Singer suing McCain for using ‘Running on Empty’

LOS ANGELES – Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne is suing John McCain for using Browne’s song “Running on Empty” in a campaign ad.

Browne, one of rock music’s most famous activists for liberal causes, is “incensed” that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate has been using “Running on Empty” in campaign commercials, according to the singer-songwriter’s attorney. Browne filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against McCain and the Republican National Committee on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting the use of the song or any other Browne compositions, as well as damages.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said that the ad in question is not a McCain campaign ad but one put together by the Ohio Republican Party.

Browne’s attorney, Lawrence Y. Iser, said the lawsuit “is not politically motivated. It’s a copyright infringement lawsuit, pure and simple, but the fact that Senator McCain has used this song in a hit piece on Barack Obama is anathema to Jackson.”

Iser claims that the McCain campaign has a track record of using music without permission.

“They used a John Mellencamp song until he made them stop and he used an ABBA song and a Frankie Valli song – it’s ridiculous and it’s setting a terrible example,” Iser said.