The Doobie Brothers sent a hilarious letter to actor Bill Murray to ask him to stop using their music. Apparently, the Ghostbusters actor has been using their hit song, "Listen to the Music," in his Zero Hucks Given golf shirt commercials without asking their permission. This also means that the band has not been paid by Murray either. The Doobie Brothers' manager Peter T. Paterno, wrote a rather funny letter to Murray to ask him to stop. You can read a portion of the letter below.
"Dear. Mr. Murray, We're writing on behalf of our clients, the Doobie Brothers. The Doobie Brothers perform and recorded the song 'Listen to the Music,' which Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers wrote. It's a fine song. I know you agree because you keep using it in ads for your Zero Hucks Given golf shirts. However, given that you haven't paid to use it, maybe you should change the name to "Zero Bucks Given." We understand that you're running other ads using music from other of our clients. It seems like the only person who uses our clients' music without permission more than you do is Donald Trump."
Trump has come under fire for using a number of songs from classic rock artists without permission or providing compensation at his rallies. Trump has used several Doobie Brothers songs, along with Neil Young, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, and more. All of the aforementioned artists have come forward to ask him to stop.
Like Donald Trump, Bill Murray has been using a lot of classic rock songs in his golf shirt commercials, but The Doobie Brothers have had enough. They are well within their rights to sue for copyright infringement, but it seems they would just like Murray, who just celebrated his 70th birthday, to stop. While there are a few funny lines in the portion of the letter above, Peter T. Paterno goes for the jugular in the second part, which you can read below.
"This is the part where I'm supposed to cite the United States Copyright Act, excoriate you for not complying with some subparagraph that I'm too lazy to look up and threaten you with eternal damnation for doing so. But you already earned that with those Garfield movies. And you already know that you can't use music in ads without paying for it. We'd almost be OK with it if the shirts weren't so damn ugly. But it is what it is. So in the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir Golfer. Et payez!'"
The Zero Hucks Given pattern is influenced by one of Bill Murray's longtime heroes, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain, "and the spirit and nature of his beloved Huckleberry Finn character." The pattern also contains "borrowed from our bunker camo patterns in past collections-background as Huck rafts his way down the Mighty Mississippi." Murray's company says, "We do not wish any reward for this new design, but to know we've done the right thing in bringing a classic to life."
As of this writing, Bill Murray has yet to respond to The Doobie Brothers or their request to stop using their music for free. The band, which formed in 1970 and has sold over 40 million records worldwide, thanks to singles like "China Grove," "Black Water," and later with "What a Fool Believes." The latter song features vocalist Michael McDonald who spent a good chunk of time with the band. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to reveal the letter to Bill Murray.