRA are required to appear in court September 3rd, 2024 at the Northern U.S. District Federal Court in Atlanta.”

Trump has made unauthorized use of popular music one of the hallmarks of his political career. Just this month, Celine Dion asked him to stop playing “My Heart Will Go On.” He’s gotten similar complaints in the past for using songs by Tom Petty, Rihanna, the Rolling Stones, the Village People, John Fogerty, Aerosmith, Linkin Park, and Journey, and just added Foo Fighters and Beyonce to his hit list this past week.

The Hayes estate’s letter also explained that when they order Trump to pony up $3 million for all those unauthorized plays, it’s actually “a very discounted fee for the normal license fee associated with this many multiple uses. The normal fee for these infringements will be 10 times as much if we litigate, starting at $150,000 per use.”

Trump had until August 16 to respond to the letter; when that elapsed, the estate turned the letter into a legal matter, resulting in the emergency hearing on September 3.